![]() ![]() And even as the film provokes outrage at the sloppiness and corner-cutting of the oil company functionaries, it also induces a sense of awe. Jimmy) clearly know what they’re talking about, the viewer absorbs some of their confidence, and gains at least a rudimentary insight into how this enormous, complex piece of machinery works. Since Williams, Fleytas and Harrell (known to all as Mr. Berg - working from a script, by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Matthew Sand, based on an article in The New York Times - creates an effective illusion of knowledge. Once he choppers out to the Horizon, where he works as an electronics technician, we stay on board for the duration, and we come to know the corridors and chambers of the rig intimately. We start the day at home with Williams and his wife (Kate Hudson) and daughter. The film itself is as much a feat of engineering as a work of art, an efficient machine for delivering intricate data and blunt emotions. The accident that results - a horrific sequence of jolts, explosions and murderous jets of mud, seawater and oil - occupies most of “Deepwater Horizon,” which stakes its credibility on close attention to detail. ![]() Can the rig be stabilized? Can the damage be contained? Can as many people as possible be rescued? They are disciplined, clearsighted professionals, and the pressing issues they face are not moral, political or philosophical, but practical. The three main good guys in “Deepwater Horizon” - Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg), Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez) and Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) - are cut from similar cloth. His heroes (the football coach in “Friday Night Lights,” the counterterrorism agents in “The Kingdom,” the soldiers in “Lone Survivor”) are unsentimental troubleshooters dealing with unpredictable problems in less than ideal circumstances. At his best - or let’s just say in everything except “Battleship” - he combines blockbuster-flavored effects with fine-grained, sinewy naturalism. As a director, he favors speed, impact, clipped dialogue and specialized technical information. There are no big speeches or rhetorical flourishes. The anger and grief you feel leaving the theater constitute a kind of catharsis, a modest symbolic compensation for the failure of justice in the real world. Like “The Big Short,” this film, directed by Peter Berg, dramatizes a broadly familiar story and stands as a work of popular narrative for an age of corporate impunity. It’s also a true-crime story, the highly detailed procedural chronicle of how, on April 20, 2010, 11 people were killed and a vast marine ecosystem was despoiled because of negligence and greed. “Deepwater Horizon” is a swift and suspenseful action movie, full of noise, peril, muck and fire. ![]()
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