THIRTEEN LIVES

US, 2022, 147 minutes, Colour.

Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Paul Gleeson,Teeradon Supapunpinyo.

Directed by Ron Howard.

For audiences who remember the events in Thailand, June-July 2018, the football team of young boys and their coach venturing into caves, the weather changing, downpour, and their being trapped, this is a strong dramatisation. Previous to the release of this film, there had been an Oscar-nominated documentary, The Rescue. While some viewers of each film want to promote one as better than the other, a more reasonable approach would be to accept each film on its merits – and, this may depend on the order in which the films are seen. This reviewer saw The Rescue first and appreciated the documentary tone, the reconstruction of the swimming and the rescue, the introduction to the actual characters and their comments. This provided a very useful background to appreciating the characters, the situations, the difficulties in Thirteen Lives.

The screenplay was written by British writer, William Nicholson, his credits range from his C.S.Lewis drama, Shadowlands, to Gladiator. The film was directed by Ron Howard, former child actor, director of a wide range of entertaining films, fiction and striking documentaries for more than forty years. He tackled an extraordinarily challenging and dangerous situation, in space, with Apollo 13.

Any review must give credit to the technical side of this film. There is a reconstruction of the cave, the audience being well aware of rocks, stalactites, narrow tunnels to swim through with oxygen equipment. In fact, the production design enhances the realism of the story and the storytelling. It is one of those films where the audience feels that it is there, not just watching what is going on, but sharing the experience with the divers, close-ups of the tunnels, the claustrophobic effect, the dangers of flowing currents, the setting up of the rope guides to continue the search and then the rescue.

The filmmakers have opted for using Thai language with the Thai characters amongst themselves, meaning that an English-speaking audience can be satisfied when the characters speak English but also share the fact that this action takes place in a country with which they are not particularly familiar, where people use a different language, with a different customs (courtesy being important, and an emphasis on religious belief and practice, prayer, meditation, Buddhist monks, offerings).

The film also shows the local activity: the gathering of the parents and their anxiety and fears, the invasion of the media, the setting up of stalls for feeding all those involved. And there are the Thai Navy Seals, limited in their abilities, and a death. There is the Governor and the decisions he must make, some hostility between him and the Captain in charge.

Two divers are brought in from the United Kingdom, Rick Stanton and John Volanthen (and their characters are created well by Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell). Despite some local wariness, they eventually find the boys, alive, surviving without food, in the dark, meditating and encouraging each other.

For audiences who do not know the outcome, the suspense must be very telling. Perhaps it is something of a relief for those who do know the outcome that they know that despite all the suspense, all the fears, all the uncertainties, that the mission was a success.

While the boys are found, there is still the difficulty of getting them out, and a presumption that they would die. This is where Australian doctor, Dr Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton) comes in, where he and an associate (who is not made a character in the film) worked out the medication and anaesthetics required to subdue the boys to enable them to hours of being rescued, unconscious.

Tribute is also made to the locals who used limited means, even splitting bamboo to make channels, to pump out the water and for it to go over local farms.

A film which has received almost unanimous acclaim from critics and public alike.

1. Audience knowledge of this event and its outcome? 2018? World interest? Seventeen countries involved, 5000 helping? The documentary, The Rescue?
2. Filmed in Thailand and in Queensland? The authentic locations of the countryside, and mountains, the cave? The musical score?
3. The structure of the film, the psychological development, the introduction to the boys playing, with the coach, eagerness, the possible birthday party, going to the cave, venturing in? Then the transfer of attention to the search, the anxious parents? Leaving the boys there, the uncertainty? The numbering of the days and dates? The local attempts, the international attempts, finding the boys, government decisions, the dangers, Dr Harris and the solution? The execution of the rescue for saving the boys? The results?
4. Audience sympathy for the boys, their cheerfulness, playing the game, the coach, going into the cave, the excitement?
5. The weather, the consistent rain, the flooding of the cave, unsettling the rocks and their falling, gushes? The locals, the young man negotiating, the farmers, pumping out the water, flooding the fields, the devices, the holes, pumps, the bamboo for flowing out the water? The massive enterprise? Success?
6. The parents, gathering, anxieties? The feeling amongst themselves? The growing number gathering outside the cave, the media and the cameras? The setting up of shops, selling the food? The Thai Navy Seals, the captain, decisions, the governor, his assistant, his tenure of office, having to make decisions? The minister later coming and authorising the rescue? The men going in, finding it difficult? The British adviser, the suggestion of inviting the British divers, Rick and John?
7. Rick, living alone, his reputation, personality? Contacting John, at home, the family, his son? Coming to Thailand, passport difficulties? Their observing? The captain wary of them? The governor?
8. Audience response to the dangers of swimming in the caves, the reconstruction of the caves, the stalactites, the narrow tunnels, oxygen, the breathing apparatus? The map, the distances? The visuals of the men swimming, difficulties, taking such a long time, crawling through the narrow spaces? Eventual progress? The days passing?
9. Rick, his pessimism about the boy’s being alive, John more optimistic? The joy in finding the boys, taking the video, coming out, the authorities seeing the video, the families? The return, the boys, their morale, meditating, hungry, in the dark, the relief with food? Getting them to write notes for their parents?
10. The religious background Thailand, the statue of the sleeping princess, the image of the mountain, the Buddhist monks, processions, gifts and offerings? The people, the religious background, Thai courtesy, respectful meetings, the mother and the gift and the prayer, to John, in Rick’s pocket (and his discovering it on return home)?
11. The difficulties for the locals, the local who panicked, his death?
12. The idea for Dr Harris, his arrival, wary about the idea, the only possible idea, the expectations of the boys would be dead?
13. The planning, the anaesthetics, the medication, the masks, dangers for saliva and drowning? Testing and training?
14. The International personnel, the local personnel? The background of Charles and Jason, their experience, joining the group?
15. The drama and suspense of the rescue, over the days, the procedures, getting the boys out, the news not getting out, the helicopters to hospital? Dr Harris and his talk about the World Cup and the injections? Each of the men, the procedure getting the boys out? Charles at the end, losing the rope, stranded, Rick finding him, urging him to follow Dr Harris’s advice, everyone getting out?
16. The response of the governor, the press conference, the people’s reaction? The news of Dr Harris’s father dying?
17. The return home, achievement? The boys, hospital, the parents coming, the birthday party?
18. The final statistics, a world achievement?