Based on the drama of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, Peter Berg offers here an intense reconstruction of the facts through an impressive staging. Led by an impeccable Mark Wahlberg, Deepwater , which was nominated for an Oscar in 2017 in the Best Visual Effects category, manages to keep the viewer in suspense until the end. Back on this realization tribute to the events of April 21, 2010 which left 11 dead.
A gradual increase in intensity delivering a spectacular finale
In the first part of the film, Peter Berg sets the framework for future actions, allowing us to glimpse the premises of the drama. Mike Williams, electrician on the platform, father, and Andrea Fleytas, the only woman employed on the platform, join the Deepwater Horizon with a dozen colleagues. From the routine work of the workers to the living conditions on board, to the quarrels between decision-making managers and their subordinates, all aspects of the functioning and organization on the premises are staged. In this atmosphere of relative calm, the first tensions emerge when Mike Williams confronts Donald Vidrine, boss of the company tenant of the platform, to his inconsistencies: only profit seems to motivate the interests of the boss. 
But when the safety tests carried out show anomalies in the operation of the oil tanks, disasters follow one another in a cascade: the tension rises until reaching a paroxysmal state of emergency. The leaks then lead to powerful oil explosions, fires break out from the 4 corners of the platform, terrible destruction gradually annihilates the platform. Sumptuous special effects of rare realism truly absorb the viewer, giving him the frightening impression of being in the middle of this catastrophe.
A heroic struggle for survival
Then begins a real race against time to save the last men stuck in the middle of the flames, then to save themselves. Peter Berg paints a portrait of men of exceptional courage and exemplary behaviour, ready to put themselves in danger to rescue their loved ones. In parallel, the first appeals are issued to inform the emergency services of the disaster, but time is running out: the protagonists will have to rely on themselves. Impressively accurate, Deepwater plunges the viewer into this agonizing atmosphere, where we gradually understand how and why the safety of these men was neglected. The sequences of collapses of structures, explosions, fires and loss of life follow one another at a frantic pace where the omnipresent death, threatens everyone at all times. 
The human and ecological disaster of the Deepwater Horizon is in this film remarkably reconstructed. Through an effective, frightening and appalling staging, Peter Berg delivers a vibrant tribute to these heroic survivors and the 11 victims of this tragedy.The oil spill caused by these explosions is the worst oil disaster the United States has ever experienced.
