Too much technical stuff and good vs bad prevents it from being a perfect emotional ride

Rating: 6/10 (12 October 2016)

Yesterday it was time for a visit to the cinema, it's been a while. The film I saw was Deepwater Horizon, the story of the oil platform that started leaking in 2010 and caused one of the biggest oil disasters in modern time. In the film we get to follow Mike Williams, played by Mark Wahlberg. He is an electronics technician onboard the platform and leaves his daughter and wife (Kate Hudson) to go and work for 21 days. Kurt Russell is also in the film playing the manager of the platform and the top ranking employee. After what they first believed would be three normal work weeks, things take a turn of events when the platform explodes from the oil pressure.
At first I could not understand what kind of film Deepwater Horizon wanted to be. Many family emotions, friendships and relationships at the beginning and after that a very technical part begins. About 20 – 30 minutes of the film is about technical aspects of oil drilling which frankly I think goes straight by most of us. Sure It's a little exciting when they are talking about oil pressure and performs test whether to start drilling or not. BUT, the problem is that we already know that everything will go to hell. Therefore I think that when they are building drama and tension on things that really should be standard procedures onboard an oil platform, it gets a little cheap. I'm convinced that had we not known the outcome of the film, these scenes would feel strange and over exaggerated. To but it simply, they are building drama on pure trifles just because we already know the outcome. Clever and viable, but still cheap and boring.
I think it's a shame how black and white Deepwater Horizon is. It's crystal clear who's good and bad. Despite everyone being soaked in oil and mud, BP's logo is still clearly visible on the "villains" helmet. Somewhere here they touch a very sensitive subject without ever really developing it more. Who's fault was it really? Political and environmental impact? The reactions of the world? None of this is included in the film. Now I've arrived at the things that I actually think the film does really well and what could have made it even better, had it been even more focused. Somewhere in the middle of Deepwater Horizon I realized what kind of film this is and should be. A strong emotional drama. We get to know these people and their families. We follow them onboard the platform and gets affected in the same way they do. We suffer, feel their pain, their loss and eventually at the end we also also get emotional scars. This is the real strong points of the film. To take us on an emotional journey that plays out our whole register, from laughter to crying. Skip the politics, the parts too difficult to understand and the good vs bad. Show us, don't tell us. Finally I want to say that the sound in Deepwater Horizon was also one of the things that impressed me the most. So good and strong sound quality that the speakers in the theater barely could play it. Thumbs up for that.
David Lindahl - www.filmografen.se