WHAT MAKES A GREAT DISASTER, MOVIE?

Inserted the comma above on purpose. Foremost, the disaster should catch our attention. Why should we care unless the depiction shows a "true" event? Second, any actor, take B movies from the 50s e.g. This Island Earth, can react but to make the audience care about their character and their imminent peril requires talent.

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Having sat through or watched at home many films in that action sub-genre, I have compartmentalized the hits and misses. Writers and directors rarely portray real-life catastrophes with historical accuracy, having to insert enhanced or fictionalized scenes that heighten the suspense. Case in point, Deepwater Horizon (2016), where the filmmakers chose to put in the opening titles, "Based on true events." Smart decision as that statement gave the director liberty to add more explosions, imperiled characters and daring rescues which may or may not have actually occurred.

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Still, Deepwater Horizon succeeded where many disaster flicks have failed--it grabbed me from the beginning and didn't let go until the final rescues. The actors, including Mark Wahlberg as the site engineer, Mike Williams, has come a long way as a performer and for this film at least perfectly cast, keep the momentum building. Even those less-emphasized rough-necks, whom we only glimpse intermittently, pulled me in and made me care.

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Other outstanding performances included Kurt Russell as Mr. H., Kate Hudson, whose been underused for years, as Mike William's wife, John Malkovich's calculating BP well-site leader, and Gina Rodriguez, the rig's only woman who steered the "helm" of the platform which could be maneuvered when needed. Each of these actors found an arc in their characters, surprising us at unexpected moments.

Blending the action and the portrayals seamlessly takes an experienced hand, and although delighted the actor Peter Berg helmed this story (an actor's director) I believe the realism went amok at the story's climax. Confession: I have some familiarity with oil rigs, what I learned from living in Singapore and briefly dating an engineer, and, my boyfriend, a retired 30-year fireman who later provided his viewpoint, sat next to me. Therefore, I had higher expectations of the movie's realism than others may have. You will need to see the movie to judge for your yourself how realistic the action-sequences were toward the movie's end.

Despite this, Deepwater Horizon moved me. Very difficult these days, as I've become more inured and cynical. No matter the rationalizations and attempts at objectivity, however, and, having followed the aftermath on the news and read about the real disaster's unfoldment, the loss of any crew working on that rig could've been prevented had the workers' lives been paramount in the BP camp.

Some have objected to the movie not citing the historical, environmental aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Within the movie, the director, Berg, did show overt examples--gushing oil out of control spewing into the stratosphere, a seabed plunged into darkness; a seabird in agony--trickles yet harrowing nevertheless.

The devastating ecological consequences of BP's negligence, as I see it, should be told on the big screen as a separate drama, so that audiences can process and absorb the gravity of what they have seen without cutting the tether to the initial man-made cataclysm.

Pull in your gut and go see the film, Deepwater Horizon. The somber images will linger in your mind, the tragedy will burn your senses, but the heroism of the rig's crew will give you hope.

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