Peter Berg is beginning to become one of Hollywood’s leading directors for true stories, lets’s take a look at his best work featuring a trio of top picks.
From directing the military-focused Battleship to working with high-list actors including Mark Whalberg in Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, Patriots Day, Mile 22 and Spenser Confidential. In this article, we will discuss the work of Peter Berg and see where his films rank in no particular order.
Lets get ranking.
Context
Tarantino and Samuel L Jackson, Depp and Burton and now Wahlberg and Berg.
Although, Peter Berg has worked with a number of different actors and actresses, he has found a strong bond with Mark. The work of Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg has entertained audiences of most genres for the last 5 to ten years, with their first feature being the war film Lone Survivor, which was a terrific debut.
They would later be involved with Deepwater Horizon, Patriots Day, Mile 22 and the recent Netflix released Spenser Confidential.
Their body of work has always been in the action genre, even when they adapt true stories, Deepwater Horizon and Patriots day, although are made to be emotionally serious to viewers, they both contain a sense of visual awe that is supposed to be exciting as well as dramatic to audiences.
Mile 22 and Spenser Confidential were examples of them making more B action film material and it didn’t impress audiences. Generally speaking, Peter Berg enjoys strong characters as his leads, one of them being Mark Whalberg who is able to combine vulnerability and power.
He is usually thrown into an extraordinary scenario’s where he puts his life at risk to save others, this is a severe contrast to some of his other roles such as The Departed.
The characters that he plays in Peter Berg’s movies are usually very likeable, other than Mile 22 and Spenser Confidential, where he plays a more rebellious role, which is a lot more in tune with the reputation he created earlier on in his career.
With all this said, what films do I recommend you watch from Peter Berg’s mighty filmography?
Although, I enjoyed Hancock, lets narrow our focus down to the 2010 period, with his directed film Battleship. Battleship was a mindless yet at times entertaining film with a serious love for the American military. Watch the film for the action and its at times no brains approach, featuring a selection of hard rock songs when the aliens start invading, yep you know what kind of film you are getting.
Lone Survivor
We now get to the good stuff, Lone Survivor was a fabulous debut, being adapted from an incredible true story of military bravery, featuring fantastic performances from the whole cast including Mark Whalberg. It’s a war film that touches the heart strings and pulls you right into the thick of the woods. The action is hard-hitting and intense, unlike any other war film I have seen with soldiers falling of cliffs and breaking limbs.
Its a film you have to see from beginning to end and as soon as the guns stat firing, you are fully locked in. Its another example of how cinema can be viewed as a hard knuckled experience.
You can buy the film here.
Deepwater Horizon
Showing in glorious 4K, Deepwater Horizon explosively arrived in cinemas in 2016, with a premise so shocking, it could only be told by Lone Survivor’s director Peter Berg.
Another fantastic film adapting from a true story, only this time, the scope and scale have increased. Deepwater Horizon is the perfect film to watch on the big screen as we this disaster so tragically unfold. Like Lone Survivor, there is a lot of focus on bravery and heroism in this film, but the action and effects really sell the film. Although the film is helped massively by a veteran performance from Kurt Russell, this being one of his more dramatic performances in recent years, after his wickedly cool role in Guardians of the Galaxy.
If you are going to do a film like this, let this film be the definitive example. You may shed a tear and also be enthralled when the disaster kicks off. Even better, the film is showing for free on Amazon prime in 4K, go ahead and give it a shot, it’s more than tempting at this point.
Deepwater Horizon is currently the best-received film by critics, scoring an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is the cinematic depiction of the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which saw the loss of 11 lives.
You can buy the film here.
Patriots Day
Completing this trio of top-notch recommendations, we have another Wahlberg and Berg project, Patriots Day, of course being the film that adapted the Boston Bombings. This film wins the award for being the most intense and a lot of the intensity and drama don’t come from the action scenes, unlike the previous two. There are plenty of exciting investigation scenes where the dialogue feels very real and close to home.
We also have an exceptional cast full of oscar talent. It’s very well paced and a focused film that gives you most of the important facts of the case in a little over 2 hours, Wahlberg’s performance is again very solid, serving a character who is vulnerable and at times frantic in attempting to make the right decision as we see the police force hopelessly chase one of Boston’s most infamous criminals.
The tone was perfect, a dramatic yet heroic telling which ultimately leads to a positive and thematic end. We get some messages about the power of teamwork and humanity in the film that audiences will be able to take from and that’s the power of cinema right there.
You can buy the film here.
To this day, these 3 films are his best work, with Mile 22 offering mild thrills from an action point of view. These three films have heart, drama, scale, love and power embedded in each outing.
Author Bio
Sam is a content writer. He loves all elements connected with film and writes with passion, always. You can find him on Linkedin, where you will be able to read more articles. When he is not writing, you can find him practicing football.
TheReviewAwakens 