Deepwater Horizon

DEEPWATER HORIZON (15)

D: Peter Berg

Lionsgate/Summit/Participant Media (Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, Stephen Levinson, David Womack & Mark Wahlberg)

USA 🇺🇸 2016

107 mins

Thriller/Adventure/Biopic

W: Matthew Michael Carnahan & Matthew Sand

DP: Enrique Chediak

Ed: Colby Parker, Jr. & Gabriel Fleming

Mus: Steve Jablonsky

Mark Wahlberg (Mike Williams), Kurt Russell (Jimmy Harrell), John Malkovich (Donald Vidrine), Gina Rodriguez (Andrea Fleytas), Kate Hudson (Felicia Williams), Ethan Suplee (Jason Anderson)

Based on true events leading up to the catastrophic fire on the free-floating Deepwater Horizon oil rig, due south of the Louisiana coastline, which, in 2010, was responsible for the worst oil spill in US history.

The film does tend to dramatise certain events, following two of the high ranking staff members in the build up to the disaster, where safety precautions were ignored at the insistence of BP oil company bureaucrats who were eager for the financially disastrous vessel to start churning out profits.

Though Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell offer good performances as the two leads, not enough attention is paid to those who lost their lives during the tragic event, and only given tribute during the closing credits.

Technically, there are some excellent achievements, especially with the Oscar-nominated visual effects, but the film as a whole feels like the usual Hollywood treatment of an incredibly serious subject.

7/10