THE CAVE

Thailand/Ireland, 2019, 104 minutes, Colour.

Jim Warny.

Directed by Tom Waller.

The trouble with time for so many of us is that it passes so quickly. It is over three years since the world watched on, anxious, eager, ultimately rejoicing, when the young Thai football team and its coach were rescued after being trapped in a cave for almost 2 weeks.

Here is a dramatisation of those events, an opportunity for us to remember, to admire.

This is a fairly straightforward film as might be expected. We are introduced to the boys, playing football, the coach, the eagerness of riding their bikes, leaving them at the entry of the cave, going in to explore. In fact, while the screenplay goes back to the boys and the coach trapped in the cave, in the darkness, it does not spend a lot of time with them nor identify them strongly for the audience sympathy and understanding. They are the group. They have been trapped. They need to be rescued.

Most of the film concerns the rescue effort. All around the world there was constant reporting in that June-July of 2018 (and this is illustrated by several journalists reporting here). And, of course, constant news, constant images, constant speculation on social media.

However, it is helpful to remember that this was an extraordinary task, extraordinary logistics, extraordinary effort required from so many people. While there is an emphasis on the Thai authorities, there is also quite some implied criticism of the fussy bureaucracy that some of the officials demanded, holding up those who had volunteered to come and help, even those with drainage equipment, not letting them in until they had government authorisation. A reminder that there is always the danger of petty bureaucracy and hold up.

However, there is also great emphasis on the international collaboration, from the Americans with their organisational skills. But, also a significant emphasis on the cave divers who came in from around the world. This is dramatised especially in the figure of Jim Warny, cave expert, living in Ireland, urged to go to Thailand. Which means then that this often documentary-like narrative has the human element, the human story, Jim leaving his fiancee, keeping in touch with her, her encouragement. It means also that we identify with him as he worries about the situation, does various dives and tests, becomes heavily involved in the transporting the children from the deep cave, their being medicated and unconscious, carried through the waters, saved.

For those who remember the events and felt concerned at the time, this film is a solid reminder of the crisis, the boys and their coach, the need for rescue, the wonder of world collaboration for the rescue.

1. The events of June-July 2018? The boys and their coach? Trapped in the cave? The rescue over two weeks? World attention and collaboration?
2. Setting the scene, the boys playing football, coach, bike rides, going to the cave, exuberance, their being trapped by the rising waters?
3. The documentary tone of the film, the facts of the entrapment, the response of the Thai authorities, efforts, bureaucratic tangles and insensitivities, the appeal for international help, to Hawaii, the Americans, to the cave divers from all over the world? The need for pumps to remove the water, the efforts to bring the pumps from all over Thailand? The logistics for the rescue, possibilities, difficulties, the rains, the rising water, the different chambers, ropes along the walls, the deposits of oxygen? The details of the final rescue?
4. The brief focus on the boys, glimpses of them in the cave, conversations, surviving, but not giving a great deal of detail concerning food, air, water (drips from the iced ceiling), practical difficulties?
5. World concern, news reporters and their reports, social media?
6. The days passing, two weeks, indications of the boys and how long they were in the cave?
7. The authorities, the logistics, the command? The locals, those bringing the pumps and their being rejected by the bureaucrats, the professor, the eventual working of the bigger pumps?
8. The appeal to the cave divers? The personalising of the narrative by the portrait of Jim Warny? Warny re-enacting what he did at the time? Seeing him in Ireland, his talent, his fiancee, the news, the invitation to go to Thailand, packing, arrival, explanations? His contribution? Interaction with the other divers?
9. The rescue of the boys, the range of divers, the techniques, injections and the boys unconscious, wrapped, being taken through the water, to the different chambers? The building up of the tension, the gradual bringing out of the boys and the coach?
10. The local a claim, world acclaim?
11. The boys, seeing them hospitalised, the helicopters? The focus on the coach, his coming to consciousness, anxieties?
12. The heroism of the episode, the extraordinary interest worldwide, and the extraordinary collaboration for successful outcome?