Deepwater Horizon Is An Emotional Movie Made In A Fit Of Rage
You’ll remember the BP oil spill (as it most commonly referred to) that killed 11 people and injured 17 others in 2010. More than 200 million gallons of oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days, eventually becoming the biggest oil spill in history. 16,000 miles of coastline have been affected and, according to DoSomething.Org, over 8,000 animals were reported dead in the first 6 months following on from the disaster, many of which were already considered endangered species.
Six years on, Peter Berg – whose best movie to date is perhaps the 2004 flick Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx – has decided to tell its story from a high-octane Hollywood angle.
It’s risky, and I did expect something incredibly cheesy, but this film is anything but. Deepwater Horizon feels like a movie made in a fit of rage as it loudly accuses BP of all the wrongdoing, laying the blame firmly in their yard whilst finding the time to highlight the heroics and bravery of those caught up in the disaster.
YouTubeBerg has opted to limit the story to the few days surrounding the initial catastrophe. Mark Wahlberg plays Mike Williams, an engineer who leaves his, admittedly a little too perfect, wife (Kate Hudson) and family behind as he embarks on a 21 day trip to work on the doomed Deepwater Horizon oil rig. He’s joined by his boss ‘Mr Jimmy’ (Kurt Russell), a straight talking leader who puts the safety of the oil rig and its workers before anything else.
From the moment they arrive on the rig, Mr Jimmy and Mike show their discontent at the BP executives’ insistence on pushing the (already behind schedule) drill forwards. The BP big shots are portrayed as money-grabbing corporates, none more so than Donald (John Malkovich), who piles pressure on those around him to cut corners in order to get the job done.
YouTubeThe cause of the disaster can be hard to track, the film is (rightly) reluctant to dumb down the jargon for its audience too much, but we can just about follow as it builds up to the inevitable moment when all hell breaks loose. When it does, the BP men pale into the background, only to be seen looking like scared cowards every now and then, and the heroics of the rest come to the fore. Wahlberg and Russell make for easy guys to cheer for as they try to get everyone safely off the rig that is blowing up around them.
Towards the end, after those that survived have made it back to land, we see some real life clips from Mike Williams talking in court. I was left wanting to see a follow up movie or perhaps documentary that tells us what happened after the disaster, the wrestling match between the companies involved and the long term implications of the oil spill itself. This real life tragedy goes much deeper than the initial explosion and disaster covered here, but it’s not this film’s place to cover it.
This movie, however, does achieve its purpose with touches of class that I didn’t expect. Malkovich is at his nasty best, and where you’d expect to find clichés or typical Hollywood corn, there is instead moments of raw emotion that provide for a fitting tribute to those that lost their lives on the Deepwater Horizon. This really is an anti-BP film, Berg takes on the multi-billion dollar company and it’s hard to walk away without a sour taste in your mouth.
Deepwater Horizon is a courageous disaster movie, one that’s both upsetting and unsettling, and one that simply had to be made. (4 stars)