The 33

"The 33" recounts the two-and-a-half-month ordeal of 33 miners trapped 700 meters underground in Chile, in 2010. The film moves briskly, introducing some of the major players at a party before the disaster happens: There's Mario (Anotnio Banderas), destined to become the leader of the trapped men as they struggle to survive; Don Lucho (Lou Diamond Phillips), who later finds shards of broken mirror in the mine's upper levels, indications that the mountain's internal geology is in flux, but whose warnings are shrugged off by the management; and �lex (Mario Casas), whose wife is expecting, and whose family want him to quit the mine and take a less hazardous job above ground for less pay.

Before disaster strikes we also meet Dario (Juan Pablo Raba), a young man with substance abuse issues who has long been estranged from his sister, Mar�a (Juliette Binoche). But when the chips...not to mention 720,000 tons of solid rock twice as hard of granite, "the heart of the mountain"... are down, it's Mar�a who stands up to the mine company's goons, who would just as soon stonewall the miners' families and allow the trapped men to die.

It's also Mar�a who directly confronts and badgers Laurence Golborne (Rodrigo Santoro), the government's Minister of Mining, one of the few bureaucrats who seems to feel that the Chilean government needs to intervene out of moral obligation and not for political reasons. While rescue efforts coalesce above ground (Gabriel Byrne shows up as a top-flight mining engineer; James Brolin is also on hand as an American expert), the men -- trapped in a "refuge" area with dwindling supplies, and in stifling heat -- come perilously close to starvation, if not out and out dog-eat-dog violence. The film is based on actual events, and most viewers probably recall the true-life drama and how it all turns out, but the film offers a viscerally tense rendition of the story.

This is also a message movie about working conditions and the inherent schism -- not just in Chile -- between how the law treats ordinary people and the outrageous sorts of negligence and exploitation big business gets away with. Director Patricia Riggen proves adept with the action sequences as well as the crowd scenes; she's also fluent with small personal moments. It's in the confrontations between men in the dark, and in danger, that the director (and the screenwriters, also) reverts to the trite and formulaic.

For special features, the Blu-ray essentially offers three previews for the film -- the actual theatrical trailer, plus two short featurettes that play like little more than souped-up trailers. "The Mine Collapses" focuses on the effects and design work needed to bring off the catastrophic cave-in; "The 33: The World Was Watching" focuses on how the real life drama captured the attention of the global 24-hour news cycle. Riggen, Banderas, and Phillips, among others from the film, offer their thoughts in brief interview-style snippets.

The film is effective, efficient, and not especially memorable. Visually, the above-ground scenery -- in the Atacama desert, not far from the actual location -- is striking; below ground, there are a few gripping visuals, but dark and murk are the order of the day. There is, however, a lot of grinding, rumbling audio action, best enjoyed on a good sound system.

All in all, fans of the cast members who are also completists might want to purchase this release, but for most a streaming rental will suffice.

"The 33"
Blu-ray
$19.99
http://www.warnerbros.com/33