Pulse pounding oil rig drama plays loose with true story

‘Deepwater Horizon’ washes over the environment impact of the oil spill

production that centres around the victims of the giant oil rig explosion. Still, the calamity is the biggest selling point of “Deepwater Horizon’’ and prominently featured on its posters.

But it’s also a true story that happened only six years ago, leaving an environmental disaster off the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and injured hundreds more.

Those wounds are still healing and Berg says time hasn’t made it easier to talk with former BP employees.

“BP paid these giant settlements and had gag orders,’’ he said during the recent Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie was screened.

“(Survivors and their families) had all taken millions of dollars and literally weren’t allowed to talk.’’

At least two workers depicted in the film — offshore installation manager Jimmy Harrell, played by Kurt Russell, and rig monitor Andrea Fleytas, portrayed by Gina Rodriguez — were silenced through their legal settlements, Berg says.

Instead the filmmakers used a screenplay based partly on a New York Times article that spoke with survivors of the April 20, 2010, rig explosion and used creative interpretation to fill in the blanks.

To keep the film steeped in reality, the production crew constructed what the studio believes is one of the largest practical sets in film history. The Deepwater Horizon was built at 85 per cent scale of the original rig inside a water tank at the abandoned Six Flags amusement park in Louisiana.

``We kept saying we’re not trying to make an anti-oil movie or a pro-oil movie,’’ said producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who has overseen the Transformers and G.I. Joe film franchises.

“We were just trying to record the events that went on that day.’’

But sticking to the facts didn’t always happen on the production.

While “Deepwater Horizon’’ spends a generous amount of time explaining the dangers of offshore drilling, it also washes over the environmental impact of the oil spill, using a single scene of birds plummeting to the ground to symbolize the ripple effects of the leak on the outside world.

Most of the typical characteristics of a Hollywood disaster movie motivate the premise, including Wahlberg as Mike Williams, who’s framed as the heroic engineer trying to escape the burning wreck.

John Malkovich plays one of his most villainous roles as BP executive Donald Vidrine, who comes across as a profit-hungry leader with minimal concern for safety. Manslaughter charges against the real-life Vidrine were dropped by federal prosecutors, who accused him and fellow supervisor Robert Kaluza of botching a crucial safety test before the explosion.

Vidrine pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour pollution charge and was sentenced to 10 months of probation. A jury acquitted Kaluza.

Rig workers are portrayed as being pushed to the limit, though the film spends little time acknowledging their responsibility in the incident.

“Deepwater Horizon’’ also ignores that BP pled guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter and paid a US$4-billion fine.