Film Review: "Deepwater Horizon" (2016).

"When faced with our darkest hour, hope is not a tactic." This is Deepwater Horizon. This biographical disaster film directed by Peter Berg, written by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Matthew Sand, and The New York Times article Deepwater Horizon's Final Hours by David Barstow, David Rohde, and Stephanie Saul. On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, igniting a massive fireball that kills several crew members. Chief electronics technician Mike Williams and his colleagues find themselves fighting for survival as the heat and the flames become stifling and overwhelming. Banding together, the co-workers must use their wits to make it out alive amid all the chaos.

In early March 2011, it was announced that Summit Entertainment, Participant Media, and Image Nation had acquired the film rights to The New York Times' article published on December 25, 2010, about the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill. Sand was set to pen the script, while Lorenzo di Bonaventura was in talks to produce the film under his Di Bonaventura Pictures banner. In late July 2012, Ric Roman Waugh was in talks with the studios to direct the film. However, in early July 2014, it was announced that J. C. Chandor had been hired to direct the film, with Carnahan hired for a rewrite. In late January 2015, it was reported that Berg had replaced Chandor. Chandor exited due to creative differences. A large majority of the oilfield workers in the Gulf of Mexico were against the making of the film, because they felt that it could dishonour the men who died during the actual event. However, Mike Williams (one of the survivors) was all in for the film, and worked on it with the crew, along with another survivor of the event. He felt it was a good way of showing people the circumstances that the crew members went through, and that the goal of the film crew was to make it look as real as possible. By late April, Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O'Brien, Kate Hudson, and Ethan Suplee were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place throughout Louisiana. An oil rig was built just for this film, this rig is located in Chalmette, Louisiana where filming mostly took place. Berg claimed it was one of the largest practical sets ever built.

The film stars Wahlberg, Russell, Malkovich, Rodriguez, O'Brien, Hudson, and Suplee. Surprisingly, what makes this story hit home is the acting. The cast bring a quiet realism to their roles-the less they think of themselves as heroes, the more we do.

A true account of the drilling rig disaster off the Gulf of Mexico and survival, Deepwater Horizon wields enough visceral power to mitigate its heavy-handed jingoism. The film never makes a grand statement about whether or not the drilling rig disaster is, per se, a mistake, but it does portray the disaster itself as a disgusting folly.

Simon says Deepwater Horizon receives:

Also, see my review for Lone Survivor.