MOVIE REVIEW
“THE RESCUE”
Rated PG. At AMC Boston Common and suburban theaters.
Grade: A-
The world held its collective breath in 2018 when 12 Thai school boys from the Wild Boar soccer team and their coach were trapped in a flooded cave deep beneath a mountain in northern Thailand. The Thai Navy SEALS were called out to Tham Luang aka “the Great Cave of the Sleeping Lady” to help. One married former SEAL came out of retirement.
But the only hope for the boys was a group of misfits from around the world, mostly from the U.K., who made the terrifying activity known as cave diving their hobby and were intimately aware of its risks and rewards and what equipment was necessary (one diver boasted a homemade re-breather). These daring men, together with a British physician whom they enlisted much against his will, concocted a scheme that would almost certainly not work and end in tragedy. But because it was the only way to get the boys to safety while traveling in treacherous conditions underwater for a journey of a kilometer and a half, it had to be tried, even if it meant bringing out corpses. Two of the Brit divers even gave up and booked flights home before being persuaded to try to reach the boys on the 16th day.
Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin of “Free Solo” fame, using a lot of existing footage, “The Rescue” is an incredible nail-biting countdown, even though we know how it ends, featuring a motley crew of Thai soldiers and rescue workers, mothers crying at the cave mouth, international press and a priest praying to the mountain goddess with the families.
Because the filmmakers and National Geographic Documentary Films were only able to secure the rights to the divers’ story, the film focuses on them and not the Thai school boys. Vern Unsworth is the “crazy foreign caver,” who was called something unpleasant by Elon Musk. The water is muddy and running at great speed, making progress tedious. Lines have to be strung to keep the divers from losing their sense of direction in the murk. Stations are established at points where the divers find dry high spots to store equipment and lights. Monsoonal rains have arrived, flooding the cave even more. Pumps are running day and night. It is a proverbial race against time. Two men will die. “Why would someone do this for fun?” asks one of the divers.
Vasarhelyi and Chin humanized rock climber Alex Honnold in “Free Solo.” They do the same for the divers. This is the story of a group of men with a genuine, particular set of skills, who find the courage and resolve to undertake a hair-raising, life-threatening operation on the other side of the world and see it to its end.
The world was in awe. You will be, too.
(“The Rescue” contains mature themes and brief profanity.)
"danger" - Google News
October 15, 2021 at 11:18AM
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‘The Rescue’ a riveting, real-life tale of danger, courage - Boston Herald
"danger" - Google News
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