In 2013, Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg teamed up for
Lone Survivor. The film told the true
story of ‘Operation Red Wings’, a 2005 joint military operation that went south
as a group of Navy SEALs found themselves stuck right in the middle of enemy
territory in Afghanistan. The film was a solid success with both critics and
audiences and it seems as if Berg and Wahlberg have now become a new major
collaborative duo when it comes to doing films based on real-life incidents and
the heroes who were directly involved in them. Later this year, they have
another project coming out in the form of Patriots
Day, the story of the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. But
before that, they have a different ‘true story’ project that comes out first
with Deepwater Horizon. Deepwater Horizon tells the story of
what became one of the largest environmental disasters in the history of the
United States; the 2010 BP Oil Spill. It occurred on April 20th,
2010 on the semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon, when a
buildup of methane gas caused a massive explosion. 11 workers lost their lives
and a considerably large amount of oil, over 210 million gallons to be precise,
was released into the Gulf of Mexico. Obviously this was a major incident when
it occurred and sparked tons of controversies, particularly in regards to BP’s
handling of the whole situation. But similar to what Michael Bay did with 13 Hours earlier this year, Berg doesn’t
really delve into the political side of the incident. Instead, the film focuses in on the workers who were on
the rig at the time of the explosion and their efforts to survive. And
ultimately like Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon is an intense and
visceral action/disaster thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat
throughout.
On April 20th, 2010, Chief Electronics Technician
Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg), Dynamic Positioning Operator Andrea Fleytas
(Gina Rodriguez), and Offshore Installation Manager Jimmy Harrell (Kurt
Russell) arrive at their place of operations, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon. However, it appears that things aren’t really
going too well at the moment on the rig, which is currently situated at the
Macondo Prospect oil field in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. As
soon as they arrive, they notice another team leaving and learn that they
hadn’t done the cement log test that they were supposed to be doing in order to
analyze the integrity of the rig. As the crew begins to deal with increasing pressure
from their ‘superiors’, namely BP Executives Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich)
and Robert Kaluza (Brad Leland), in regards to them being ‘behind schedule’ on
their drilling operations, Harrell manages to convince them to run tests on the
rig in order to ensure that everything is running smoothly. The first test
seems to imply impending disaster but when Vidrine requests a second test on a
different section of the rig, that test goes much smoother. However, it turns
out that the first test was indeed correct as a build-up of methane gas in the
main pipe causes a massive explosion that engulfs the entire rig in fire,
putting Williams, Fleytas, Harrell, and the rest of the 126-man crew in an
extremely perilous situation as they try to escape from the burning rig.
One thing that I really have to give director Peter Berg
credit for in regards to both this and Lone
Survivor is that he does a really good job in regards to establishing a
great sense of tension by means of the action. Seriously, this film is intense.
In fact, sometimes I even wonder how this film managed to get by with a PG-13
rating considering some of its most intense moments, namely a scene in which
Harrell pulls a John McClane from Die
Hard by taking out a shard of glass from his foot (eck…). Well, to be more
specific, all of the action in the film occurs in the second half following the
explosion. The first half of the film is primarily build-up, as we see the main
members of the crew head out onto the rig and deal with the problems that are
starting to emerge on it. But once the second half rolls around and the big
explosion occurs, it is non-stop tension throughout. As a few other critics
have no doubt pointed out, this is practically like a horror film with the
devastation of the explosion posing a very considerable and constant threat to
the crew members. Because this is a PG-13 rated film, the action doesn’t get as
brutal as it did in the R-rated Lone
Survivor (save for the aforementioned ‘pulling glass out of foot’ scene) but
you’re still on the edge of your seat throughout. I mean just seeing these
people on a burning rig with nothing but fiery destruction going on in the
background really gets to you, especially considering that this really did
happen. In short, this film definitely pumps up the adrenaline during these
scenes.
Now from what I hear, it appears as if this film has been a
bit controversial amongst certain audiences, namely due to the fact that, as I
alluded to earlier, it avoids going into the politics surrounding the incident
as well as the consequences of the subsequent oil spill. Instead, the film
focuses in on the explosion that started it all and the people who were on the
rig at the time of the incident. But even with that said, sort of like Lone Survivor admittedly this film is
more action-oriented than it is character-oriented. Ultimately the primary
members of the crew that get the most focus/screen-time are Mike Williams,
Andrea Fleytas, Jimmy Harrell, and Drill Crew Floorhand Caleb Holloway (Dylan
O’Brien) and even then their characterizations are fairly simple at best;
Williams is the main guy trying to get back to his family, Harrell is the wise
veteran, Donald Vidrine is treated as an antagonist in the whole ordeal, etc. But
overall this film actually does do a decent enough job when it comes to setting
up the whole incident from their perspective. Because the film does take a
considerable amount of time setting things up before the rig explosion, we as
an audience are allowed to connect with Williams, Fleytas, Harrell, and their
fellow crew-members. This is particularly evident by the cast’s solid
camaraderie as well as the final moments of the film. I’m not spoiling anything
when I say that if you’re familiar with this incident, you probably already
know that the primary crew members do get rescued at the end. But the final
scene in which Williams really starts to cope with everything that he just went
through is quite powerful. In fact, I’d say that it’s one of the best bits of
acting that Mark Wahlberg has ever done.
Well it seems as if Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg have become
quite the team when it comes to doing films based around real-life heroes. This
was the case with Lone Survivor, I
bet it will be the case with Patriots Day,
and it’s definitely the case with Deepwater
Horizon. The primary similarity between this and Lone Survivor is that both films are quite intense in regards to
the incidents that they depict. Sure pretty much all of the action in this film
occurs in the second half but when it does, boy is it intense. If anything,
Peter Berg definitely succeeds in terms of creating a truly visceral thriller. And
while the film does focus more on the intense action than it does with its
characters, just like Lone Survivor, at
the very least it still does a pretty solid job at allowing us to connect with
the workers on the oil rig, even if it’s mostly just centered around a select
few crew members. But like Lone Survivor,
it does end by respectfully paying tribute to those who lost their lives during
the incident. Now if you’re going into this expecting to see anything in
regards to what happened afterwards, whether it’s how BP ended up getting
charged on 11 counts of manslaughter as a result of their ‘gross negligence’ or
the effects that the subsequent oil spill had on the environment, prepare to be
disappointed because you won’t find any of that here. However, as far as being
an intense and visceral action thriller is concerned, the film definitely
succeeds in that regard.
Rating: 4/5
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