This film begins well but degenerates into a conventional, sentimental Hollywood narrative. Nichols and screenwriter Buck Henry gently ease the audience into the world of privately funded dolphin research, indulging in some fanciful notions that seem more Orca (1977; dir. Michael Anderson) than Le monde sans soleil (1964; dir. Jacques-Yves Cousteau), but generally keeping the material above the level usually associated with animal-centric films. But the cliches seep through their fragile structure, and, by the finale, we’re forced to accept a ludicrous and totally incongruous ‘race against time’ scenario.

Films about unusual scientific subjects – and the dedicated, often alienated research personnel involved with them – need alternative approaches than the self-contained narrative offered by mass media education and theory, in order to be respectfully and correctly handled on film and television. Instead of carefully tracing the (sometimes boring) minutiae of a scientist’s life, looking at the interpersonal and social relationships which pepper and occasionally hinder their work, The Day of the Dolphin buys into an uniquely American paranoia about big business and government; one which would otherwise paint pioneering academics with the same brush as corrupt politicians or greedy CEOs. George C. Scott here plays the trainer/father of a super-intelligent dolphin, and, you have to wonder, whether he would be so compassionately drawn if his charge wasn’t so audience-friendly.

The Day of the Dolphin at the IMDb