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Not a Whale of a Time

Most Americans are probably in favor of not slaughtering whales. We realize that they are large, gentle mammals that possess, at the very least, a good deal of intelligence. Among all of our numerous causes, "Save the Whales" was a major player for a good chunk of time. As it turns out, even though it is no longer the cause-of-the-day, it is still a problem. "At the Edge of the World" tells the tale of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society locked in battle with Japanese whaling vessels. These Japanese boats, in order to "comply" with the law, claim to be conducting research on the whales while killing them, but in reality, the whales are ending up as nothing more than food in Japan.

Dan Stone directs and produces this tale of the "good guys" chasing and trying to stop the "bad guys". It's November of 2006, and Stone has taken a documentary crew to show us these 46 international volunteers in action. He chronicles the group's third attempt to put a major crimp on the Japanese attempts to kill whales in a sanctuary in the seas of the Antarctic. Because no country will stand behind this group of volunteers, they fly a pirate flag on their vessel. What unfolds is the seemingly never-ending battle between commerce and ecologists.

They track the whaling fleet through the Ross Sea, using two ships, a helicopter and two little motorboats like you might see in a James Bond flick. Stone gives us a cursory view of the crew but we feel no real attachments to them, other than as a whole. They are interchangeable parts in an army dedicated to saving the lives of whales. Their backgrounds are all over the charts, ranging from scientists to schoolteachers to grocery clerks (We learn this in the final credits).

There is the inevitable showdown, after a lot of tedious time spent watching and waiting, Stone wants us to feel this tedium, I suppose, but personally I found it to be tedious to watch these sections of the film. When "At the Edge of the World" is focused on actual action, it's compelling and exciting, but it rarely hits the major drama meter. Oddly, to me, the point of highest tension doesn't even involve the whales, but rather the loss of two of the volunteers at sea. One point unexplained here was the crew's attitude towards killing any animals at all and whether or not they were vegetarians. I suspect that they are and maybe this topic was avoided so it would not seem that they are "kooky" veggies.

"At the Edge of the World" tells an important story and it is filmed against beautiful, pristine backdrops, but the overall feeling it evokes is one of hopelessness, which I found to be disappointing. There will always be a dedicated few looking to do the right thing but in the end, money and power will crush good intentions. This is not a fair criticism of the film or the filmmakers but when the lights come on, unfortunately, it is the cold, hard truth, even if it is nice to know that some are trying to fight the ever-encroaching, evil machine.