Tiger King
Premise - An Oklahoma man named Joe "Exotic", known widely as the "Tiger King", privately owns a zoo with over two hundred tigers and other wild cats and animals. As animal rights activists outcry over his breeding and abuse of animals, he starts a murder-for-hire plot against one particularly vocal animal right activist, Carole Baskin of "Big Cat Rescue."
Review - Society is strange. And by that, I don't mean it's strange that a man like Joe Exotic exists. I mean it's so strange that collectively, millions of us randomly decided to watch this during a pandemic. It's strange how this became an overnight sensation. And by strange, I mean wonderful, because society knows how to band together in these odd times. I've also found it strangely comforting that millions of people collectively agree that Joe Exotic is insane. If there are small pockets of people out there who are pro-Joe, I couldn't care less. I'll say the glass is at least 99% full and that's a comfort.
This is a bonkers documentary, though. It's not a story I was at all familiar with, despite Joe Exotic running for president as a Libertarian in 2016, and a massive federal trial over the murder-for-hire plot. It never crossed my radar and I think millions of others watching this documentary are in the same boat. But now, hey, the whole freakin' world knows who the Tiger King is.
I think what also makes this documentary so enthralling is it's morally confusing. There's not a clear good guy or bad guy here. Carole Baskin also seems somewhat crazy, despite being the victim of the story. There's speculation over where or not she murdered her husband, as well as general discourse around whether she treats her animals any better than Joe Exotic did. She runs an animal sanctuary, and does not breed animals, but she still traps them in cages and profits from that. So is anyone in the documentary truly on the side of the animals?
The whole morality of zoos and breeding is brought into question. Tigers are an endangered species, and more tigers live in captivity in the USA than are left in the wild. And it's true, how do you combat a species endangerment? Make more! Zoos welcome baby animals all the time, and it's seen as a success when an animal's population is dangerously low. The vast majority of people are in agreement that the best case scenario would be tigers living their best lives in the wild. But there's not much wildlife left, and animals living in captivity cannot be released safely back into the wild. So it's very questionable what the right thing to do is with the tigers we have now, in addition to focusing on conservation of what little wildlife remains. I did truly feel for the employees of the park whose job it was to take care of the animals. They really wanted to do what was best for the animals knowing they had nowhere else to go, and became very attached.
There are some very, VERY clear moral no-nos, though. Exploiting baby cubs for money, and then killing them once they aren't cubs anymore? NO. Not giving your tiger enough space? NO. Feeding your employees dumpster meat and paying them $1/hour? NO. Making death threats against another human being? NO. Also, I'll state the obvious here, but plotting to murder people? NO NO NO.
I'm making it seem like the documentary is mostly about tigers, and it really, REALLY isn't. The appeal is its weirdness regarding the hillbilly characters. Most of the documentary is just a "WTF"-fest examining the crazy life of Joe Exotic and others who raise big cats, because it takes a certain type of bravado to purposely lead that kind of life. Joe Exotic was a gay-polygamist-redneck-zookeeper-politician-entertainer who wanted his own reality TV show. And, you know, a documentary is the next best thing...? He's probably enjoying the attention from his prison cell. Whether or not Joe deserves to be in prison for life is not my place to say. (88/100)
Quote - "I saw a tiger, and tiger saw a man" THAT SONG THOUGH
What to watch for - I... I don't even know what to say for this. The random musical numbers? John Finlay constantly shirtless? Or the crazy after special where John Finlay had a HUGE glow-up? Or Joe's campaign videos? No, I know what to say - watch it for the freakin' cute baby tiger content. Maybe that's not the message of the documentary, but they sure are adorable.
If you liked this documentary, I'd recommend Fyre Fraud! That was another documentary (or two, rather, if you count Fyre) that kind of just swept up the entire population.
Directed by Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin
Distributed by Netflix
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