Chernobyl vs Deep Water Horizon

This is not, as the title might suggest, about the relative magnitude of the two man-made environmental disasters, but a comparison of the two films made about them, and in particular their different dramatic cadences.

Deep Water Horizon builds with a view of the tensions in the control room as the drilling operation is pushed forward while safety issues are misread or ignored by an overconfident manager wanting to meet a target. Chernobyl opens, after a short prelude, in much the same way.  Both lead up to the focal event, an explosion.

But then the two diverge, dramatically, both metaphorical and literally. Deep Water Horizon has a relatively linear time line that leads to a smulchy ending. Chernobyl has an geometric timeline that allows a much broader exploration of the  consequences of the explosion. Moving beyond the intensity of the first few hours allows the film to explore a more interesting set of issues, social, political and psychological.

Chernobyl then very neatly brings back the drama of the explosion by incorporating it into the courtroom drama in the of the final episode. This device not only allows the viewer to regain the excitement and tempo of the initial episode having explored widely in between, but fills in some important details, that one only realizes were missing when they are brought into focus at the end.

Chernobyl is an outstanding piece of gripping and engaging film-making, while Deep Water Horizon, cy comparison, is simply a mundane, cliched disaster movie.