Movie Reaction: Deepwater Horizon

Formula: (The Towering Inferno / There Will Be Blood) * Everest

I'd kind of like to know what Peter Berg's political leanings are, because I think it colors his choices in films. I'm not sure which way it colors them though. He's interested in a lot of more conservative things: the military (Lone Survivor) and high-school football as a way of life (Friday Night Lights). Even his big budget flop Battleship is a major pro-Navy film. And with Deepwater Horizon, he takes a look at the blue-collar worker. He treats all of these people with respect. However, these movies all take a more liberal stance on things. Lone Survivor commented on the pointlessness of the fight the men were in. The FNL movie looked at the sex, drugs, and racism underneath the surface of that world. Deepwater Horizon continues that trend by examining the folly of a profit-obsessed company cutting corners. This two-side approach to things results in very balanced perspectives on potentially polarizing topics. Or, maybe it's better to say that Peter Berg is more concerned with the people than the settings. He likes to look at the ground level of big topics. That is certainly true of Deepwater Horizon.

I wasn't looking forward to the film when I first heard about it. I didn't see the point of a BP oil spill movie. I was expecting something like The Big Short: a two hour essay proving what I already figured about a catastrophe I already heard about in the news. That's not the movie though. It's a disaster movie first and foremost and a damn good one. The fact that it's based on true events is just an added layer. It's about the machines both literal and figurative that failed and the men and women caught in the violent repercussions.

I assume we all remember the BP oil spill back in 2010. A pipe broke and there was somehow no way to stop it from flowing oil into the ocean at pressure-washer speeds. Deepwater Horizon follows the people stationed at that oil rig when it happened. Kurt Russell is the head of operations. Mark Wahlberg and Gina Rodriguez also work on the operations side. Kate Hudson is Walhberg's girlfriend back on land. People like John Malkovich and Brad Leland work on the rig for BP, trying to push production forward to get back on schedule. The film takes its time to both give the audience an understanding of how the drilling works and what shortcuts were taken that led to the accident. There's a simmering tension from the very beginning since you know where it is going. By the time things go up in flames, it is well earned.

What most impressed me is the way that Peter Berg indicts BP without overdoing it. Even though Malkovich is a mustache-twirling BP-crony, there's a scene that outlines how he gets to the bad conclusions he's at regarding the safety of the rig. For him, it isn't negligence as much as a differing opinion of what's still safe. There's a feeling of being too big to fail, and I get it. That floating rig is huge, with all sorts of moving parts and levels. It's hard to fathom machines that large ever failing at a high level. It's easy to forget how dangerous it all can potentially be. The disaster at the center of the movie is the result of a lot of small bad decisions that reach a break point. It's all clearly BP's fault but Berg trusts that we see that without being monologued at. It's telling the information cards leading into the credits are about the victims, not BP.

None of the characters are particularly interesting beyond the fact that they are the people trapped in this situation. The thrill is in seeing how they survive. I don't need personal details about the characters. I learn everything I need to in how they survive. It reminded me a lot of last year's Everest in that way. Both films have very large casts and it doesn't force more story on any of them than needed.

I really liked this movie. It's a disaster movie with just the right amount of heart. Wahlberg, Russell, Rodriguez, and a lot of other familiar faces play it all convincingly. The disaster scenes are shot great. The film is less hollow than a lot of the big action movies this past summer. It's very entertaining for fans of the genre, which isn't what I was expecting for a September release.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend