Deepwater Horizon (October 2016)

Official Australian release date: 6/10/16. Viewed: 3/10/16.

Director: Peter Berg

Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez

Genre: Action / Drama

Rating: M

‘Deepwater Horizon’ (already sounds like an ominous novel!) is a disaster film about the BP oil rig off Louisiana, in the Gulf of Mexico, that blew up in 2010 and caused the largest oil spill in US history (800 million litres). Mike (Wahlberg) is the Chief Electronics Technician on the floating rig and they set-up his home life (Hudson is his wife and gets a few token scenes), as well as Andrea (Rodriguez), the helmsman. When they get to the rig, the Transocean rig workers – Jimmy (Russell) is the boss – are clearly distinguished from the BP visitors/owners, including Vidrine (Malkovich).

The film is intentionally overt in painting BP as careless, profiteering “sons of bitches” and almost the sole cause of the disaster, which is probably not 100% accurate, but can’t be too far off. Great line from Mike: “Hope is not a strategy”. After 40min of setting the scene – with the set apparently one of the biggest ever built –  the action begins and the pace doesn’t slow at all after. There’s some great underwater shots and the issues with pressure are explained well enough. The last hour is a hectic and tense amalgamation of explosions, gushing oil, people getting thrown around by explosions and Mike and Jimmy trying to evacuate everyone off the rig.

This is Berg and Wahlberg’s second film – after the great ‘Lone Survivor’ – and it’s a well-made disaster film, with no dead air, not too much posturing, a likeable lead in Wahlberg, builds tension well and then has some awesome shots of the rig burning and exploding. Nice memorial at the end.

Overall: Very solid action/disaster flick.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.