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October 9, 2016

Review: “Deepwater Horizon” Starring Mark Wahlberg And Kurt Russell

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This review originally appeared on CinemaRetro

By Mark Cerulli

Hard to believe it’s been five years since America’s worst environmental disaster, the Deepwater Horizon explosion, which claimed 11 lives and allowed 50,000 barrels of oil per day to spew from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico for 87 heartbreaking days until the well was finally capped. Since then the world has moved on and the event remains relevant only for those who lived through it. Director Peter Berg’s riveting new film “Deepwater Horizon”, should snap people back to attention.

“Deepwater Horizon” is told through the eyes of blue-collar worker, Chief Electrician Mike Williams, played by Mark Wahlberg, who leaves his loving wife (Kate Hudson) and arrives on the massive rig, 41 miles off the Louisiana coast. Costing $500,000 a day to run, the rig is weeks behind schedule – which means a team of BP managers led by a creepy John Malkovitch is breathing down the crew’s thick necks. In fact, they’ve just cut short some important safety inspections to save time. When seasoned rig manager Mr. Jimmy, wonderfully played by Kurt Russell, demands a pressure test, the results are troubling… and then all hell breaks loose! Flammable gas leaks from the well and the failsafe mechanisms – including slicing through the main drilling pipe – fail and the rig explodes. From then on it’s a white-knuckle fight for survival.

As good as the actors are, and Wahlberg is at his best playing a workin’ man, the real stars of “Deepwater Horizon” are the visual effects. The film takes you 5000 feet below the surface to spot the beginnings of trouble – tiny gas pockets leaking out, then inside the well as the toxic gas races up, turning the rig into a raging fireball. To recreate the maritime disaster, the filmmakers built one of the largest sets ever constructed – using over 3.2 million pounds of steel. Real life oil workers (including Mike Williams) acted as technical advisers to give it all an authentic look and feel right down to the control panels. The set even features a working helipad, used onscreen. (Shades of “You Only Live Twice”!)

While the movie shows the sheer terror facing the crew, it also spotlights true acts of bravery as Wahlberg’s character rescues their beloved crew chief, Mr. Jimmy from the burning bowels of the rig. When he and the platform’s young Dynamic Positioning Operator (sort of like a pilot) played by Gina Rodriguez find themselves trapped, with seemingly no way out, he gets her to take a (real) leap of faith into the burning waters far below.

Most illuminating is the film’s ending crawl where we see the faces of the 11 lost crew members and learn the fates of the survivors – several quit the oil industry for good and the BP managers got off with a legal smack on the wrist (although the company was forced to pay a massive $20 billion in fines.) “Deepwater Horizon” is a stark and thrilling example of what happens when human greed and hubris meet Mother Nature.

Watch the trailer