New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Thai cave incident explored in riveting ‘The Rescue’
The outcome is right there in the title. And yet the new documentary “The Rescue,” about the harrowing 18-day ordeal in which 12 young soccer players and their coach were saved from a flooded cave in Thailand, is still a stressful, suspenseful experience. It’s other things, too — affirming, truthful, funny, macabre and unembellished — but it achieves something extraordinarily difficult for a global news story that ended three years ago: It makes you feel like you’re there.
From the “Free Solo” Oscar-winning filmmaking team E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who took audiences sweatypalmed up the vertical slope of Yosemite’s El Capitan, “The Rescue” is perhaps an even more accomplished piece. It’s assuredly focused for a story with so many components and characters. Instead of trying to make it about everything, the filmmakers decided to hone in exclusively on the rescue efforts and to mostly let the people who were actually there tell the story.
Neither the boys nor their parents are interviewed at all and exposition is provided by clips from news broadcasts at the time. This means no talking heads trying to up the suspense, or reality show-like backstories about the kids and their families: This story doesn’t need it. It’s about rescuing 13 lives and no tearjerker histories are necessary to make it a more worthy or compelling mission.
The Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Northern Thailand was a place the boys were familiar with — it’s described as their playground. And it was not supposed to be a risky outing considering it was well before monsoon season when they went exploring after practice. But the rains came early and trapped the young boys and their coach.
“The Rescue,” a National Geographic Documentary Films release in theaters Friday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America. Running time: 114 minutes.