After the Bite

The film After Bite explores the deep moral dilemmas and ambiguities that people face in their relationship to nature and animal species. The story revolves around several key characters whose decisions illustrate the pervasive uncertainty and inconsistency of human behavior.

The profile of a female scientist whose passion for sharks and the preservation of their populations helps us explore how human insecurity is connected to our relationship with nature. This scientist is deeply dedicated to her work, but it seems that her messages about the importance of the ecosystem go unnoticed. Her understanding of the virus and caring for the seals sets the stage for the film's moral conflicts.

The film also follows groups of surfers and beachgoers, who, despite the obvious problems in the marine environment, remain focused on their current pleasures and fun. This aspect of the film illustrates the human tendency to ignore serious issues, driven by selfishness and short-sightedness.

The main antagonist of the film, man represents the deepest contradictions in human nature. Man is playing God by manipulating the populations of different marine species. His attempts to balance the ecosystem often lead to new problems, but he still claims to know what is best for nature. Human arrogance and the need for control are emphasized here.

Through the conflicts and interactions of these different characters, the film emphasizes the importance of recognizing our insecurities and tendencies towards contradictions. At the same time, the film invites viewers to look deeper and think about their role in relation to nature and animal species.

It is true that the documentary presents an equally balanced set of perspectives on shark activity around Cape Cod. The whole film, however, is a rotation of perspectives delivered by local residents and activists. There is zero attempt to provide any independent or scientifically verified context even though marine biologists get the air time that is only used to capture their affection for marine wildlife... This is not a kind of movie that should leave you pondering the ambiguity, but this is what this movie does. I still enjoyed watching it because Cape Cod is a part of my family's history, but I wish the movie included something more concrete rather than just people's opinions. At least they could have been more definitive on the size of seal population (is it extraordinary large after all or not?) or do sharks or seals have anything to do with changing fish species based on actual scientific evidence? But, no, the movie stops at just telling us there are plenty of seals, less fish, and more sharks (but no more violent shark interactions since 2018). Well, we already knew that even without a documentary...

I don't understand the bad ratings/reviews for this documentary, I really enjoyed it, probably one of the best documentaries relating to sharks I have seen in a while. The reviews are probably objectively correct however I have interpreted the film completely differently.

The film presents a multitude of perspectives from different local groups on the issue. The different local perspectives I feel add more to the film than if they just interviewed national groups who don't have any mirco perspective.

I agree will another review that the real message is more about questioning how humans are intervening with nature and different ecosystems playing God. What is the impact of that and the difficulty in us actually getting it right. I think they wanted you to actually think and come up with your own opinion on the issue.

Really well produced and executed that doesn't get repetitive. I have seen many lame shark documentaries that are very one sided but this is not one of them.

Hopefully this makes sense as I have covid as I am writing this.

To hear one of the locals complaining about nothing being done and that 'it's our environment ' made me want to switch off.

The sea is the environment of the shark not humans. Don't want to get bitten sticky to your swimming pool.

Very typical American views that if any animal gets in the way kill it.

We've destroyed so much of this world we don't deserve to live here and without sharks we won't.

All this because they had one, ONE, fatality in 12 years.

Absolutely ridiculous and frustrating.

Mankind needs to get over itself. Especially those individuals in this show who think killing anything and everything so they can get on with their selfish lives is actually OK.

This documentary was not balanced at all. The locals shown here are arrogant people out to kill animals because they inconvenience them. We as humans are not part of the marine ecosystem. If we want to play in the water then we need to coexist with the creatures that have no choice but to call it home.

This documentary shamelessly capitalizes on the death of a young man who is not here to share his views. They use his death as a call to kill the seals and the sharks so that no more deaths like his occur. At no point does anyone think hey maybe we don't belong out there.

They continually blame a law that protects marine wildlife for the arrival of sharks. However at no point do they mention that while the sharks and seals have only increased since the law it is not because there are now suddenly just more animals coming to the area. The reason their numbers have increased is because we are not killing them for sport. This is their natural habitat and we tried to eradicate them. This law is the only thing protecting them from the most dangerous species on the planet...humans.

Overall this documentary is a disgusting display of the arrogance of humans and how much we deserve what nature is doing to us.