Deep Respect
Fitting tribute to the heroes of rig tragedy
DEEPWATER HORIZON (12A) ELEVEN workers died in the Deepwater Horizon rig fire in 2010.
In his bracingly realistic movie, director Peter Berg lays the blame firmly at BP’s door.
The first half of this furious disaster flick covers, in meticulous detail, the 12 hours before the tragedy.
It was the world’s biggest rig, perched above the world’s deepest hole in the Gulf of Mexico.
But the enormity of the task doesn’t seem to have dawned on the managers at BP.
When engineer Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg), technician Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez) and ops manager Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) return to the rig after a break, the safety team are already on their way out. To Jimmy’s horror, they’ve been allowed to knock off early. The rig is 40 days behind schedule and this is one corner John Malkovich’s oily exec is happy to cut.
Jimmy immediately orders a shutdown while his crew begin tests. Unless you’re an engineer, you won’t understand a tenth of what follows, but watching technicians bicker over pressure gauges is still deeply unsettling.
Unlike them, we know what’s coming. Apart from shots of something bubbling beneath the surface, Berg resists the melodrama. Even Williams’s Skype chats with his wife (Kate Hudson) have an edge of authenticity.
So when the whole things blows, it feels horribly real. Berg shoots the explosion like a documentary, knocking us sideways with quick cuts and dizzying footage from hand-held cameras.
Like the workers, we’re never sure where the flames are coming from or what is coming next.
But it doesn’t take long for the heroes to emerge. Wahlberg and Russell sound like obvious casting but are utterly convincing as men of iron. Wahlberg knows not to overplay it and in one scene Russell’s Jimmy is cleary terrified as he is hit by debris.
These aren’t superheroes, just ordinary men who stand firm in the face of almost unimaginable horror.