Deepwater Horizon came out in theaters September 30. Without much lead into the plot by previews, there wasn't much to go off of. That being said, the movie was based on the oil drilling rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 so an inviting plot for previews wasn't exactly necessary.
Mark Wahlberg plays the main character of Mike Williams. To say he adds the perfect amount of humor into the film would be an understatement. Wahlberg is able to show his characters' contrasting personalities when he's with his family to dealing with corrupted businessmen.
What I personally liked most about the film was how it humanized the crew. Looking back at the explosion and the oil leak into the Gulf, I only remember the millions of tons of oil leaking into the ocean and the damage it left. I honestly couldn't recall anything about deaths from members on the oil rig. But that's exactly what the film focuses on. It portrays the lives of the members on board the rig and how the explosion was devastating to the whole crew.
The movie keeps up the suspense throughout. There were definitely unexpected turns and at times I hardly felt like I was sitting in a theater but rather in the action myself. The film ultimately displayed the life that oil drillers face and how their life is on the rig. It's a job that takes time out of your life from your home and family and it's also a dangerous one. As the movie showed, a lot can go wrong.
Going into the theater I didn't know what to expect, considering I didn't even know much about oil rigs. All I actually knew was that it would end up exploding. But the film used enough jargon so I knew what was happening, but also played to a generic audience so I could figure out what was going wrong. That being said, I had no idea the extent of the damage that happened on board the rig and how or why it exploded in the first place. If anything the movie was like a history lesson and helped me understand what went wrong.
I'd say that it undoubtedly exposed the actions of the BP businessmen. I was unaware of their role in the explosion and the film truly separates the crew from those businessmen.
Toward the end of the movie, we see the devastating toll the explosion took on the crew. There's a scene when Jimmy Harrell, played by Kurt Russell, calls roll of the crew to make it known whether they lived or survived. One of the first names on the list was called and only silence followed. It went without saying that they had lost a crew member, and ten more followed.
The film hit all aspects I believe a drama entails; action, suspense, romance, humor, sorrow, and elation. But more than anything it stayed true to the events of April 20, 2010, and didn't sway too far off track from what the movie was solely about.
The only thing I would've liked to see was what happened after the oil rig exploded regarding the Gulf, but in that sense, you can always look to online news articles for that.
