[wp-review id=”71011″]
Transocean is a company that works with oil companies to prep drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico. The rig is named Deepwater Horizon and instead of being pillared to the ocean floor, it floats like a huge boat. Mike Williams and “Mr. Jimmy” Harrell are Transocean employees contracted by BP and a part of the crew coming in to get the project back on track. Little do they know about the issues happening under the gulf floor.
DEEPWATER HORIZON is directed by Peter Berg who is best known for directing LONE SURVIVOR and THE KINGDOM. Like some of his other films, he has brought a terrible situation to the screen and made it compelling to watch. Berg has the ability to tell a story with the camera in a way that some directors can’t with his visual style. He typically develops the characters a bit more than he does here. Does it take away from the experience? Not at all. You still care about what happens to them and you get that “I hope everyone makes it out” feeling.
Cast
Mark Wahlberg – Mike Williams
Kurt Russell – Jimmy Harrell or Mr. Jimmy
John Malkovich – Donald Vidrine
Gina Rodriguez – Andrea Fleytas
Dylan O’Brien – Caleb Holloway
Kate Hudson – Felicia Williams
Ethan Suplee – Jason Anderson
VIDEO QUALITY:
The video transfer is a 1080p AVC presentation with some great depth in the coloring and sharpness. The images on screen are bright and vibrant until the rig explodes into the night. The brilliant oranges and reds from the fires create a focal point that makes the surround blacks in the night sky inky. After the explosion, the movie is on the darker side and some of the contrasting is affected. Its minimal and the details are still clearly seen.
AUDIO QUALITY:
The audio is a Dolby Atmos mix that defaults to a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mix. I can only imagine what the Atmos mix sounds like because the TrueHD mix is incredible. The audio is so well controlled and precise with points of hard-hitting explosions, building tremors, and seismic issues under the well. One of the best parts where the entire sound field is used is when the debris is shooting up from the well. There are random ricochets and pieces flying everwhere. The sound immerses you into the film and that’s always a great experience. This is reference quality and hits harder than any of the strongest mixes I’ve heard recently.
SUPPLEMENTS & PACKAGING
-Beyond the Horizon: This is a nicely sized featurette with the top billing actors discussing the film.
-Captain of the Rig: Peter Berg: This featurette has a lot of the scat and crew discussing the man at the helm and his film making style.
-The Fury of the Rig: This focuses on the set for the movie.
-Deepwater Surveillance: The footage here shows how some of the sequences were filmed and recreated.
-Participant Media Work Like an American
-American Worker Tributes: This featurette highlights some of the workers that were lost in the tragic incident.
-I Am a Steel Beam with Narration by Director Peter Berg
-I Am a Steel Beam with Narration by Gina Rodriguez
Disc Details
2-disc set w/ Blu-ray and 1 DVD
Digital copy
Running Time
107 mins
Edition Ratings
Rated PG-13
Region Coding
Region A
Video Resolution
1080p AVC MPEG-4
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Audio Mixes
English Dolby Atmos
English Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
English Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles
English
English SDH
Spanish
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Being a fan of Peter Berg’s directorial films, I’m not surprised that I really enjoyed this DEEPWATER HORIZON. He does a good job at dramatizing true stories and giving recognition to the heroes. As I mentioned, I would’ve liked to see a bit more character development but this is still a solid film. The Blu-ray looks great but the real standout is the audio. It is a perfect mix and is reference quality. The extras are also really strong and give plenty of insight to the movie. Overall, this is a really strong release and I would highly recommend picking this one up.
