The Day of the Dolphin

The Day of the Dolphin Photos

View all photos

Cast & Crew

George C. Scott

Dr. Jake Terrell

Trish Van Devere

Maggie Terrell

Paul Sorvino

Curtis Mahoney

Fritz Weaver

Harold DeMilo

Jon Korkes

David

Edward Herrmann

Mike

Leslie Charleson

Maryanne

John David Carson

Larry

Victoria Racimo

Lana

John Dehner

Wallingford

Severn Darden

Schwinn

William Roerick

Dunhill

Elizabeth Wilson

Mrs. Rome

Mike Nichols

Director

Robert E. Relyea

Producer

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for The Day of the Dolphin

Audience Reviews for The Day of the Dolphin

• Jul 08, 2021

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

  Super Reviewer
• Nov 27, 2012

  Being as its plot is centered on talking dolphins that are unknowingly trained to assassinate the president, you'd think that "The Day of the Dolphin" would be a total exercise in camp, but it's almost the exact opposite. It takes itself so darn seriously that there's absolutely nothing fun or enjoyable about it. Also, the narrative is bumbling and borderline incoherent, the editing is clumsy, there's not a single likable or relatable character among the bunch and the first three fifths are mindless exposition that build up to literally nothing. Even if it is visually enticing, "The Day of the Dolphin" is a complete bore.
  

  Super Reviewer
• Aug 01, 2012

  The movie taglines says "Unwittingly he trained a Dolphin to kill the president of the United States" and so naturally I sat down to watch it. With a ridiculous tagline like that you would expected something over-the-top and goofy right? Sadly you're wrong as this movie takes itself too seriously and simply a bores you to death. The Day of the Dolphin is about a scientist who trains his Dolphin to talk who are than kidnapped by the government to kill the president. That synopsis in the last sentence is literally all that happens and nothing else interesting develops. It has boring characters, uninteresting back stories, and is surprisingly very dramatic. You'll wonder how in the world did a movie about talking Dolphins get to a point where the government are kidnapping Dolphins and planning to kill blowup the president. The answer is simply lazy writing. For a movie that has talking Dolphins I'm surprised at the lack of humor and for a movie with Dolphin in the title they're barely are shown doing anything interesting. Most of the times the Dolphins are doing tricks and swimming, yawn. Would you believe that there's only one scene of the Dolphins being trained to kill anything, and unfortunately they don't have machine-guns or anything over-the-top for your amusement. Though to the film credits it did attempt to make it realistic, while it does have Dolphins that sound like Elmo from Sesame Street, the scenario is somewhat plausible. The plot is ultimately poorly written, but I honestly can't say I expected something good that has talking Dolphins. The acting is surprisingly good, though the actors do have the "I'm going to fire my agent" train of thought. The music is also good, though completely useless here as it never used effectively. Now since we have a scientist training a Dolphin to talk, you get to hear tape samples of it, like of them in the same scene. Yes the tape of the Dolphin speaking is annoying, but they are unintentionally funny to listen to. The director on the other hand does not know how to make a thriller. You'll see events coming miles away and nothing is ever suspenseful since the movie does a good job of boring you to death. Now for some reason this is categorize as science-fiction, why? Sure the movie has talking Dolphin, but I don't think that would count it as science-fiction and there's a lack of both science and fiction in this. To my amazement there's a novel with the same name and would you believe it's a political satire of the Cold War. That would actually would have interesting to watch if the movie actually decided to follow the novel. Now while this might unrelated to this movie there's is a Simpson parody title "Night of the Dolphin" that's more entertaining to watch. The Day of the Dolphin is a serious movie with a premise that shouldn't have been taken seriously in the first place. You're better off reading the political satire novel with the same name or watching The Simpsons parody "Night of the Dolphin".
  

  Super Reviewer