Disoriented. I walked out of the theatre disoriented. Was it the strobe light effect while the power failed? Was it the glass shards being pulled by Kurt Russell out of his own foot? Was it the bone sticking out of a redshirt’s leg? Was it that 11 people died and I wondered how the other 115 on the rig survived?
Yes.
Deepwater Horizon is a war movie where the good guys don’t have a chance in hell, the bad guys are greedy bastards who were supposed to be on the good guys’ side, and the real enemy is an almost unstoppable 130 million gallons of oil spewing from the sea floor. Deepwater Horizon makes it perfectly clear where the blame for the worst oil spill in history rests: with the money-grubbing assholes who tried to cut corners and lost their gamble. The film is not subtle. It finds ten different ways to show us the choices that led to the disaster. It works.
Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) gets bloody. Jimmy Harrell (Russell) gets bloodier. The stand-in for greedy BP, Donald Vidrine (John Malkovitch), does not get as bloody as you’d hope. They are some of the lucky ones. Deepwater Horizon takes us into the heart of the mess. Tons of mud, oil, fire, explosions, and rag dolls flying all over the screen. It is hard to watch but not too hard to follow. We are provided with title cards and a grade school explanation of the Deepwater Horizon’s mission. They help the exposition fly by so we can get to the destruction faster.
By the end you will have been appropriately beaten down by the disaster. It is a suitably somber end. The survivors are consumed with grief. The restraint shown, especially in the closing minutes, elevates this movie above the Michael-Bay-esque fire show I thought we would see.
Deepwater Horizon is not a great movie but it’s far better than expected. By the time the credits roll your head may be spinning like mine was, especially if you remember that beyond the immediate devastation depicted in the film lies the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, one that ended up costing BP $54 billion in cleanup costs and penalties. Deepwater Horizon makes clear that BP in general and Vidrine in particular got off too easy, but it puts itself in an awkward position by barely mentioning the environmental effects of the disaster, which left me feeling that the movie entirely missed the point.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Can’t wait to see this 🙂
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Mark Wahlberg thinks the human loss of life outweighs the cost to the environment. While it certainly plays better on screen, it’s a little short-sighted. Ultimately this disaster will continue to cost human lives.
I did find this a little Michael Bay-esque, particularly the numerous shots of American flags flapping in the foreground of blazing fires and black smoke. You’re right though – there was restraint. Even as I wanted to rail, the movie didn’t.
What the hell was up with Malkovitch’s “accent”?
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The accent was terrible and Wahlberg’s comment was worse. The long term effects of this disaster are going to kill more than 11 people. It’s incomprehensible how much damage was caused by 4.19 million barrels of oil being released into the Gulf of Mexico over the 87 days the well was leaking.
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The long-term consequences still aren’t even fully understood, and may never be fully understood because this was such a far-reaching disaster.
It was a failure to consider long-term consequences that led to the disaster in the first place.
If Wahlberg doesn’t realize that he’s missed the point of his own movie.
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Matt’s dad was at the TIFF premiere
So was star Gina Rodriguez!
And Kate Hudson!
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Kate Hudson stars in the movie, as does her stepdad Kurt Russell. They don’t share much screen time or any lines, but they do share a kiss.
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Director Peter Berg
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If it comes on Sky I’ll watch it, explosions-R-us.
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It’s definitely a watchable action movie. More watchable than I expected.
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I think it was more of an a explosion fest instead of a story about the people.
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We definitely didn’t know much about the people, we only know a little about the three main workers plus we know John Malkovitch is a dick.
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He was a great dick too.
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The trailer for this looked pretty good. I get why they didn’t go into the environmental damage. That is another movie in and of itself. I think when it happened, we were all so fixated on the damage that we forgot the human lives lost in this. For that reason, I understand skipping over the rest. Not that it isn’t important. All of it is.
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Huh, just heard about this for the first time today on NPR. I thought it was interesting how they couldn’t film it on a real oil rig because of opposition by the oil companies.
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i guess ill wait for it to be on cable, great review though
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It’s nice to see someone sharing in my concern. This movie was powerful yes and I did ‘enjoy’ it, but I too thought Berg’s failure to address the larger issue was kind of callous. One oil-covered pelican doesn’t quite do enough to address that.
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We’re going to see it on Tuesday evening.
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