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| Deepwater Horizon |
Deepwater Horizon
One of the greatest environmental crimes of the last decade was the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion which killed 11 people and spewed 210 million gallons of oil and other contaminants into the Gulf of Mexico. A crime for which only two BP executives were charged with manslaughter, neither of whom were convicted of anything beyond minor environmental pollution offenses. The film Deepwater Horizon dramatizes the events of the fateful day aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig.
In 2010 while the events of the Deepwater Horizon rig were going on film director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg were both working in schlocky action movies when they teamed up to film an adaptation of Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of an ill-fated SEAL team mission in Afghanistan's memoir Lone Survivor. The success of that film has led to a string of based-on-fact action films pairing Berg and Wahlberg. The followup to Lone Survivor was Deepwater Horizon.
Deepwater Horizon's intense focus solely on the events of the day of the disaster is simultaneously the film's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness. It's a strength because never does it get bogged down in the kind of melodrama that so often plagues disaster movies. In fact, the authenticity and brisk pacing make it a contender for a place on the list of all-time greatest disaster movies (though admittedly the competition isn't that fierce). On the other hand, the narrow focus is also a weakness because it omits some of the larger context that gives the actual events so much resonance. The film opens with audio from the Congressional hearings on the disaster, but the film never circles back to tackle that aspect of the story; merely tacking on about a minute of C-SPAN footage during the credits. The film shows BP's culpability, but concentrates primarily on Donald Vidrine (played by John Malkovich) while fellow supervisor Robert Kaluza has few lines. Of the other two key players, Transocean is barely mentioned, and Halliburton isn't mentioned at all. It seems like a missed opportunity to add the fascinating courtroom drama that resulted in the aftermath.
The Good:
***1/2 out of *****
Deepwater Horizon's intense focus solely on the events of the day of the disaster is simultaneously the film's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness. It's a strength because never does it get bogged down in the kind of melodrama that so often plagues disaster movies. In fact, the authenticity and brisk pacing make it a contender for a place on the list of all-time greatest disaster movies (though admittedly the competition isn't that fierce). On the other hand, the narrow focus is also a weakness because it omits some of the larger context that gives the actual events so much resonance. The film opens with audio from the Congressional hearings on the disaster, but the film never circles back to tackle that aspect of the story; merely tacking on about a minute of C-SPAN footage during the credits. The film shows BP's culpability, but concentrates primarily on Donald Vidrine (played by John Malkovich) while fellow supervisor Robert Kaluza has few lines. Of the other two key players, Transocean is barely mentioned, and Halliburton isn't mentioned at all. It seems like a missed opportunity to add the fascinating courtroom drama that resulted in the aftermath.
The Good:
- brisk pacing
- Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, and John Malkovich all give convincing performances
- provides little context for events, reducing the complexities to a black-and-white action movie
- country music star Trace Adkins in a bit part
- director Peter Berg's onscreen cameo
***1/2 out of *****
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