Review of Deepwater Horizon (2016) by Bruce E — 05 Oct 2016

Unflinching and an uncomfortable watch, this is still well worth going to see on a big screen.

It starts off slowly, building up the characters, letting you get to know them. It's carefully and sympathetically done, as you would expect. This follows the typical disaster movie formula.

Once the action starts it feels real, not because it's based on a true story, but because of the direction. When it all goes wrong you get the traditional wide shots, but the majority is shot in close with whichever character the film is following at the time. You can almost feel the shrapnel as it flies towards the main characters and/or connects. This isn't a, 'Day after tomorrow' where you can enjoy seeing the Statue of Liberty being swamped. It is based on a true story, and a relatively recent one at that. At the same time as I was enjoying it, there was another part of me that was very aware this only happened 6 years ago.

When you expect the credits at the end of the film, there's a short tribute to those that died, just as a final reminder that this isn't simply a CGI-fest.

It's not a film I'm likely to go and see again, but I am glad I took the time to watch it.