Patriots Day (2016) review

Since 2013, director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg have become one of the film industry’s most notable actor-director duos thanks to the three films that they’ve worked on together up to this point. The primary common factor in these films is that all of them have been based on true stories in which real-life heroes found themselves coping with tragic and often life-threatening scenarios. Their first collaboration was 2013’s Lone Survivor, the true story of the 2005 joint military operation known as Operation Red Wings, where Navy SEALS found themselves stuck in enemy territory after the operation went south. And just a few months ago, we saw their second team-up in the form of Deepwater Horizon. That film focused on the 2010 explosion and subsequent oil spill (though, admittedly, it focused more on the former) that occurred on the BP-owned rig of the same name. For their third ‘true story’ team-up, and their second of 2016, Berg and Wahlberg tackle an event that is forever stuck in the minds of New Englanders like myself; the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Patriots Day, which of course takes its name from the day on which the Marathon takes place, tells the true story of the day when brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonated two bombs near the Boston Marathon finish line and the following four days in which the city of Boston embarked on a manhunt to bring the two bombers to justice. As you might have already guessed, this film is an emotional heavy-hitter, especially if you come into it as a New England native. But, at the same time, it’s also a film that very much succeeds in terms of highlighting the heroism of those who were involved in the manhunt and the sense of unity that came in the wake of a dark day in U.S. history.

April 15^th, 2013 was a day that started out like any other day. More specifically, it was the day of the 117^th running of the Boston Marathon, the most popular sporting event in the New England area occurring, as always, on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday of April in the state of Massachusetts. But, at 2:49 PM, this day of celebration ended up turning into a tragic one when brothers Dzhokhar (Alex Wolff) and Tamerlan (Themo Melikidze) Tsarnaev detonated two pressure cooker bombs near the finish line on Boylston Street. Three people are killed and several others (around 264, per an official estimate) are injured in the blasts. Amidst all the chaos, FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) is brought in to supervise the investigation of this terrorist attack alongside Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman). During this time, Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg, playing a ‘composite’ character), who was working the security detail at the finish line when the attack occurred, also helps with the investigation. And once the FBI manages to identify the two brothers, they soon find themselves in a race against time to capture the two before they can leave the city and escape to New York, where they plan on committing another attack. And thus, all over the city, an intensive manhunt is spawned; one that is hellbent on bringing the Tsarnaevs to justice.

While director Peter Berg is primarily known for directing action films, Patriots Day is thankfully not just ‘an action film’. Really, the only major ‘action sequence’ in the entire film is the scene where the Tsarnaev brothers engage police officers on a suburban street in Watertown, Massachusetts. The rest of the film is focused solely on the manhunt for the two and Berg establishes a great amount of suspense throughout, even though most of us already know how it all plays out. From the build-up leading to the attack to the scene where a young student named Dun Meng (Jimmy O. Yang) gets carjacked by the Tsarnaevs and is forced to ride along with them as they try and get out of the city, you’re genuinely left on the edge of your seat throughout, something that is very much a recurring element of these Berg-Wahlberg films. At the same time, Berg is also sure to be highly respectful of those who ended up as victims of the bombings. Just like what he did with Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon, the film starts out by setting up some of the main players prior to the incident (e.g. couple Jessica Kensky (Rachel Brosnahan) and Patrick Downes (Christopher O’Shea), who both lost a leg from the bombings and were initially placed in separate hospitals). Moments like these are simple but effective bits of character development that do just enough to fully endear us to these people before the big tragedy occurs. And, of course, with that in mind, this film is chock-full of emotional moments. There are gut-wrenching moments where characters break down due to what they just went through. And then there are heartwarming moments where characters reunite with each other after being separated during the bombings. In other words, it’s pretty much guaranteed that there aren’t going to be any dry eyes around when watching this.

