Cave Rescue
Writer/producer/director Tom Waller employs a, "just the facts, ma'am," approach to the second of this week's two Thai cave rescue movies.
Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
It’s odd when movies about the same thing come out at the same time – “Leviathan” and “The Abyss,” “Tombstone” and “Wyatt Earp,” “Gordy” and “Babe,” “Showgirls” and “Striptease,” “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon,” “The Truman Show” and “EDtv,” “The Illusionist” and “The Prestige,” “Capote” and “Infamous” and “No Strings Attached” and “Friends with Benefits” to name more than a few.
The latest in this long line of cinematic doppelgangers drops this week with Ron Howard’s big budget, starry affair “Thirteen Lives” (featuring the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Tom Bateman, which Christopher Lloyd reviewed here) and “Cave Rescue” (available in select theaters and on VOD beginning Friday, Aug. 5). Both movies concern the true-life 2018 rescue of the Wild Boars soccer team (comprised of 12 boys between the ages of 11 and 16) and their 25-year-old assistant coach who were trapped in the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand. (Further confusing matters, “Free Solo” filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi have “The Rescue,” their National Geographic documentary concerning the incident available on Disney+. Netflix is also releasing its six-episode series “Thai Cave Rescue” on Sept. 22.)
I can certainly understand the appeal of this story. Thousands of people from all over the world worked to do the impossible and were largely successful in doing so. (Sadly, 37-year-old former Royal Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan died of asphyxiation on July 6, 2018 during the mission. Thai Navy SEAL Beirut Pakbara also perished from a blood infection contracted during the operation in December 2019.)
Thai national Tom Waller wrote, produced and directed “Cave Rescue,” which itself is an Americanized rejiggering sourced from Waller’s 2019 Thai film “The Cave.” Waller’s movie was the first about the incident. He filmed in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave as well as in other caves throughout Thailand and a swimming pool-based set. He also employed many of the actual rescuers to play themselves in the film – foremost among them is Jim Warny (who also appeared in “The Rescue”), a Belgian diver and electrician based out of Ireland. (Chinese diver Tan Xiaolong, Canadian diver Erik Brown and Finnish diver Mikko Paasi also play themselves.)
Waller’s handling of the material is reminiscent of Paul Greengrass’ “United 93,” but far less emotionally resonant. It’s very matter of fact. Waller is most successful in sharing plenty of pretty Thai scenery and depicting the mission itself. Sadly, I never really connected with the soccer team, their coach or their rescuers. These divers are undeniably heroes, but they’re not actors on the level of Mortensen, Farrell, Edgerton or Bateman. Then again, those actors can’t dive like these heroes.
As of this writing I haven’t seen “The Rescue” nor “Thirteen Lives” (I intend to remedy this shortly), but I have the sneaking suspicion they’ll be “The Abyss,” “Tombstone,” “Babe,” “Showgirls,” “Armageddon,” “The Truman Show,” “The Prestige,” “Capote” and “Friends with Benefits” whereas “Cave Rescue” will be “Leviathan,” “Wyatt Earp,” “Gordy,” “Striptease,” “Deep Impact,” “EDtv,” “The Illusionist” and “No Strings Attached.” One batch of movies are better and better remembered; the others lesser and less remembered.