Every generation has a “I remember where I was when…” story. There’s that historic moment where you and everybody you know were watching the same event on television. I have three: 9/11, Obama’s win in 2008, and the Chilean miners coming out of that cylinder in 2010. I was watching CNN with my father. We were both clapping. I was crying, in a cool indie film kind of way. In case you were, I don’t know, busy (i.e. heartless) don’t worry – there’s now a Hollywood version of the story.
Los 33 (The 33) tells the story of the 33 Chilean miners who were buried alive after the collapse of a 121-year-old gold mine. Back in April, we got a sneak peek at the Hollywood rendering of the ordeal in the form of the movie’s first trailer for the Chilean theatrical release. Now, as a lead up to the U.S. premiere this winter, there’s a second trailer to tease the much-anticipated project. This one is an ode to human resilience told over A Great Big World’s “Say Something.” It’s emotional manipulation at its best. I get it. I’m in. I’ll go watch the voice of Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) survive an underground explosion. I’ll listen to a mountain’s heart break, because I know it will mend. Just like I hope Hollywood mended the miner’s wallet after buying their stories.
The trailer has a Nicholas Sparks-meets-Black Hawk Down vibe. It makes sense, considering the fact that Patricia Riggen (Under the Same Moon) directed a screenplay based on a story by Jose Rivera (Motorcycle Diaries, The Road, and playwright of our souls) and Hector Tobar’s book Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free. The cast list is long and full of people with brown eyes and hair, lines on their faces, and Oscars. I guess it’s not as bad as having Bradley Cooper play a miner and Nicole Kidman his Chilean wife. But it still sucks that everybody, from Lou Diamond Phillips to Jacob Vargas, was forced to put on a thick accent and sound like members of the Puss in Boots posse.
Los 33 opens in U.S. theaters on November 13, 2015.