Release date – Friday September 30th
“When faced with our darkest hour, hope is not a tactic.”
Sara was the one who sent me the trailer to Deepwater Horizon a couple of months ago, and I was immediately captivated by the trailer. It was a really well made trailer that didn’t give a lot away but left you wanting more, WHICH IS WHAT TRAILERS SHOULD BE. I find theres too many movies nowadays that show way to much in their trailers, and then the movie is just so so because they gave away too much. Deepwater Horizon was the definition of a proper trailer. But anyways, I was immediately in with this movie, as I like the director and I do enjoy Mark Wahlberg.
Deepwater Horizon is an Action, Drama, Thriller film, based on the true story of a offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which exploded during April 2010 and created the biggest and worst oil spill in U.S. history. I knew very little about this movie going in and I was glad because the movie did a good job catching me up, but I’m sure as most dramas that are based on true events are, they’re not entirely true and dramatized for the big screen.
Peter Berg is the director of Deepwater Horizon, and I don’t know what he puts in his water, but I want some. His films are always so intense and so well crafted, its easy to forget that you’re watching a movie. He’s able to create so much tension in his films that your stomach goes into knots and you’re on the edge of your seat. Deepwater Horizon is no different and in ways I thought that this was one of his most intense movies to date. His other films include The Rundown (2003), Friday Night Lights (2004), The Kingdom (2007), Battleship (2012), and Lone Survivor (2013). Its funny actually seeing his directing filmography because I had no idea he directed any other movie except Lone Survivor, shows how much I know eh? I’ve seen all his other movies I listed except Battleship so far, and I’ve enjoyed them all. But it wasn’t until Sara told me about how much she enjoyed Lone Survivor that I really paid attention to his films. I thought Lone Survivor was a good movie, I need to revisit it for sure, but its was extremely intense film, and that too starred good old Marky Mark. But Deepwater Horizon, you knew from the trailers and the event itself that something was going to happen, something was going to go wrong. But the film does such a good job giving you the necessary background information, and it did a good job building up and building up and building up to the climax. It goes a good job of allowing you to relax a bit, you’re able to take in the scenery and then things start happening that put you on the edge of your seat. It takes a true filmmaker to be able to accomplish such a feat of drawing the audiences in to a story and keeping them there, and not letting up in the films intensity, and Deepwater Horizon accomplishes that.
The film builds constantly, even when the climax happens it keeps building.
The film was written by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Matthew Sand. Carnahan has had his hand in writing The Kingdom (2007), State of Play (2009), and World War Z (2013). Sand’s only other writing credit is Ninja Assassin (2009). The script was definitely well done, it was definitely interesting and well written. There were a couple of really well written jokes and one liners, which I really didn’t expect to be in this type of movie.
The movie moved at a very good pace to keep the intensity up, but it allowed you to really admire the great cinematography that the film had to offer. The way this film was made was super realistic as well, I don’t know if it was shot on location or if it was on a designed set, but it was extremely impressive to see.
Deepwater Horizon stars a whole lot of great actors, including Mark Wahlberg as Mike Williams. His filmography consists of many great movies, but the ones that stick out to me is The Basketball Diaries (1995), Boogie Nights (1997), The Italian Job (2003), Four Brothers (2005), Invincible (2006), The Departed (2006), The Fighter (2010), The Other Guys (2010), Ted (2012), 2 Guns (2013), Lone Survivor (2013), Pain & Gain (2013), and Ted 2 (2015). It is safe to say that Wahlberg has been in a lot of different styles of movies, and he’s a great actor in anything he does, but, I think he really shines the most in his dramatic roles. He gets to really flex his acting chops, and I think he has really shined in both of Peter Berg’s films Lone Survivor (2013) and now Deepwater Horizon. This was a great role by him, he seemed to be really into the mind of the character, he was just excellent. The film also stars Kurt Russell, if you don’t know this name you really need to go watch some his older movies, he’s a legend. His other films consist of Elvis (1979), Escape From New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Big Trouble In Little China (1986), Overboard (1987), Backdraft (1991), Stargate (1994), Death Proof (2007), The Hateful Eight (2015), and Furious Seven (2015). Anything that Kurt Russell is in is great, you know you’re in for a great acting whenever his name is in the cast list. His best film still in my opinion is John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), but that movie blew my mind and is one of my favourites so I may be biased. It was great to see Russell in a good dramatic role, I thought he did a great job in this movie as well, his portrayal of Mr. Jimmy was great. Theres a whole mess of other actors in this movie that I really want to go through them all and tell you about them, but I’ll get through one more actor and move on. John Malkovich was in this movie, which I honestly didn’t know about until he showed up on screen. He’s definitely a great actor and is very versatile. His other films consist of The Killing Fields (1984), Of Mice and Men (1992), In The Line Of Fire (1993), Con Air (1997), Rounders (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), Burn After Reading (2008), Changeling (2008), RED (2010), RED 2 (2013) and Warm Bodies (2013). I think that he is great in this movie too, as to be expected, I think he can do any kind of genre of movie and I would enjoy him in it. Overall, the acting in this movie was great, I thought every character was well done and well developed. I don’t have any complaints about the acting in Deepwater Horizon thats for sure. I’ll even go as far to say that I think that Mark Wahlberg deserves a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the Oscars 2017.
The sound design of this movie was extremely well done too. It was really impressive how the sound was presented. Its hard to put into words, but it was really well designed. This movie was a feast for the ears as much as it was a spectacle for the eyes.
I thought this film really captured the event well, I went home right after to google and see what happened with the disaster on Deepwater Horizon. It seems to me that it was accurate, but I only skimmed through the wikipedia article. I would’ve liked to see a little more of the after effects of the event, like what happened with the companies in question and the lawsuit that happened. They did a very nice job giving a tribute to those 11 men who lost their lives, and told us where these other characters who survived were living, and even about the afterwards of the event. But I wanted more detail I guess, but I guess that information is available for me online. That would be my only negative to the film, just the lack of additional after effects…but I also didn’t know much about this event until I saw the movie, maybe I’m just oblivious.
Lastly, I will say that the films soundtrack was well crafted. It was ambiguous, but it was definitely there when it was needed most. It hit the strides of the movie extremely well. I have only one complaint in the soundtrack, during the climax of the film, with the high intensity, the metal chugging riff was a little out of place, I feel like they could have done a different use of music there, but other than that, it was spot on.
This movie was a roller coaster of emotions for me, I haven’t been this tied to a screen and a story since I saw Anthropoid earlier this year. There were moments where my mouth was open, there was moments where I had to hold my mouth closed to keep my mouth from falling open. I teared up a few times, my eyes went super wide at others. That to me is the sign of a good movie.
If you’re like me and don’t know what this event was really about, this movie is for you. If you just like based on true event films, this movie is also for you. If you just want a really well made thriller and drama movie, with some great moments of action and explosions, then this movie is for you.
I would give Deepwater Horizon a 4.5/5.
On a final note, I’m gonna ballpark this now. I’m going to guess that Wahlberg gets a best actor nomination, Peter Berg gets a best director nod and Deepwater Horizon gets a nomination for the 2017 Oscars. If it doesn’t in my opinion its definitely snubbed.
Until Next Time!
-Andrew