Movie Review—Deepwater Horizon

by Peter J. O'Connell                                                                                                                                                    

Deepwater Horizon. Released: Sept. 2016. Runtime: 107 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for prolonged intense disaster sequences and related disturbing images, and brief strong language. 

Near the beginning of Deepwater Horizon, a seabird flies into the rotor of a helicopter. Luckily, the copter survives the encounter; the bird doesn't. This incident can be seen as both a foreshadowing and a salute. The copter is taking workers to the huge Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana. This fact-based movie will depict the disaster that destroyed the rig, killed 11 workers and caused months of ecological devastation over a wide area. That is what is foreshadowed. 

The salute may be to Sully, a film playing in many of the same multiplexes as Deepwater Horizon. Both films deal with how seasoned professionals showed better judgment than corporate or bureaucratic “elites.” Sully depicts how a looming disaster caused by birds flying into an airplane's engines was averted and how second-guessing by bureaucrats was refuted. Deepwater Horizon shows how the advice of working professionals was ignored, with catastrophic results.

The working professionals aboard that helicopter headed for the Deepwater Horizon are crew chief Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell), a weathered veteran of many rigs, and a younger man, electronics expert Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg). Once on the rig, Harrell and Williams are urged by Donald Vidrine, a “ragin' Cajun” representing British Petroleum, owner of the rig, to speed up the current drilling, which is occurring more than a mile below the surface of the Gulf, so that a new area can be tapped. Harrell and Williams advise against this but are overruled. Not long after this confrontation, the seabed, weakened by the speeded-up drilling, gives way, and a massive upshoot of oil begins—and doesn't stop.  

The oil spews all over the rig, causing catastrophic fires and explosions. The movie at this point becomes a spectacular, very convincing pyrotechnic display. The computer-generated imagery (CGI) is superb, some of the best ever created. The fine cinematography and editing add to the powerful effect.

Harrell and Williams are heroic in the midst of the holocaust, helping to save some of the 100-plus crew, though, tragically, some workers are killed. Eventually, rescuers arrive on the scene, but the ecological disaster has begun—as symbolized by, again, a seabird, an oil-covered pelican that goes berserk on the rig. 

Deepwater Horizon is an exciting and moving tribute to the “everyday heroes” who do the hard work that keeps the economy going—despite dangers that may be involved, especially when greed, arrogance and ignorance rule instead of experience. The heroes of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy are excellently embodied by Wahlberg and, especially, Russell. Malkovich is effective in his role, but it is the kind of role familiar to him from other films. Peter Berg's direction deserves a salute for his equally effective handling of both the dramatic and spectacle scenes.