‘13TH MAN’ TELLS STORY OF A&M BONFIRE SURVIVOR
John Comstock’s scarred back bears a tattoo that reads “13th Man” with a representation of a bonfire, the decades-spanning Texas A&M University tradition that nearly killed him. He is at the center of filmmaker Charlie Minn’s documentary, also called “The 13th Man,” about the November 1999 disaster at A&M, when the stack of logs collapsed while more than a dozen students were working on it.
“The 13th Man” is a tribute to the 12 students who died from injuries sustained in that tragedy. It also serves as an inspirational story about Comstock, who survived the collapse but suffered life-changing injuries. Threaded throughout is Aggie history and lore. The mix of information and tone leaves the film with a jumbled flow that never finds a comfortable pace.
Minn offers a little background for those unaware of the bonfire tradition. Historian Dan Quinn suggests humble beginnings in the film: “It’s an all male semi-military school in the middle of nowhere at the turn of the century: There’s not a lot to do, so the guys threw some rubbish into a pile and set it on fire.”
The trash fire became an engineering feat. At its peak, the stack set a Guinness record at 109 feet.
Footage of the students dotted along the side of the stack makes for a startling sight. One survivor was about 45 feet up at around 2:45 in the morning on Nov. 19, 1999 when he noticed the ground moving.
Minn then shifts his narrative toward some of the students buried in the stack, including Tim Kerlee, whose internal injuries would prove fatal, yet who directed rescue efforts to other students inside the stack of logs. Comstock’s
rescue took over seven hours. He underwent multiple surgeries and didn’t leave the hospital until April 2000.
Minn threw a wide net, but he doesn’t find an efficient way to edit it into a fluid story. A few talking heads on the story’s periphery don’t offer any real insight into the tragedy or the aftermath. The film at times feels like a TV doc forced into a longer format.
Still, there are moments that resonate beautifully for viewers outside the A&M culture, including halftime scenes from the A&M/ University of Texas game eight days after the accident, and footage of students years later carrying candles to the memorial that stands at the site of the accident.