Review of Deepwater Horizon (2016) by K Nife C — 10 Oct 2016

Here is a film that I was almost sure that I would hate when I saw the trailer. The down to earth dad (Marky Mark) and his impossibly hot wife (Kate Hudson) flirt complacently. Everyone blatantly uses social media in high-security environments.

The cute kid loves her daddy and wants a fossil. THEN EVERYTHING EXPLODES! All of this happens, but, for once, these hackneyed emotional ploys are lent credibility by the reality, story, and performances.

This cast was nearly perfect. Kurt Russel, Gina Rodriguez, and Wahlberg are great, but John Malkovich, who I usually can't stand in anything but "Being John Malkovich", is terrific. He plays a sniveling, stubborn British Petroleum liaison who could easily be a representative scapegoat for the oil spill.

In fact, all of the BP executives are made out to be fat, self-assured, greedy morons who deserved to be shamed and reviled for their negligence and cowardice. A lot of people like to see revenge in their action films.

Most of the time, vengeance is hardly earned in films because of morally relativistic and sadistic undercurrents in the characters' ids. In "Deepwater Horizon", you feel nothing but pain for those lost in the disaster, and nothing but disgust for the corporate leeches that allowed it to happen.

There is no relativism here, and there shouldn't be. The largest oil spill in American history should be a muckraking spear in the petroleum industry's side. Plus, I could have sworn the score was by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, but, believe it or not, it was Steve Jablonsky.