Lou Diamond Phillips, left, and Antonio Banderas star in The 33.Beatrice Aguirre Zúñiga
I can admit it now, five years later, that I was one of those who, in whispered tones, said that the Chilean miners were likely dead. That the government was cruel to keep hope alive. That it was highly unlikely that 33 men, trapped half a kilometre under the Atacama Desert, were still alive more than two weeks after the mine they were working deep inside collapsed, and if not killing them, leaving them with only three days of food and little air.
I was a news editor living in Chile's capital city, Santiago, and had expressed my doubts to a fellow journalist there on Day 16, a Saturday – not without sadness, but with a mix of horror and detachment for what that truly meant for the men (or what remained of them), and for their families. The next day, the local press reported that the drill aiming for the refuge, where any alive might be waiting, could reach it within hours. So when cars in Santiago's streets started honking without stop – a cacophony of sound expressing alarm, joy and absolute shock – we knew what it meant.
And the rest, as they say, was TV magic.
Equipment, engineers and journalists came from all over Chile and soon the world, flooding the northern city of Copiapo until hotel rooms and vehicle rentals were in short supply. Within weeks, the scene at the San José mine became nothing less than a circus. The miners had been underground for more than two months, NASA scientists, mariachi bands and entertainment clowns had come and gone, and thousands of journalists were camped out on site. Then, on Oct. 13, 2010, the slender metal capsule, painted blue, red and white, readied for its descent to bring the miners up to safety, one by one.
It made for one of the most compelling, positive news stories – and most watched bits of reality TV – anyone could imagine.
And now its big-screen test has arrived, with a mix of big Hollywood names (Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne) and lesser-known Latin actors to bring back to life the drama of the 69 days the miners were trapped under that mass of rock and mountain.
Many of the characters border on outright caricatures – Bob Gunton's turn as Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, the Elvis-obsessed miner, the unnecessarily simple Bolivian and the wife-mistress duo – and the English-language treatment never feels right, mostly due to the odd mix of accents. But the emotions are there. Terror, anger, frustration, a deep sense of human strength, courage and love for family. If it feels over the top, well, it is, because the real story bordered on unbelievable and frequently crossed over into the bizarre, even comical. (Mario Sepulveda, played by Banderas, really is a larger-than-life character, and Chilean millionaire Leonardo Farkas, with his long blond hair and snappy suits, did indeed come to the site to give out large sums to the families.)
And although there is much left out of the film – from the larger, global context of mine safety to the grim financial and mental challenges the miners face to this day – the uplifting factor that made this story such a draw in the first place remains.
In fact, the decision to focus much of the film on those first 17 days, when many, including me, had given up hope, is the best added value here. It was that time – long before most TV cameras had arrived, when the miners themselves didn't know if they would be found, consuming nothing but crumbs of tuna and a swish of milk every day or two – that was never easy to understand, or to imagine.
But as millions watching the eventual rescue understood, the strength of those miners and the unlikely hope of their families, was utterly captivating. Their survival moved me deeply then and, with The 33, it still does now.