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2013 Boston Marathon Bombing Analysis

Decent Essays

Director Peter Berg has moved into something of a storyteller of recent American history with Mark Wahlberg serving as his orator. The two initially collaborated on the story of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's incredible survival in a fire fight with the Taliban in 2013's Lone Survivor and will team again in December 2016 for Patriots Day, a cinematic re-telling of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and ensuing apprehension of the assailants. But now, they deliver Deepwater Horizon, which documents the horrors of what took place on the evening of April 20, 2010, more than 40 miles off of the Louisiana Coast, when a semi-submersible oil rig exploded into a ball of fire, resulting in the deaths of 11 crew members and causing the gravest environmental …show more content…

Jimmy and Wallace recognize right away that the executives have no interest in fixing countless and lingering problems with the ship, and both take specific issue with BP's Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich), a Cajun-seasoned snake of a man that the actor plays so animated and over-the-top, he becomes something of a cartoon villain. Wallace has a loving wife (Kate Hudson), a young daughter he never gets enough time with (Stella Allen), and the screenplay from Matthew James Carnahan and Matthew Sand makes sure we understand that Wallace and his co-workers take great personal sacrifice in agreeing to do this …show more content…

And he, Carnahan, and Sand seem to downplay the significant and unconscionable impact this tragedy had to the environment, relegating the fact that 210 million barrels of oil discharged into the Gulf of Mexico to basically a title card before the end credits. We have no mention of the well site leaking for two years after the well was supposedly "sealed." Oil was found as far away as Florida and while BP were subject to nearly $46 billion in fines and penalties, no one from the company has served any jail time for criminal negligence in the matter to date. BP emerges with little more than a few light bruises here. And that is frustrating to say the least. And so as Deepwater Horizon may be empty on emotion, it is nonetheless a visceral movie-watching experience. The sheer intensity alone is going to be enough for some to leave the theater and proclaim this is as one of the best movies of the year. Had Berg been brave enough to give us a wider look at the whole story, perhaps even an emotional buy-in that matched the shock and awe displayed on screen, he might have actually delivered

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