The Deepwater Horizon was a drilling rig that blew up off the coast of Louisiana in 2010. The technical reasons why it happened, or who was on board, may have been forgotten. This film is here to remind us of both.
It shouldn't work. Combining a Hollywood action flick with a respectful drama about a real-life tragedy is a minefield. But with the ever-likeable Mark Wahlberg to root for and a final act that throws us into the heart of the terrifying fireball - it gets it right.
Wahlberg plays Mike Williams, an oil rig worker who's about to head out for a 21 day shift on the Deepwater Horizon. He's a fun, easygoing husband and workmate. The movie can't rely solely on a simmering sense of dread to carry us through to the end credits. We need a hero - and Wahlberg with his everyman charm is that hero.
We could have done with some better female roles maybe - Kate Hudson is consigned to the role of the anxious wife at the other end of a fuzzy Skype call - but given this was based on real events we'll let that slide.
Once on the rig, under the command of the gruff Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) the problems start to stack up - along with the jargon. This is a world of 'kill lines', 'blowout preventers' and 'reverse pressure tests'. It might sound a bit snoozy but it's actually mysteriously fascinating.
There are some dreamy, underwater shots that take us below the rig and down the central drilling pipe to where danger lies in the dark; the rig is sitting over an enormous field of oil and gas which could bite back at any minute.
The film neatly sets up the idea of two monsters: an angry mother earth versus a greedy corporation. Enter John Malkovich as a BP head honcho - he wants to hurry through the safety pressure tests and get on with the drilling. Malkovich is on fine villainous form; so oily they should have stuck a rig on him. The pressure on Harrell soon becomes unbearable and the drilling starts - with tragically inevitable results.
The director, Peter Berg (Battle Ship, Lone Survivor), and his team, built one of the biggest sets in movie history for the film - effectively a reconstruction of the lower half of the rig. It's about keeping the final explosive act as real as possible, from the first seeping mud around the pipes, to the last all-consuming fireball. The effect is exhausting. Frazzling.
Berg isn't out to entertain - he want us to experience what it was like on that fateful night. And it's the right thing to do. Eleven people died in the disaster. As their names are shown in the final credits you feel that this is how their story should be told on screen. No fireworks for the sake of it. Just solid, straightforward storytelling that's a tribute to the workers who risked their lives to provide for their families. And a sober reminder of how greed can ruin lives.
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