As I noted earlier when I went through the plot synopsis, Mark Wahlberg’s character in this film is technically fictional, which is a first for his series of collaborations with Peter Berg after playing Marcus Luttrell in Lone Survivor and Mike Williams in Deepwater Horizon. The filmmakers have made it clear that Tommy Saunders is not a real person. Instead, he is an amalgamation of various police officers who were involved in the manhunt for the Tsarnaevs. Doing so allowed the filmmakers to highlight the heroism of all these officers without focusing directly on just one or two of them. Sure, maybe it does get a bit too darn coincidental that Saunders ends up being around for ‘every’ major incident during these four days but, for the most part, this was a respectable move and Wahlberg does do an excellent job in the role, very much fitting considering that he is a New England native. His collaborations with Berg have easily resulted in some of the best performances of his career and this film is no exception. As for the film’s equally great supporting cast, most of them primarily appear in bit roles throughout, including J.K. Simmons as Sgt. Jeffrey Pugilese, Watertown’s local police Sergeant who tackled Tamerlan Tsarnaev during the Watertown shootout, and Michelle Monaghan as Saunders’ wife Carol who, obviously given the scenario with Wahlberg’s role, is also a fictional character. Aside from Wahlberg, the two other ‘main characters’ in the film are Richard DesLauriers and Ed Davis, the primary two people who were overseeing the investigation. Both Kevin Bacon and John Goodman do stellar jobs in their respective roles and work off each other incredibly well, like in the scene where the two are arguing over the decision to publicly release the identities of the bombers when they learn that Fox News is about to do so first.

One of the key things to note about Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg’s three ‘true story’ films is that all of them are intense in some way. Lone Survivor was a war film that featured some particularly brutal action sequences. Deepwater Horizon, while rated PG-13, pushed its rating quite a bit with its intense scenes of destruction. And as for Patriots Day, well, you could tell where its intensity comes from. Obviously, this is not an easy watch, especially if you’re like me and you come from New England. But, through it all, Berg handles the story gracefully, highlighting the true heroism of those who worked countless hours to bring the marathon bombers to justice. And keep in mind, Berg is not a native New Englander. It really goes to show that one of his greatest strengths as a director is that whenever he does a ‘true story’ of this nature, he always handles it with class, so to that, on behalf of my fellow New Englanders, I salute you, Mr. Berg, for your terrific handling of this story. And in this case, it also helps that he has Mark Wahlberg, who is a native of the area, to work with. While Wahlberg is technically playing a ‘fictional’ character, he still does a great job in the role, especially when it comes to encompassing the heroism of all those who were involved in the manhunt that he is representing through this character. So, in conclusion, while my viewing of the film was partially hindered by some of the worst examples of ‘annoying filmgoers’ that I’ve ever endured (I’ll explain more in an upcoming post), Patriots Day is another success for the team of Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg. It’s an emotional and powerful film that runs the full gamut of emotions that you’ll be feeling while watching it. From the dread of waiting for the bombs to go off to the horror of their devastation to the determination of the entire city to bring the Tsarnaevs to justice and finally the satisfaction of seeing Dzhokhar captured after the city-wide lockdown, this film is the very definition of the term ‘emotional roller-coaster’.

Rating: 5/5!

Deepwater Horizon (2016) review (450th Post!)

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 20^th, 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 20^th, 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

Lone Survivor (2013) SHORT REVIEW

In late June of 2005, in the midst of the war in Afghanistan, the United States Navy SEALs began ‘Operation Red Wings’ in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan. Their goal was to capture and kill Ahmad Shah, the leader of a group of fighters in the area who had pledged his allegiance to the Taliban. Four Navy SEALs were sent in to carry out this mission, but by the time the operation had ended only one of them, Marcus Luttrell, came back alive while the other three members of his squad, along with 8 other SEALs and 8 members of the 160^th Special Operations Aviation Regiment lost their lives. Their story was initially told in a 2007 book, ‘Lone Survivor’, which was written by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robertson. In 2013, that story was translated to film by director Peter Berg under the same name.

The film itself is very intense, right from the moment the SEALs are first attacked by Shah’s men. Two scenes where they fall down hills are especially brutal. But at the same time, the film benefits from the fact that everyone involved in the production clearly had the upmost respect for those who had lost their lives that day. This is easily one of Peter Berg’s best directorial efforts and Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, and Ben Foster all do terrific jobs in the four lead roles. Their camaraderie is exceptional and you really see how they are like ‘a brotherhood’. Now, if I do have one complaint, it is that I feel like there could have been a few more scenes between the four men so that their characters could develop more. And for the record, I’m not referring to the actual four men and the performances of the cast. I’m just saying that the action does takes up the bulk of the film and I wish that there could’ve been just a few more moments amongst the characters so we could get to know them more. Again, this is just from a film perspective, not in regards to the actual events that took place during the Operation and the men who did lose their lives during it. Even with that in mind, ‘Lone Survivor’ is a very well-made war film.

Rating: 4.5/5