August 15, 2022
On June 23, 2018, twelve boys of a Chiang Rai junior football team and their assistant coach decided to go explore inside the Tham Luang caves after their practice. While they were still inside, it began to rain torrentially outside, causing flooding inside the cave. When the boys failed to show up at a planned birthday party that night, their parents realized that they were still trapped inside the flooded caves. A rescue mission was promptly organized.
Because of the complexity of the passages inside the caves, local authorities decide to seek help from the British Cave Rescue Council, who sent veteran cave divers Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell). After a long wait for the rains to stop and the water drained, they were finally allowed to enter the cave on Day 10. They found the boys all alive 4km into the cave. How will they bring them out safely?
This story of the boys trapped in the cave for three weeks was a real-life rescue drama that played out on the news everyday in the summer of 2018, so the outcome was well-known to those who followed the proceedings back then. That was the challenge of director Ron Howard -- how could you make an adventure film like this exciting and interesting if it already had a ending that almost everybody knew?
When you begin to stream the film, you see that it lasts almost 2-1/2 hours long. Amazingly, Howard set up the situation all within the first 10 minutes, the rest of the film was only about the efforts of everyone involved with the rescue mission. As this was an international rescue effort, the concern for rescuer safety was more heightened. This resulted in protracted delays, causing a lot of frustration among the divers and worry among the families.
With an all-white group of divers finding the boys first and thinking of the risky innovative way to save them care of Dr. Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton), it may have a feel of a white-savior film. However, Howard also made sure we see the culture and heroism of the Thai people. A Thai Navy Seal lost his life in the mission. Draining the water out of the cave, an idea of a water engineer from Bangkok, involved a major sacrifice of neighboring farms and crops.
Howard brought us along each of the long treacherous dives with the excellent underwater cinematography, with the danger and tension enhanced with editing, an ominous musical score and eerie sound effects. As could be expected, the feeling of claustrophobia Howard created could be overwhelming. Watching this stressful story unfold in the comfort of our homes amplified the bravery of everyone involved in the harrowing rescue. 8/10.
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