Trophy *** ½ / *****
Directed by: Christina Clusiau & Shaul Schwarz.
People who are set in their thinking about big game hunting – on either side – will find plenty to be appalled at in the documentary Trophy. The film basically lets people tell their side of the story unchallenged by the filmmakers – who challenge them in other ways, mainly by allowing others to speak, or to look, with unflinching detail, at what this hunting looks like. This isn’t an easy film to watch – nor should it be. Whenever we are talking about the killing of animals – whether its farm animals for food, or various animals that are hunted (either for food or sport), I think it’s necessary to look at what it all looks like, in all of its bloody, disgusting detail. Trophy does that, while it also brings up much food for thought as it goes along as well. For example, the film spends some time with a man who raises rhinos in Africa – and in order to protect them from poachers, every few years, he and his team drug them, and cut off their horns. That is what the poachers want after all, and the horns themselves will grow back. He also argues that he should be allowed to sell the horns he cuts off – that way, he could use the profits to help raise the rhinos, and protect them from extinction. The sale of rhino horns was made illegal to try and cut down on poaching, and thus save the animals, but isn’t this another way around the system? You can look at his point as either monstrous or pragmatic, and probably be right. After all, it’s not saving rhinos that it is the issue – but you want to save who they are. If rhinos are basically raised as farm animals, are they really rhinos anymore? But is it better to let them all die off than have, for lack of a better term, domesticated rhinos?
Another person the film spends a lot of time with is Phillip Glass (not the composer) – an American hunter, who we first see taking his small child with him on his first hunt, to kill his first deer. Throughout the film, we will follow Glass because he represents the “hunter tourism” industry – he wants to head to Africa (and does, repeatedly) to kill one of each of the “Big Five” (lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo and leopard) – each of which will cost him tens of thousands of dollars to kill. Yet, what if that money that is spent to kill these animals is used to protect the animals as well? Nothing really is simple.
The film is gorgeous shot by directors Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz, which makes the moments in which animals are killed, and then posed, all the more shocking. The filmmakers will let the people on camera speak about the beauty of hunting, and honoring the animals, etc. – but it’s not going to shy away from the carnage either.
The film offers a complex look at an issue, and doesn’t tell you how to feel about it. There will be some who are outraged – and they certainly have a point. I don’t necessary like the idea of hunting for sport, which I think it killing for killing sake. And yet, if you do turn these animals into some kind of money making venture, then there is a profit motive to actually keep them alive, and not let them go extinct. But at what cost. Trophy is a film that may enrage you, but it is a provocative and intelligent film about an issue that is more complex than most people realize.
