The 33 dutifully chronicles everything: the warnings about instability, prior to the accident, that went unheeded; the collapse of a massive hunk of rock estimated at twice the weight of the Empire State Building; the miners’ efforts to ration three days’ worth of food and water (it would be 17 days before the world even learned they were still alive). The two of them alone are worth the price of admission. The film was shot in Chile, and deep in the mines of Colombia. Banderas gives another entertainingly overripe performance, and Phillips is genuinely affecting in radiating the pain behind his eyes, but there’s too much stilted acting here and too little psychological insight to render an interesting story of humanity in crisis. Sepúlveda visited Banderas on the set. Banderas said that Sepulveda was not a quitter, “he’s a man of faith and he’s insane”. And he is insane.
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“And what is that thing that is essential, that is really important for me?”
Phillips lobbied for a role in the film.
Q: What do you want people to feel at the end of the film? “But the truth of the matter is, when the rubber hits the road, so to speak, you are tested”.
Unavoidably, Riggen and the screenwriting team focus on just a handful of characters, but they still seem cardboard-thin onscreen. “It was their families”, Phillips added. As expected, all of them display various degrees of both despair and hope. Most probably won’t feel as bored as I did in the first half of this film, or I’m at least hoping so.
“Maria Segovia was an orphan at 6 years old. She raised her siblings”, Binoshe said.
On the surface, primary responsibility falls to the brand-new minister of mining, Laurence Golborne (Rodrigo Santoro, whose face you know because he’s the handsomest guy in any movie he’s in). He had only been on the job a few months when the incident happened. Binoche portrays a woman who acts as de facto leader of the miner’s families, demanding information and action from the mining authorities who oversaw the operation. But I think the biggest reason is he starts to relate and connect and have a relationship with the families. “They inspire him. They encourage him”. In fact, once the extent of the disaster had been assessed, it was assumed majority had died-or soon would, as there was no apparent way to reach the refuge, let alone resupply it. A postscript notes that the mining company was cleared of all charges and that the miners were never compensated, a situation that continues in the wake of the film. The men, who were buried alive as coworkers, emerged as brothers.
CBN News was there when they visited Israel together to walk where Jesus walked and be baptized in the Jordan River.
Appearing on the red carpet for the premiere of The 33 were actors Kate del Castillo, Rodrigo Santoro, Juan Pablo Raba, Chilean television personality Don Francisco, Consul General of Chile Luis Eduardo Salinas and the film’s director Patricia Riggen.
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“When you are with them for a while, they can not stop with cruel jokes, very cruel”, Banderas told CBN News. “In the meantime they help each other in troubled times”. It is fun to watch them, [and] the dynamics of the group. Gabriel Byrne is great as Sougarret, the experienced driller who initially is all about making it clear to Golborne the odds and statistics are against them but after a short while finds himself getting caught up in trying to find and save the miners.
