The 33

Released:  November 13^th, 2015

Rated:  PG-13

Distributor:  Alcon Entertainment

Starring:  Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche, James Brolin, Lou Diamond Phillips

Directed by:  Patricia Riggen

Written by:  Mikko Alanne, Craig Borten, Michael Thomas

Personal Bias Alert:  likes cast, remembers the real-life incident

5.8 of 10

            Five years ago, the story of 33 trapped miners in Chile captured the world’s attention.  News teams had two ways to approach the story:  either focus on the mine’s terrible safety record or the massive international rescue effort.  One side of the story takes you down the dark alley of capitalism and greed, while the other is an even narrower path of international altruism.  What I remember of the story is the miners reaching the surface to a cheering, flag-waving crowd.  As a world, we chose to applaud the men in the mine and those who saved them.  The 33 makes the same choice, and while that does make it a bit of a lightweight, it still feels wrong not to applaud.

            Even without knowing the particulars of the story, it’s safe to assume that the screenwriters played fast and loose with the facts, as everything in The 33 plays out in tidy, familiar storylines.  A sister, a family, and a pregnant wife is established, the men take a portentous trip underground, and the mine collapses.  This scene, with the rock crumbling around them in the dark, is viscerally thrilling, a top-notch slice of disaster filmmaking that captures the chaos and confusion that must have permeated the situation.  Once the dust settles, a drawn-out survival story ensues, as it took 69 days for the miners to be rescued.

            If the movie is to be believed, then it was faith and family that kept the men going, along with the rousing leadership of Antonio Banderas’s Mario.  Banderas goes big here, shaking his head and yelling vehemently at his fellow men, an energy that is unmatched by any of the other actors.  Rescue efforts on the outside are led by a sister played inexplicably by the very French Juliette Binoche (her ethnicity is never commented upon) and the Chilean Minister of Mining (Rodrigo Santoro).  Both characters have their stirring speeches, but Binoche and Santoro dial them back a bit, making them feel more of a piece with the rest of the film than Banderas’s strained effort.  None of this derails the film, though, as the stories of fathers trying to get home to their families and troubled men having revelations in the dark is superficially easy to connect with.  More troubling problems are hinted at but not explored, indicating that the screenwriters wanted to stick with a relatively upbeat tone instead of dredging through the mud.

            Stylistic choices aside, The 33 has a nearly deadly pacing problem.  Part of this is due to the timeline of the true story, with the miner’s being reached and sent supplies long before they are pulled out.  After watching dirty, sweaty men nearly starve to death, it’s hard not to lose steam once they’re all wearing nice shorts and sleeping on bed pads, and yet the movie drags on for a long time in this state.  Without the early survival-story tension (which is well done considering we all know how the story ends), the cookie-cutter characters and relationship dramas aren’t enough to hold the audience’s attention. 

Even with this limp into the finale, there’s still satisfaction in rooting for people to do right by each other, and that’s what the world ended up doing for 69 days.  In this case, a pat on the back is well-deserved, and that’s what The 33 ends up feeling like.

Other Notes:

Ø  Another inexplicable casting choice is Bob Gunton (the warden in The Shawshank Redemption) as the president of Chile.

Ø  Of course the American drill makes it through.  I know that’s what really happened, but I still cringed a bit.

Ø  The score was done by the late James Horner (Braveheart, Titanic, A Beautiful Mind), and its overt manipulations match what the film is trying to do.