Audience Member
Is this movie propaganda? For Dolphin therapy? For the Israeli care system? For the benefits of being a "good" Arab in Israel?
The situation shown in this movie is like a US movie about a latino young adult, deeply traumatized by other young latinos, and treated by an all white/anglo medical and dolphin therapy team. He forgets everything about his latino identity, family and history, finding comfort and happiness in an all anglo culture. The father of the proganist abandons the rest of the family 350 miles away to spend a year at the beach, by the dolphin center, with his son. By the way, the father likes to wear stylish cowboy gear and dance around the fire with his friends. Almost no Spanish is spoken. Is this right?
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I too want to swim with dolphins. Who knows what it might cure me of.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
What is truly remarkable and compelling about this Documentary is where it takes place and the principals involved. Israel, a slice of democracy in a hostile milieu has gifted movie goers outstanding films in recent years; films dealing intrepidly with controversial topics: religion, politics, families in crisis. "Lebanon", "Lemon Tree", "Restoration" and the superb Academy Award nominee "Waltz with Bashir" are a few renowned examples of superlative filmmaking.
"Dolphin Boy" is the touching and miraculous true story of a young boy living in an Arab village in Northern Israel: "Morad" seventeen, handsome, bright; he is content and loved by his pious Muslim parents and siblings. Disaster strikes when a note is confiscated and misinterpreted by his classmates, alleging inappropriate behavior with a female relative of one of the boys; he is catastrophically beaten, overcomes death, his body recovers but his mind has lost even a tenuous thread of sanity; incapable of speaking, manifesting all the symptoms of autism. The year is 2006.
Dr. Kurz, a psychiatrist specializing in post traumatic stress and dissociative behavior suggests, after months of futile analysis, and the refusal of Morad's parents to place him in an institution, "Dolphin Therapy". A contemporary and controversial treatment for children suffering from autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome. There are organizations in Florida, Mexico, Australia, Ukraine and Israel. Morad and his father Asad go to Eliat, on the Red Sea; Asad pledges not to return home until his son is cured.
The dolphins with polished, refined instincts rule their watery world; like Neptune, Poseidon, Naga they either accept or reject interlopers; Morad is a welcomed guest and steadily improves, becoming an admirable free diver. After three months and a monumental financial toll on his family, Morad speaks, reflecting "it was the first day of my life". Morad improves but the positive is balanced with the negative: he falls in love with a Jewish girl, but still cannot contemplate a return to his village; he is fearful of seeing his mother and siblings and is haunted by heinous nightmares; he has erased and refuses to speak of the crime perpetrated upon him.
Mystifying is the ability of the dolphins to heal; is it a fallacy? Possibly, it is the power of acceptance that sooths the wounded psyche; not a modicum of hostility, just unquestionable love permeates a soundless cocoon; words are anathema, the gentlest caress from a slippery mammal provides an unfathomable, phenomenal, inspiring cure.
FOUR STARS!!!!
For Now.....Peneflix
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/12/23
Full Review
Audience Member
War Horse the movie, not the play, is appallingly awful.If you have diabetes, do NOT attend or you will need a gallon of insulin by the time you leave. A sloppy, sappy, corny, stupid and horribly constructed mess, it is lit to look like a Hallmark Card and the dialogue is the kind your normally see stitched on pillows. Bad bad BAD actin, self conscious and heavily italicized and "indicated", this movie is art- directed to within an inch of its life. Even the mud is made to look pretty! Whatever talent Spielberg once had has evaporated, leaving behind a wad of congealed sugar. Yuk! And John Williams score is relentless, just pounding you to death
with overblown strings and blaring horns, a sloshing molasses bath underlining the already sugared to death scenes. Avoid at all costs! Ghastly from beginning to end. But the horse is good.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Simply breathtaking, I was born south of Eilat and would have loved to work at the dolphin reef seen in the movie. The documentary is about an Arab boy brutally beaten by a a group of Israelis over a text message, and the victim's ordeal from seemingly traumatized to as emotionally healthy as anyone can be with the help of therapy dolphins and an amazing staff and father willing to stop at nothing to bring back his son from the brink of being mentally lost.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
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