The Ivory Game Netflix Documentary Review

The Ivory Game (2016)

The Ivory Game - A look into the black market that could cause elephant extinction.

Watch The Ivory Game on Netflix
Directed by: Kief Davidson , Richard Ladkani
Rating: TV-14/R

Plot
Activists try to stop poachers and thwart the illegal ivory trade.

Verdict
The decline of the elephant population is heartbreaking as poachers are wiping them out just for their ivory tusks. This documentary is a great look at an illegal market from the bottom to the top, using the viewpoint of security, undercover operatives and activists trying to stop poachers, illegal traders, and the officials providing them cover.
While the information is framed around Shetani, the villain poacher, he's a lackluster character inserted just to provide drama. Stopping one poacher, won't stop the problem. Seeing the destruction of elephants is the most powerful part of this, and it all comes down to money. The ecosystem is disrupted just for a trinket.
Watch it.

Review
This starts with a bang. Soldiers with night vision infiltrate a village while set to dramatic music, kicking down doors. From the first scene and the following title sequence, you can tell this is a documentary with some money behind it. Few documentaries have stylized titles.

Over five years, 150,000 elephants have been killed for their ivory. With the elephant population declining, poachers are expanding their hunting grounds. Within fifteen years elephants could be extinct.
As the elephant population dwindles, ivory becomes a rarer commodity. The increased price lures more poachers, a catalyst for the mass killings of elephants.

To think that for almost every piece of ivory seen in this documentary an elephant was killed is a harrowing fact. This is a big black market business. Shops in China stockpile ivory, selling intricately carved trinkets.
While this shows numerous elephant remains, it could have gotten really gory, but it doesn't. The intent isn't to make you squirm. Showing a withered body of a dead elephant from afar is effective enough. Poachers kill elephants and remove their heads as it's the easiest way to obtain ivory.

You've got to admire the dedication of activists and the lengths they will go to protect elephants, but this focuses a bit too much on the humans than the elephants. An apt comparison is Blackfish (2013). The main character was the killer whale Tilikum, providing a great frame of reference for the story. It's tight focus is able to rely on the facts of what's happened to the specific whale.

The Ivory Game doesn't have a main elephant or a herd, but attempts to include a narrative with Shetani, a poacher nicknamed the devil. Once he's caught he's rather tame, and we don't even see his capture. Similarly, the undercover agent is caught but we don't know what happens to him.
While this documentary definitely makes it's point, it would have done better to focus on the elephants that form tight knit families and the money that fuels the trade. The money breeds the poachers and corruption. This is an intriguing look at how black markets work and how they perpetuate.