The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
Dr. Jake Terrell, who has been training a pair of dolphins for many years, has had a breakthrough. He has taught his dolphins to speak and understand English, although they do have a limited vocabulary. When the dolphins are stolen, he discovers they're to be used in an assassination attempt. Now he is in a race to discover who is the target, and where the dolphins are, before the attempt is carried out.
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Simply A Masterpiece
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
George C. Scott plays Dr Jake Terrell, who has been training a pair of dolphins for many years, has had a breakthrough. He has taught his dolphins to speak but they have a limited vocabulary. the dolphins are abducted by some sinister government agency who want to use the mammals in an assassination attempt. what follows is a beautifully shot race against time to thwart the attempt. 'The Day of The Dolphin' is nothing short of brilliant in it's acting, it features some excellent cinematography by William Fraker, the underwater scenes are excellently lensed ,it is essential to see this in it's original aspect ratio.it is also nothing short of amazing as when one looks at this film which is thirty seven years young, it is all filmed for 'Real' if this was remade today there would be an over reliance on rubbish digital animation to depict the leaping and talking Dolphins.
I can't watch Mike Nichols' The Day of the Dolphin without wanting a tuna sandwich, it's that bad. Nichols, Buck Henry, and George ("Ball IS bad!") C. Scott must have been one Hell of a bender--or a group ego trip--to think they could pull off a political thriller that's waterlogged from the start.Almost all of the reviews for this idiotic nonsense are saturated with gushy love for dolphins (one even talks about 9/11, for God's sake!) so there's no talking sense to them. The Day of the Dolphin is going to be a hit with folks who still talk to their plants and think Finding Nemo was a documentary.Lord love a duck.
You may think that the best-loved, most memorable thing about this minor effort are the dolphin protagonists, but it's the lovely music score by Georges Delerue owning up in that category. This is actually quite a decent cinematic version of a really stupid bestseller of the times, so if you think this film is ludicrous, don't even bother with the book. Maudlin is the term I'd use to describe those moved by the dolphin antics in this lackluster thriller, because the minute they start "Fa La La'ing", keeping a straight face becomes quite difficult; my praise to George C. Scott for managing that so well! This one is now available on DVD from Image Entertainment and they've delivered a wonderful anamorphic widescreen print, which wisely delivers the original 3-track stereophonic sound of the original theatrical prints and beautifully preserves composer Delerue's work.
'Just was memorizing my favorite films from childhood and was not sure I could find this one here. I was about 13, when I saw it and went to see it three times. Never has such happened again! Sure, details are blurred (may-be for tears!), but from memories point of view it does not matter that much, I rate it best movie ever seen, if You catch my drift. As was said here already. To have it? For children, certainly; to see it again? May-be not, may spoil beautiful memories...