Does The 33’s drama match the real thing?
Star reporter who covered rescue of Chilean miners in 2010 sorts the true from false
On Aug. 5, 2010, a gold and copper mine near Copiapo, Chile, collapsed and trapped 33 miners underground. Sixty-nine days later, they were brought back to the surface in a spectacular rescue.
It was so momentous some have compared it to the moon landing. I was lucky enough to be there.
My three weeks covering the rescue of “los 33” were among the most memorable of my life and I often wish I could revisit that inspiring moment in time.
Well, now I can — sort of. The movie version of the rescue, The 33, has hit the big screen.
When I watched the film in a prescreening, many things were exactly as I remembered. But the movie takes some creative liberties.
WHAT’S FALSE
Mario Gomez
Of the 33 miners, truck driver Mario Gomez was the oldest at 63. But the camera must add 10 years, because his movie version looks older.
Portrayed by Colombian actor Gustavo Angarita, the movie Gomez is weak and frail; the real-life version is actually pretty spry. On screen, Gomez is balding with a snowy-white Santa-style beard; off screen, Gomez has a full head of hair and prefers to be clean-shaven. He even emerged from the mine with a bare face, thanks to razors and shaving cream provided by the rescuers.
The film plays up the drama of Gomez’s story by opening the movie with his retirement party, but the mine collapses during his last day on the job. Gomez did have plans to retire, but not until later that year. Drills
My biggest eye-roll moment was during one particular scene that, for Canadians, is a bit of a slap in the face.
There were three teams, dubbed Plan A, B and C, working furiously to drill the rescue hole. Two had Canadian connections; Plan A was supervised by a driller from North Bay, Ont., and the Plan C drill was owned and manned by Calgary-based Precision Drilling Corp. There was a three-way race to reach the miners and Plan B, the American drill, won.
I fully expected Hollywood to give the American team the full hero treatment. But the scriptwriters went even further by having the other two teams bow out of the race, due to some unexplained hiccup.
Never happened. In fact, Plan C kept drilling even after the American drill punched through, just in case a backup hole was needed. Reporters crowded around the rescue hole
The dramatic climax of the movie was obviously the rescue: a scene that made me smirk.
That was because it showed a crowd of people — family members, rescuers, journalists — huddled around the rescue hole, waiting for the miners to emerge. In reality, reporters (and even many family members) weren’t allowed near the rescue hole. Rescue inaccuracies
The inaccuracy that most mystified me was that of the first miner rescued. It was a guy named Florencio Avalos; in the movie, he was swapped out for another miner, Alex Vega.
There is also a post-rescue scene that would have never happened in real life. A secondary storyline in the film was about Maria Segovia (portrayed by a sun-baked Juliette Binoche, a rather bizarre casting choice) and her estranged relationship with her miner brother, Dario.
The culmination of their storyline is their eventual reunion above ground. In the scene, Dario has just been rescued and is wandering around in search of his sister. This could never have happened, because all miners were immediately airlifted to a nearby hospital.
The Atacama sun is also shining brightly in this scene, though Dario isn’t wearing eye protection; in fact, the miners had to wear sunglasses for several days in order for their eyes to safely readjust to light.
WHAT’S TRUE
The Love Triangle
When I heard they were making a movie about the miners, I knew it would feature the love triangle.
This story was irresistible for the media: one of the miners, Yoni Barrios, had a wife, Marta Salinas, and a mistress, Susana Valenzuela, who reportedly discovered each other at Camp Hope, the makeshift tent city where relatives were living.
Movie gold, right? I fully expected to see this confrontation play out on screen. Instead, the film hewed closer to reality, which was that the two women were already aware of each other and it was Valenzuela who notified Barrios’s wife of the collapse. Rolly the Clown Moviegoers might notice one scene where a clown suddenly appears in the frame, never to be seen again.
This might seem random but Rolly el Payaso — a.k.a. Rolly the Clown — was a Camp Hope fixture. His name is Rolando Gonzalez, and despite not knowing any of the miners he felt compelled to travel 750 km to the minehead.
Rolly’s plan was to stay for a few days and cheer up some kids. He wound up living at Camp Hope until the end and I saw him every single day — always in full clown makeup.