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The Day of the Dolphin

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The Day of the Dolphin

PG

Released Dec 19, 1973

1h 44m

Mystery & Thriller

Adventure

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Popcornmeter

44%

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27 Reviews

43%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Marine biologists Jake (George C. Scott) and Maggie Terrell (Trish Van Devere) have for many years been doing dolphin research in the Florida Keys, and have even coached some dolphins to speak primitive English. But when two of the dolphins are kidnapped, an investigation proves that the Terrells' financial backers, the Franklin Foundation, have had sinister intentions all along. The dolphins are to be used to deliver and detonate explosives beneath the president's yacht.

Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

If Mike Nichols and Buck Henry don’t have anything better to make movies about than involving English-speaking dolphins in assassination attempts, why don’t they stop making movies?

Feb 10, 2022

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Richard Combs

Sight & Sound

A glibly sour and sentimental thriller.

Mar 27, 2020

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Jay Cocks

TIME Magazine

What is left, besides a lot of pretty dolphin footage, is some bad intercollegiate-revue satire, a shadow of Sea Hunt, and a calculated sentimentality that evokes memories of Lassie Come Home.

Mar 24, 2015

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Rob Aldam

Backseat Mafia

An atypical mix of scientific drama and political thriller.

Jul 23, 2021

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John Simon

Esquire Magazine

Worst of all is the suspense plot, simplistic enough to be rather more laughable than the high-pitched, anile voice in which the bottle-nosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) shrills his truncated banalities.

Jul 25, 2020

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

A strange hybrid of family film and adult drama, this ends up playing like Flipper Meets The Parallax View.

Rated: 2.5/4

Feb 22, 2020

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DanTheMan 2

The Thinking Man's Flipper, The Day of the Dolphin is a real oddity. It's a cinematic time capsule of a goofier time that might be accused of lacking any real sense of porpoise. An atypical mix of ecological drama and political thriller, the film is truly ridiculous but works because of the values it celebrates: communication and love. Despite their material, Director Mike Nichols and George C Scott have given us a film that reminds us what love and care can do not so much for the object of affection, but for the person who tenders it. Scott, usually the most intense of actors, is rather subdued in his part here. To observe him betray moments of stricken regret is truly touching to see, all the more so for his typical appearance of such unshakable gravitas. He carries this film on his shoulders. Having trouble comprehending why anyone would want to put such creatures in harm's way, to that extent, the dolphins are the real show, the true innocents in a corrupt world. They are positively impossible to hate. The other major point of contention is the hauntingly beautiful musical score by Georges Delerue, lilting and graceful, moving through the air the way the dolphins move through the water. You may laugh at The Day of the Dolphin, but you'll feel just as guilty simultaneously, one that has you suffer utterly irreparable heartbreak.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/19/24

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Alec B

Alternates between hilariously baffling and extremely boring. Given the talent involved it is no wonder everyone would prefer this fiasco forgotten.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/10/24

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Audience Member

Alternates between hilariously baffling and extremely boring. Given the talent involved it is no wonder everyone would prefer this fiasco forgotten.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

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Audience Member

An toothless adaptation of Robert Merle's powerful anti-war novel, which I only remembered having seen because I was discussing bad movie adaptations of novels.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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steve d

An unintended comedy that needs to be seen to be believed.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

Shameless dolphin exploitation. There were really no good guys in this movie, and I still don't understand the point of teaching the dolphins to talk.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

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Mike Nichols

Director

George C. Scott

Dr. Jake Terrell

Trish Van Devere

Maggie Terrell

Paul Sorvino

Curtis Mahoney

Fritz Weaver

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Synopsis

Marine biologists Jake (George C. Scott) and Maggie Terrell (Trish Van Devere) have for many years been doing dolphin research in the Florida Keys, and have even coached some dolphins to speak primitive English. But when two of the dolphins are kidnapped, an investigation proves that the Terrells' financial backers, the Franklin Foundation, have had sinister intentions all along. The dolphins are to be used to deliver and detonate explosives beneath the president's yacht.

Director: Mike Nichols
Producer: Robert E. Relyea
Distributor: AVCO Embassy Pictures
Production Co: Arco Embassy
Rating: PG
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Adventure
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 19, 1973, Original
Release Date (DVD): Feb 7, 2006
Runtime: 1h 44m