Academy Award-winning duo Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi premiered their latest documentary, “The Rescue,” at Telluride last Friday. Their film is one of three National Geographic-produced productions on the Telluride slate, a notable dent in this festival's relatively small lineup. While the other two documentaries featured individuals, however — including the ocean exploration biodoc “Becoming Cousteau” and the sharply contemporary “Fauci” — “The Rescue” revolves around an event instead. Here, Chin and Vasarhelyi expand their scope to include the multiple complexities that went into saving the thirteen soccer players trapped in the Tham Luang cave in 2018.
Like a breaking news story, “The Rescue” unfolds with a day-by-day play. The movie begins by explaining how this elementary-age soccer team and coach delved deeper into the caves for safety. It then recounts all the help recruited to save these boys. Thai navy SEALs. US military forces. Renowned Buddhist monks. Much to everyone's surprise, however, a handful middle-aged cave diving hobbyists show up — and promise to save the day. The film takes a turn, then, to follow this eclectic group of four. Hailing from the UK, Belgium, and Australia, these four gentlemen put their minds and experience together to save the children.
This documentary's heavy reliance on news footage invites the viewer to compare the story on-screen with the coverage from the past. On one hand, the emphasis on the cave divers gives the film a rather mild-mannered charm. Despite the extremity of circumstances, a good dose of tongue-in-cheek British humor lightens the mood every now and then. All the same however, this very focus on the cave divers — rather than on the team, or even on the coach (of whom the news media had extensively covered at the time!) — have little to do with the story. There is little mention of the extensive meditation practice, rationing, or even teamwork on their part to keep the boys alive as long as possible. The Thais recede from the film's focus, and instead remain a hapless, anonymous thirteen. The divers instead steal the spotlight.
Chin and Vasarhelyi successfully keep the viewer engaged, however. Though the event is quite recent — only three years ago, really — the director-producer duo's notorious thriller-like sensibilities continue to keep viewers at the edge of their seats. “The Rescue” lures the viewer in with the constant fear of death: two people, one soundbite ominously predicts, must die to extract all thirteen. Claustrophobic in-cave re-enactments and in-depth interviews then dramatize the riskiness of each operation, and heighten the rescuers' fear as well. Teetering on borderline sensationalism, the filmmakers successfully recreate the atmosphere of anticipation, worry, and international pressure. Hence, even though we know how the (real) story ends, the documentary keeps its viewers wrapped around its finger.
These two factors combined dress the traumatic event with an irresistible likeability. Before the pandemic, I reviewed another film called “The Rescue” in London. Dante Lam's Lunar New Years blockbuster was also an ode to emergency fighters; here, this fictional narrative maximizes star power in the face of danger. Chin and Vasarhelyi's “The Rescue,” however, feels like a succinctly different film. Instead of merely underscoring the sheer hazards of cave diving, “The Rescue” keeps its focus human-centric. Through editing in each divers' quirks and fairly unremarkable biographies, the small-scale humanity of these big-time rescue volunteers add to the movie's charm. Anyone, “The Rescue” emphasizes, can become a hero.
All in all, “The Rescue” successfully weaves in archival, interview, and re-enactment footage to deliver a glossy, but real feel for saving the boys in the Thai caves. Though the documentary detracts too much attention from the rescued in favor of the rescuers, this also marks its strong point. Here, the true “rescue” takes place in the hearts of these once outcast, socially awkward cave divers… who for once are celebrated for their strange obsession. Just as they saved others, their newfound recognition seems to deliver them from insecurity, too.
“The Rescue” will be released in US theaters this October through Greenwich Entertainment.
