Ken Kurtis
Contributor
The short version is . . . WOW!!!
A fabulously well-crafted and gripping interpretation of the 2018 harrowing rescue of the 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave where they were trapped. From a movie-making standpoint, it can be hard to keep an audience engrossed in a film when they already know the ending. But director Ron Howard has done a masterful job. And even though there are known actors (Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen) in the two lead roles, their fame doesn't detract from the story. I also thought they both, especially Farrell, gave nice, understated performances. The film-makers used an interesting technique in the beginning that normally I find annoying but which I thought actually enhanced the overall feel of the film here. Everyone spoke in their native language which meant, especially for the first part of the film, everything was in Thai with subtitles. As the English rescuers got involved, then the focus switched to their perspective and it was mostly in English (with only occasional subtitles). Especially effective I thought, and even if you're not a cave diver (which I am not), you'll appreciate this as this film also touches on the politics at play during the entire process (which took 18 days from when they were first trapped until the last one was rescued). During the underwater sequences as they're squeezing themselves through narrow cracks and crevices, you hear tanks banging on rocks, you hear breathing, you hear exhaust bubbles, and for a diver watching this, it simply adds to the realism. I've also seen "The Rescue" (released in October of 2021) which takes more of a documentary/interviews/re-creation tack (and which is also excellent) but "Thirteen Lives" definitely puts you right into the middle of everything. Interestingly, BOTH films could be up for Oscars next year as Best Documentary and Best Film. But "Thirteen Lives" is absolutely worth spending 2½ hours watching. It's available streaming on Amazon Prime (which is how I watched it) as well as in movie theaters. Here's the link to the the official trailer:
A fabulously well-crafted and gripping interpretation of the 2018 harrowing rescue of the 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave where they were trapped. From a movie-making standpoint, it can be hard to keep an audience engrossed in a film when they already know the ending. But director Ron Howard has done a masterful job. And even though there are known actors (Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen) in the two lead roles, their fame doesn't detract from the story. I also thought they both, especially Farrell, gave nice, understated performances. The film-makers used an interesting technique in the beginning that normally I find annoying but which I thought actually enhanced the overall feel of the film here. Everyone spoke in their native language which meant, especially for the first part of the film, everything was in Thai with subtitles. As the English rescuers got involved, then the focus switched to their perspective and it was mostly in English (with only occasional subtitles). Especially effective I thought, and even if you're not a cave diver (which I am not), you'll appreciate this as this film also touches on the politics at play during the entire process (which took 18 days from when they were first trapped until the last one was rescued). During the underwater sequences as they're squeezing themselves through narrow cracks and crevices, you hear tanks banging on rocks, you hear breathing, you hear exhaust bubbles, and for a diver watching this, it simply adds to the realism. I've also seen "The Rescue" (released in October of 2021) which takes more of a documentary/interviews/re-creation tack (and which is also excellent) but "Thirteen Lives" definitely puts you right into the middle of everything. Interestingly, BOTH films could be up for Oscars next year as Best Documentary and Best Film. But "Thirteen Lives" is absolutely worth spending 2½ hours watching. It's available streaming on Amazon Prime (which is how I watched it) as well as in movie theaters. Here's the link to the the official trailer:
