Since I missed its premier on the National Geographic Channel and don’t have Disney+, I haven’t seen The Rescue, a 2021 documentary from filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (see Post-Olympics Letdown? Try Rowing and Climbing for a review of their death-defying Free Solo). So, I was glad to see Ron Howard’s new feature film about the incredible 18-day rescue of Thai boys trapped in a flooded cave (now streaming on Amazon Prime Video). Even though we all know the ending, Thirteen Lives is a riveting, nerve-wracking cinematic experience (we already know Ron Howard can translate unbelievable true stories to film, see Apollo 13).
In 2018, the Wild Boars soccer team and their assistant coach leave practice for a birthday party at the Tham Luang Cave. The monsoon rains arrive early, and the team is trapped within the flooded caves. The Royal Thai Navy Seals are unable to make it to the boys. A local Brit suggests the authorities contact the British Cave Rescue Council. Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell) find the boys four kilometers from the cave entrance. Shockingly, the team is all alive and in relatively good spirits, but the two divers immediately realize the awful truth: getting the boys out is impossible. The rain won’t let up. Despite heroic efforts from local volunteers to divert rainwater from the cave (bamboo makes a good drainage device) it’s clear that the boys aren’t going to walk out of the cave.
The initial news reports did not include the rescue method used to free the team and the local media and the boy’s parents were not notified. Maybe that’s why I didn’t know or remember how they did it. If you’re in the same boat as me, I won’t spoil it. Let’s just say Dr. Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton) arrives on the scene and then you’ll be saying to the TV, “no way, you’ve got to be kidding?!”
The film focuses on the cave diving and rescue while capturing the feeling of claustrophobia ever present in diving through treacherous, narrow openings with no visibility (there’s cave exploring and scuba diving, but together?!). Howard doesn’t hype up the melodrama often associated with these films, guessing correctly that the real drama is plenty of adrenaline for the audience. The movie doesn’t create much of a connection with the characters, particularly the soccer team, a drawback explained below.
True stories portraying extraordinary courage and human effort are ripe for the Hollywood interpretation. It appears that film and TV producers were planning their screen adaptations during the rescue and waiting at the cave exit to close the deals. It makes for a hodgepodge of rights to the story. The documentarians and Amazon were not able to acquire the rights of the boys and their coach. That’s why they focus on the divers. Netflix got the rights to the soccer team. Does that mean we’ll be getting a 4th movie soon? (A 3rd movie, 2019’s The Cave is a Thai production that never got a U.S. release.) No, it will be a Netflix limited series debuting on September 22nd. Three screening options dilute the impact of any one version, particularly since none of them can tell the whole story. Thirteen Lives is yet another recent movie that’s 2½ hours long. No matter. The fact that these boys get rescued is a miracle. And miracles of the human spirit are always inspiring and engrossing all the way to the end.
D² Rating ◼◼◼◩☐
Trivia: For what film did Ron Howard win his only Best Director Academy Award (the movie won Best Picture, as well)?
Answer: A Beautiful Mind (2002)