Director: Peter Berg
Screenplay: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Matthew Sand
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Gina Rodriguez
Genre: disaster, action / adventure
Country: USA
Here
in San Antonio, gas prices are $2 a gallon. Life is good. The world
may be going to hell in a deplorable hand-basket, but if gas is
cheap, life is good.
Gasoline
is like pork chops. When you buy pork chops at the grocery store, you
never fully imagine the horrors the unfortunate Porky Pig went
through before ending up in a frying pan.
It's
the same with gasoline. Gas just magically appeasers at the gas
pump. Pop in the nozzle. Fill it up. Go inside the 7-Eleven, grab a
bag of spicy Cheetos, a handful of Slim Jim's, a Big Gulp, swipe your
credit card. Presto! You're ready for San Antonio traffic jams and a
two hour commute home.
But,
of course, the process of drilling for oil is a complicated, enormous
undertaking fraught with life-threatening perils. The story of the hard-working people
who labor on off-shore oil rigs, so we can fill up our SUV's, is
brought to explosive, flaming life in Deepwater Horizon.
On April 20, 2011,
the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, located in the Gulf of Mexico,
exploded killing eleven workers. The resulting oil spill was the
largest in history. The US government estimated that 210 million
gallons of oil spewed into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico causing
unimaginable, wide-spread devastation to the environment, wetlands,
beaches and wildlife. After 87 days of continuous oil discharge, the
well was reportedly sealed.
Deepwater
Horizon is Hollywood's latest
offspring from it's very successful pedigree of “disaster” films.
The disaster film formula is simple. Take a disaster, any disaster:
earthquake, flood, volcano eruption, fire, the Trump presidential
campaign. Toss in an ensemble cast of character actors along with
spectacular special effects, stir for a couple of hours and viola;
instant summer blockbuster!
As
a disaster film, there's much to like about Deepwater
Horizon.
You can't argue with
the cast headed by veteran action / adventure stars Mark Wahlberg
and Kurt Russell. Wahlberg, as Mike Williams, gives another
steady, believable performance as a blue-color “everyman” who
finds himself becoming a hero in a horrific situation.
Kurt Russell. Well,
Kurt Russell is, and will always be in my mind, Snake Plisken. 'nuff
said. Russell is one of those rare Hollywood actors who has
successfully made the rite-pf-passage from child actor in Disney
movies to adult roles in every conceivable genre. Now, Russell is
transitioning nicely into more mature roles. The guy can do it all
and has proven it over a long career.
As a contributor to
Latin Heat Entertainment,
I was hoping to write more about Gina
Rodriguez' role as
Andrea, the oil rig control center operator. The Hollywood
Reporter named Rodriguez “the
next big thing” and one of the top “35 Latinas under the age of
35.” She's received kudos for her performances in the CW's
Jane the Virgin, and
her star turn in the indie film,
Filly Brown. Rodriguez
breathes grit and heart into her supporting role in Deepwater
Horizon. Certainly,
we'll be seeing a lot more of Gina Rodriguez in larger parts in
feature films.
In
the opening scene of Deepwater
Horizon, director
Peter Berg builds the suspense gradually with a warm, loving sequence
of domestic interplay between Mike, his wife and daughter. But Berg
sets off the ticking time mob when Mike arrives on the job and
senses that things are not quite right.
Like
many disaster films (The
Poseidon Adventure,
The Towering Inferno,
and Titanic),
the plot fuse is lit because of cost-cutting measures or reckless
disregard for safety in order to maximize profits; actions that
invariable result in tragic consequences.
The
fiery destruction scenes in Deepwater
Horizon are
well-staged, riveting, thrilling, laced with authentic humanity,
bravery and grace under fire and yes...explosive!
Deepwater
Horizon could
have easily worked as a horror film. Who can forget those sickening,
nightly underwater images of gigantic, billowing clouds of oil
endlessly gushing out into the sea? Who can forget the gut-wrenching
newsreel footage of dead dolphins floating in the water and
oil-soaked sea birds on the gulf shores? And who can forget British
Petroleum (BP), the greedy, corporate, "mad scientists" who created
this monster?
Ironically,
it's science fiction and monster movies that often serve as
cautionary tales of human excess and hubris. Films like Invasion
of the Body
Snatchers, The
Day the Earth Stood Still
and Planet of
the Apes
are fanciful yarns wrapped up inside a morality fable that often left us
with uneasy, unanswered questions. Remember how many of those old,
great science fiction flicks ended with: THE END?
Deepwater
Horizon points
an accusatory finger at BP, but chooses not to prosecute the case
directly. It was a creative and economic choice. Message films tend
to flop at the box office.
But
Deepwater
Horizon succeeds
as a story of personal heroism, courage and the triumph over
adversity in the face of a calamity of epic proportions. It's a
compelling and contemporary story given the current debate this
country is having over “drill, baby drill” and the quest for
clean energy.
However, it must be
noted that since that catastrophic 2011 event, many new
off-shore oil drilling platforms are being planned to operate in the
Gulf of Mexico. Despite the Deepwater Horizon oil well being
officially listed as dead and sealed, oil continues to leak into the
Gulf. THE END?
