This review was first published by The Student Pocket Guide
For many, director Peter Berg will be forever associated
with Battleship – the 2012 action
blockbuster in which any sense of character or narrative was swamped under
waves of special effects and explosions. Oh, and the bizarre appearance of pop
star Rihanna who occasionally muttered one-liners whilst shooting aliens.
A year later, Berg went on to direct Mark Wahlberg in the
war film Lone Survivor. Fast-forward
to 2016 and he has again hooked up with Wahlberg and returned to the ocean,
this time in Deepwater Horizon which
follows the real-life events that resulted in the worst oil spill in the
history of the United States. The event was an environmental catastrophe but the
human tragedies which unfolded on that April night back in 2010 are often
forgotten. Deepwater Horizon is a
compelling account of the spill which left eleven men dead.
There’s little doubt about the identity of the villain in Deepwater Horizon: BP. In a “you
couldn’t make it up” twist, on the day of the disaster, a few bigwigs from the
petroleum company were visiting the Deepwater Horizon oil rig to celebrate its
safety record. In the film, this ironic committee is headed by John Malkovich
who, in a rather manic performance, pressures the rig’s workers into restarting
pumping oil from the sea bed, in spite of several safety concerns. Time, after
all, is money. Such a decision, of course, leads to disaster, and the film
follows engineer Mike Williams (Wahlberg) as he battles to save both his own life
and the lives of his fellow workers.
The film opens with the fairly standard disaster film
characterisation which is meant to make an audience care about the characters
over the coming two hours. We see everyman Mike at home with his wife (played
by Kate Hudson) and his daughter, who would like nothing better than for her
dad to bring back a dinosaur fossil from his explorations at the rig. This
backstory is competently outlined and, it turns out, is the deepest
characterisation of the whole film. Once on the rig, we’re given brief,
thumbnail sketches of the other characters, enough to work out that Kurt
Russell is the father-figure of the rig who objects to being ordered about by
BP’s executives, and that Gina Rodrigues (giving a nice performance) is the
rig’s only female worker.
What the screenplay reveals in more depth, in contrast, is
the technical jargon and physics of oil rigging. You’ll leave the cinema knowing
a lot more about negative pressure tests, blow out preventers and kill lines than
you ever thought you would. This exposition-heavy first act does surprisingly
well to racket up the tension and anticipation of the eventual disaster, which
comes as a very abrupt explosion of mud and oil. The resulting fireball which
engulfs the floating rig is realised with great realism, and the sound design,
too, brings events sharply – and horrifically – into focus.
Once fires have begun to rage, the action is sustained well
and Wahlberg makes for a strong lead, especially in the more
emotionally-charged scenes. Peter Berg has, rather surprisingly, reined himself
in in terms of both the special effects and the film’s ending which, rather
than saccharine reunions between rig workers and their families, chooses to
focus on Wahlberg collapsing on the floor of a hotel, the shock and pain of
events overwhelming him. This is nicely handled by Wahlberg, and Kate Hudson
also gives a powerful performance.
It’s a cliché that characters in disaster films always talk
about their family left back at home, but in a chaotic, but moving scene,
towards the film’s end, Wahlberg literally shouts at Gina Rodrigues’ character
about his need to see his wife and daughter again. This is the real and distressing
human dimension of the disaster and gives the film its raison d’être.
The environmental costs of the BP oil spill were, of course,
massive. Equally emotive are the stories of those who worked on the rig and Deepwater Horizon tells their story with
sensitivity. The special effects carry a weight to them which is underpinned by
the great performances from the cast. Fundamentally a tale of corporate greed,
this is a worthy cinematic tribute to those who died.
Clapperboard Review: * * *
