In case you were hiding under a big rock in 2010, a miracle happened that summer/fall (well … verano/otoño depending on perspectiva) when thirty-three trapped Chilean gold miners survived 700 meters underground for over two months. For the first seventeen days, they were completely cut off from the surface after the San José mine collapsed. The greater miracle, however, is that, apparently, they all spoke English, which seems pretty far-fetched for blue-collar Chilean workers, but maybe they were inspired by President Piñera (Bob Gunton, you know this guy was warden at Shawshank, right?), who is also, clearly, a white guy.
I kid, of course. The 33 was made almost entirely in English, with bursts of Spanish in a handful of news reports. This was a mistake and a tad condescending to the victims, but not enough to spoil the film. So we get to suspend our disbelief a smidge for the convenience of translating history for an American audience.
To simplify: in a mountain of tunnels, a rock twice the size of the Empire State Building gave way at exactly the moment that almost three dozen men were hopelessly stuck on the wrong end of a circuitous 5k trail between they and the only entrance/exit. The 33 claims ventilation chimneys lacked ladder rungs for the vertical climb to freedom. I’m not sure this would have worked anyway as that would be the best place for any rescue effort to begin, no (which obviously didn’t happen)? Clearly, however, there was fresh air from somewhere. That probably came in handy as the constant interior mine temperature was over 90°F.
The 33 has issues with time. The set-up is just long enough to establish three or four mediocre characters and the collapse happens on day one, hour one. After the collapse, however, time crawls to a halt as one might imagine, but a scene will end and then something like “Day 12” will appear. Whaaaaa? Well, Ok, but you might make the men look a tad leaner, grimier and harrier? You did? Um, sure you did. So yeah, I wasn’t wild about everybody speaking English; I wasn’t about the pacing; I wasn’t wild about the rescue explanation (you can’t just drill straight; it doesn’t work that way, but they didn’t explain well what did work); I wasn’t wild about an anglo Presidente and there’s only so much you can do with scenes of desperate people who want their loved ones to emerge from underground, see their collective shadow, and declare “seis más semanas del invierno.”
I don’t wish to convey that this picture is not worth seeing. Did I mention the trapped workers had provisions intended for 30 men to last three days? This is where The 33 works – otherwise regular guy Mario Sepúlveda (Antonio Banderas) becomes de facto leader of the trapped miners after shouting his optimism despite their predicament. He becomes keeper of the food storage locker and metes out daily rations of one tablespoon
tuna and and 1/8th cup of milk per man. The “just stay alive until help comes” theme has been done and done better this year alone, but there’s real substance to the idea of keeping thirty-three diverse, stir-crazy men alive in an underground box for a couple of months. The camaraderie is quite inspiring.
Don Lucho (Lou Diamond Phillips) was safety inspector for the mine; the movie contends he’s a good guy – hard to tell if this is actual truth, but he was stuck with the miners, so whatever penance he had to pay has long since been atoned. I imagine keeping him alive would have been quite a chore in reality. The film claims the lone Bolivian was in far greater peril; the scenes of the group turning on itself and somehow coming back stronger are worth the pirated download. Perhaps that’s what I enjoyed about The 33 – for the most part, the theory was better than the execution, but it was quite a theory.
♪Workin’ in a gold mine
Getting’ too deep, deep
Workin’ in a gold mine
Oops, that rock just slipped down
Workin’ in a gold mine
Uh oh, we’re trapped, trapped
Sittin’ in a gold mine
Guess we’ll be a while now♫
Rated PG-13, 127 Minutes
D: Patricia Riggen
W: Mikko Alanne, Craig Borten and Michael Thomas
Genre: Yada yada eternal triumph yada yada human spirit
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Coal miners
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Claustrophobes
♪ Parody inspired by “Working in a Coal Mine”
