Howard successfully dramatizes extraordinary rescue story
Last year, for the first time ever, I selected a documentary as my number one film of the year. That doc, The Rescue, plays out like a thrilling Hollywood screenplay as it recounts the inspiring true tale of the rescue of 12 members of a boys’ soccer team and their coach after 18 days trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. Now art imitates life as that story that so captivated the world back in 2018 gets the high-powered Hollywood treatment. Directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard, Thirteen Lives proves itself an equally thrilling and moving dramatization.
Working from a screenplay by William Nicholson, no stranger to high-stakes survival stories, having penned Everest and Unbroken, Howard delivers a fictionalized version of events that skew very close to the documentary’s style and pacing. I suppose the need to dramatize a story that already was so effectively told on screen by the real life players could be questioned, but the fictional account does allow for a more immersive experience in terms of recreating some of the underwater heroics. We definitely viscerally feel the claustrophobia and near zero visibility that the rescue divers faced as they attempted the painstaking and slow rescue.
Howard throws you right into the story, opening with the boys finishing up a soccer game in the late afternoon and excitedly biking to the caves for a bit of exploration before they head to a birthday party. The shot of all the bikes carelessly and innocently thrown down at the cave’s entrance becomes a moment of poignant foreshadowing, as we know what the boys don’t: that they won’t be returning to claim those bikes any time soon. Similar to the documentary, Howard uses day and time stamps to let us know where we are in the action. He quickly jumps from the 3:07pm arrival at the cave to 7:32pm, when we see the boys’ families gathering for the birthday party, becoming concerned that the boys aren’t back yet. And when the film next jump cuts to just after midnight, when the Thai governor shows up to say “This could be a long night,” we think to ourselves, you have no idea, buddy.
Cast as volunteer divers Jonathan Volanthen, Rick Stanton, and Harry Harrison are Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen, and Joel Edgerton, respectively, and their star wattage helps bring gravitas to the story. The three share an authentic, lived-in dynamic as they try to figure out how to save the boys, often clashing in the process. Farrell’s Jonathan, a father to a young son, is the more emotional and sensitive, whereas Mortensen’s Rick leans towards the pragmatic and pessimistic, often doubting that the rescue is even possible. And Edgerton’s Dr. Harry, tasked with (spoiler alert) anesthetizing the boys to bring them out safely, displays a gentle manner with the boys that belies his incredulous and conflicted opinion about the efficacy and ethics of what he’s been recruited to do.
Like the documentary, Howard’s picture focuses much more on the rescue operation logistics and machinations, and less on the boys’ trapped-in-the-cave, day-to-day existence. I was again left wondering about how the boys and coach fared in that small space for 18 days. We don’t see much of that aspect of the story here, aside from the reiteration that meditation helped allay their fears, thanks to their calm coach, whose admonishment that “fear is created in our minds” kept the group from becoming too anxious and scared.
The picture is filled with tear-inducing, emotional moments, such as when, after nine nerve-wracking days of searching, the families are told that the boys are alive. The joy and relief, but also the continued anxiety about the rescue’s success, are palpable. Viewing the film becomes a cathartic experience, as we watch the story of how 5,000 people from 17 countries managed to set aside differences for the singular goal of rescuing 13 of their fellow human beings, despite enormous and seemingly insurmountable risks, challenges, and stakes. We are in awe as we see tenacious volunteers battle depleting oxygen, failing equipment, unceasing rains, and, always present, possible death. The ingenuity, bravery, and compassion that we witness on screen here seem all the more powerful knowing that the portrayals are based on true events and actions. Howard has made an uplifting picture that reminds us that even in these divided times, the best of human nature can rise up for the good of a common cause.
Interestingly, Lionsgate is also releasing its own dramatization of the rescue on demand today, called Cave Rescue. I haven’t seen it yet, so can’t say which is better, but it stars Irish diver Jim Warny as himself, and focuses primarily on his perspective of the rescue (not on Stanton, Volanthen, and Harris), so it offers a different take from Howard’s picture. It might be worth a look if you’re still jonesing for more rescue tales after viewing Thirteen Lives.
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Thirteen Lives is available today on Amazon Prime.
