Review of Deepwater Horizon (2016) by Whatithink33 — 11 May 2017

This movie correctly doesn't shy away from technical issues and the unknowns of imperfect data. The first 15 minutes of the movie I was worried that it was going to dumb it all down too much. Then it seemed like in the next 15 minutes it would get too technical (I was watching on DVD and needed the subtitles as some of the tech talk was hard to hear).

But in conclusion I think the movie struck a good balance. The movie has a great industrial feel to it - the pressure inside the pipes, the power of the engines and hydraulics, the powers of nature they are trying to control, the mass of complexity and steel that is the drill rig and the interconnection of the workers to the rig, the very scale of the drill rig and the challenge or audacity of this undertaking.

This is a factory type setting where things can go wrong and safety rules are there for a reason. But the rig and those jobs exists for a reason and that is produce oil. The cast is good and you appreciate the conflicting pressures that motivate the characters.

It feels real. Once the action starts the movie is riveting. Whatever tricks they used to create the scenes of the disaster, they did a great job. You won't know whether to hunker down, follow company safety procedures, or run for your life, but you feel the danger.

Also, at the start of the movie there are a couple of very understated scenes of people fueling up vehicles - a nice touch - we take the availability of fuel for granted, this film shows the effort it takes to get it.