Peter Berg's Deepwater Horizon

In Deepwater Horizon we have a film that checks off all the boxes in preparing us for the inevitable shock and awe that almost literally explodes across the big screen. We have likable characters, unquestionable heroism, people trying to do their jobs, out-of-touch corporate executives who have no idea what they are doing, and a story that does BP Oil & Gas no favors.

In documenting the horrors of what took place on the evening of April 20, 2010, more than 40 miles off of the Louisiana Coast, director Peter Berg paints a picture of good, loyal workers caught in the crosshairs of bureaucracy, corporate meddling, and ultimately victims to an oil rig explosion which resulted in the deaths of 11 crew members and led to the largest oil spill and
environmental catastrophe in American history.

Berg has moved into something of a storyteller of recent American history with Mark Wahlberg as his orator. The two collaborated on the story of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's incredible survival in a fire fight with the Taliban in 2013's Lone Survivor and will team again in December 2016 for Patriots Day, a cinematic re-telling of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and ensuing apprehension of the assailants.

Here, Wahlberg is Mike Wallace, an oil rig foreman for boat owners Transocean, who is sent out to the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible drilling ship to help get a badly mismanaged and wildly over-budget drilling operation back on track. At 43 days behind schedule and with next to no output to show for their efforts, BP executives also come on board to investigate and make decisions on whether it is time to pick up and move elsewhere or keep digging in the Machado Well, reportedly home to a treasure chest of oil in the bottom of the ocean.

Wallace, undeterred, warms to the idea of working alongside Mr. Jimmy (Kurt Russell), his boss with Transocean who is, ironically, feted with a safety award the day of the explosion from BP brass for his compliance and impeccable service through the years. Jimmy recognizes right away that the executives have no interest in fixing countless problems with the ship, and takes special issue with Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich), a cajun-seasoned snake of a man that the actor plays so animated and over-the-top, he becomes distracting.
Essentially, Berg doesn't hide the fact that bad is coming - even for those who might be heading into the film blind and unaware of just what is unleashed in the film's second half. Wallace has a loving wife (Kate Hudson), a daughter he never gets enough time with (Stella Allen), and Matthew James Carnahan and Matthew Sand's screenplay make very clear what a great personal sacrifice these men and women make for their jobs.

And having out-of-shape, arrogant, oil executives worrying far more about profit and loss statements than whether or not the computer systems work properly, toilets are working properly, and countless other ship maladies left unfixed, only heightens our anxieties and frustrations as we brace for what is yet to come.

This is Storytelling 101. We get to know everyone just good enough to watch them work through unfathomable confusion, chaos, and tragedy. Berg's desire in keeping this simple and to the point only makes for a better film. What emerges from the fire, explosions, and glass-covered bodies, amidst some brutal injuries, cloaked in PG-13 safety wrap for as wide an audience as possible, is the spectacle of how numerous individuals came together to save lives.

In the New York Times reporting which Carnahan and Sand utilized to write their screenplay, workers indicated that they were faced with an "insurmountable situation." So much oil had leaked through the pipes and tubing and a fine mist of gas had began infiltrating areas of the ship that when the explosion took place, the fire surged up the derrick and exploded in a massive ball of flames.
And from there, as Berg and his remarkable visual effects and sound design team show us, the ship was no match for the pressure that had been building up, as lights, infrastructure, equipment, and the very ship itself could not harbor any safe zones for anyone on
board.

In all honesty, the second half of the film is relentlessly intense, if not exhausting to sit through.
Spectacle takes over substance and the film's biggest failure may simply be that we are left to observe the situation and are never invested enough with the characters to make any tangible personal connections. Think Titanic-level destruction and chaos, but no Jack or Rose for us to care about.
The exceptional technical, below-the-line mastery of Deepwater Horizon should find itself in the conversation for sound and visual effects awards come Oscar season. And while Berg may trot out the "Here are some nice people, now watch them suffer" motif for us to ponder and consider, the film never wants to be too much more than what it is: a celebration of American heroism in the face of a tragedy.
And we can (and probably should) chuckle when Berg crowbars in images of the American flag more than a half a dozen times against a backdrop of fire and despair. And he, Carnahan, and Sand seem to downplay the significant and unconscionable impact this tragedy had to the environment, opting instead to make us boo and hiss at some oil executive caricatures. And while we get to see some of these some bosses covered in oil, with the enormity of their incompetence washing over them, BP emerges with little more than a few light bruises with Berg's
adaptation.

He should punch harder and curiously, he doesn't.

And so as Deepwater Horizon may be empty on emotion, it is nonetheless a powerful movie-watching experience. The sheer intensity alone is going to be enough for some to leave the theater and proclaim this is as one of the best movies of the year. Had Berg been brave enough to give us an emotional buy-in that matched the shock and awe displayed on screen, he might have actually delivered one.