Sanctum
starring Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield, Alice Parkinson, Daniel Wyllie and Ioan Grufffud
written by John Garvin and Andrew Wight
directed by Alister Grierson
Rating: ♦♦♦◊◊
Like 127 Hours, Sanctum is a story of the triumph of the human spirit - assisted by great physical fitness, perseverance and survival skill, not to mention a lot of expensive equipment and plain dumb luck - through incredible adversity. Based on a true story, we accompany a group of Australian cave explorers - spelunkers - who are caught in the Esa Ala cave of Papua New Guinea. That’s the largest underground and underwater cave system in the world. The group of adventurers is caught underground by a sudden tropical storm that is flooding the cave. They can’t get out the way they came in, so they have to move forward through unexplored parts of the cave system - many of them under water - looking for a way out. Of course they make it. Or, one made it. If the film is based on a true story then at least one person had to make it in order to tell us about it, right?
So many people died of drowning that it made drowning look quick and easy. I wonder if I should try it in the end?
Conditions are extreme. Pipers need not attempt it. There were some pretty graphic drowning scenes. So many people died by drowning that it made drowning look quick and easy. I wonder if I should try it in the end?
Executive Producer was Canadian James Cameron, famous director of Avatarand other films. It’s also a film made for 3-D viewing. The visual shots of Nature are so fabulous that they reminded me of the astounding scenes of Pandora, the alien world featured in Cameron’s Avatar.
My favorite line from the film is this, “Conserve your batteries and get some rest.” That sounds like good advice.