On Absolute Corruption in Black Gold

A submarine containing Nazi gold is stuck on the bottom of a dangerous seabed and several bitter unemployed men are going down, in an old submarine to retrieve it. The premise for Black Gold is good and promises a decent amount of tension and horror: confined spaces, anxious men and weapons. It has everything a decent horror/thriller needs. While Black Gold is good, it doesn’t make enough of the resources it has. It is thrilling, but never sweaty palms thrilling in the way, say Gravity (2013) was and for some reason, it chooses not to engage with the clearly horrific scenario with conventions of the horror genre. What it does well is provide a study of a desperate man (a fantastic Jude Law), who, recently fired finds the lure of gold an all too tempting and corruptive force. Money corrupts, gold corrupts absolutely. The message of greed is clear, but handled well. The added message of what drives greed, which here is the profit over people mantra of big business (another more costly form of corruption) is timely and paints Law’s captain in interesting shades of good and bad. Black Gold is a decent thriller with a pertinent message.