Thirteen Lives
Ron Howard finds the ideal approach in recreating the story of the Thai rescue bid in 2018.
For Ron Howard, its director, and for all the others involved, Thirteen Lives is something of a triumph against the odds. The story which it tells is a real-life one that has already been told in the 2021 documentary The Rescue. That film by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi was highly acclaimed and rightly so, thus making it difficult to match. Furthermore, this is a tale which does not readily lend itself to the format of an action drama boasting star names and here we have Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton heading the cast.
The events re-enacted in Thirteen Lives concern the efforts to rescue twelve boys, members of a soccer team, who, together with their coach, were trapped in a chamber of the Tham Luang cave which flooded in 2018 when the monsoons came earlier than expected in that part of Thailand. The work done to locate them and to get them out was led by cave divers working alongside Thai Navy Seals, but it was a shared effort and therefore not one giving opportunities to turn the leading figures into Hollywood-style heroes with a personal story to add to the appeal. Although it is some years now since the incident occurred, it made world headlines and consequently many viewers will know from the outset the exact extent to which the dangers faced were overcome.
What makes Thirteen Lives so successful is the fact that, despite its credentials suggesting a typical big screen epic (it lasts almost two and a half hours), the approach is far removed from what you would anticipate. It helps of course that Ron Howard has already proved to be very adroit in convincingly bringing real-life dramas to the screen (1995’s Apollo 13 and the Formula One racing drama Rush made in 2017 stand as examples). Furthermore, in recent times Howard has turned his hand several times to actual documentaries and, in addition to making films about the Beatles and Pavarotti, has given us 2020’s Rebuilding Paradise. The latter, a study of an American community recovering from devastation caused by forest fires, has a dramatic force close to that found in the situation depicted here. Working on that film may have encouraged Howard to find the right tone for Thirteen Lives which is akin to that of a powerful documentary with subtitles used for the native speakers.
Having recognised this as being the apt approach, Howard has an appropriate writing partner here since the screenplay is by the veteran William Nicholson who rejects any unnecessary elaboration of the characters (there are no sub-plots) and concentrates instead on all aspects of the rescue operation. These include the role of the Thai administrators including Governor Narongsak (Sahajak Boonthanakit), the attitude of the local families as influenced by their religious beliefs and the way in which volunteers from so many countries came to help. If the leading cave divers were from Britain (Mortensen plays Rick Stanton, Farrell is John Volanthen and Tom Bateman is Chris Jewell), another key figure is the Australian Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton) who as an anaesthetist had to advise on a risky procedure necessary if the trapped victims were to be brought safely back from their distant chamber to the cave entrance. But throughout its length Howard’s film avoids all false melodrama and it is much to his credit and to that of Mortensen and Farrell as his leads that the very British sense of understatement which marked the real Stanton and Volanthen as shown in The Rescue is retained so effectively. In keeping with that, Benjamin Wallfisch's music score is never over-assertive.
To add to the sense of authenticity, location shooting in Thailand was undertaken for the film, but equally helpful in this respect are the sets for the vast interiors of the cave which are triumphs of set design. A statement at the close follows the usual form for real life adaptations for the screen in that it indicates that some elements of dramatisation are included, but even so Thirteen Lives always feels very close to the actual events. If for the most part that benefits the film hugely, it must nevertheless be acknowledged that the last phase of the operation as shown here does sometimes feel a bit drawn out and repetitive. Indeed, the running length of this film is forty minutes longer than that of The Rescue and that is not entirely without drawbacks. Similarly, the very nature of the material makes it a record of a brave and honourable human endeavour rather than a deeply personal story and in consequence I don't think that Thirteen Lives had quite the potential to be a true masterpiece. Nevertheless, it is a fine work and one that finds Ron Howard at the top of his game working closely with his editor James D. Wilcox to create a narrative notable for its admirable fluency and its clarity. This is a film that plays down all of the broader elements found in most big cinema films but which in doing so should still appeal to a mass audience. Indeed, I have to echo other critics who have regretted that the film is to receive only a very brief cinema outing before switching to home-viewing through Prime Video: the cinema is the place where this immersive work really belongs.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Paul Gleeson, Pattrakorn Tungsupakul, James Teeradon Supapunpinyo, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Tui Thiraphat Sajakul, Weir Sukollawat Kanarot.
Dir Ron Howard, Pro P.J. van Sandwijk, Gabrielle Tana, Karen Lunder, William M. Connor, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, Screenplay William Nicholson from a story by Don Macpherson and William Nicholson, Ph Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Pro Des Molly Hughes, Ed James D. Wilcox, Music Benjamin Wallfisch, Costumes Tess Schofield, Sound Michael Fentum, Dialect coaches Gabrielle Rogers, Jessica Drake and Jill McCullough.
Storyteller Productions/Magnolia Mae Films/Imagine Entertainment/MGM/BRON Studios-Universal Pictures.
147 mins. UK. 2022. US and UK Rel: 29 July 2022 (cinemas) and 5 August 2022 (Prime Video). Cert. 12A.