Not long after the explosion that resulted in one of the largest oil spills in history in the Gulf of Mexico this spring, the culprit, BP, committed public-relations gaffes, the most disturbingly memorable of which involved the company’s chief executive at the time, Tony Hayward, proclaiming, “I’d like my life back.” But postures of insensitivity have really been the least of BP’s offenses. As “The Spill,” a documentary that is a joint presentation of “Frontline” and ProPublica, so compellingly details, the company’s history of flagrantly violating safety standards made lethal personal injuries and horrific accidents practically inevitable. The film is an old-school, dig-deep production that could have been improved upon only if it had been longer. An hour somehow seems insufficient. Viewers who like to nurse corporate grievances — and there are certainly many of them in the current economic climate — will wish for an additional 60 minutes. And yet there is something commendable in the film’s brisk pacing and tight informative focus, one that allows the narrative of villainy to speak for itself without dramatic embellishment. “The Spill” travels back, looking at BP’s bleak environmental and safety record, and unpacks in riveting outline the company’s March 2005 disaster. At the time, ...
↧