Released in July 2022, Thirteen Lives is a biographical film based on the Tham Luang cave rescue directed and produced by Ron Howard. The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, and Tom Bateman. Thirteen Lives recounts the true story of the global effort, over the course of 18 days between June and July 2018, to rescue a Thai soccer team that became trapped after setting out to explore the Tham Luang cave during an unexpected rainstorm.
The film addresses several of the real-life events that took place during this disaster. Thirteen Lives tells the story of how faced with impossible odds, a team of skilled and experienced divers from around the world, are uniquely able to navigate the maze of flooded and narrow cave tunnels. With the help of Thai forces and more than 10,000 volunteers, they attempt a dangerous mission to rescue the twelve boys and their coach.
Comparing The Film and the Real-Life Tham Luang Cave Rescue
According to Richard Stanton, who was part of the team of skilled divers helping to save the 12 boys and their coach, Ron Howard’s dramatic retelling of the rescue comes about as close as you can get without being in the cave yourself. This level of accuracy is partly because Stanton was on set when the movie was being made. “I was there for two-and-a-half months whilst it was being shot,” he says. “So I knew all the scenes quite intimately.”
Most of the characters are based on real people and the film succeeds in depicting the emotions of all involved. However, the Thai soccer players and their parents in the film weren’t professional actors, but they were from Northern Thailand and could accurately capture the northern dialect. “They weren’t professional actors, but they could ad-lib in the dialect,” noted director Ron Howard. “It’s not just an accent, it’s also phrasing. It was just vitally important that we tackle those things.”
The film also accurately depicted a group of pump workers who were discovered stranded inside the cave separate from the thirteen. The rescue team thought they had found four of the football team, but instead, they had found pump workers. The pump workers had been asleep on the sandbank, missed the evacuation, and got flooded into the cave. And nobody knew they were missing. Richard Stanton did mention one element that differed between the film and reality. “The biggest difference between this and the rescue is the fact that when we were underwater, you couldn’t really see anything. And that would be impossible to demonstrate because then the viewers would not see anything”, Stanton states
The Actors Gained Diving Skills For The Film
The film stars Viggo Mortensen as British cave diver Rick Stanton and Colin Farrell as his fellow expert, John Volanthen. The star power from the cast was heavily relied on by the film for character development, and the stars did not disappoint. Each of the actors contributed to the delivery of a collective performance that adequately portrayed the distinct and engrossing characters that the rescue revolved around.
The technical design of the film also contributed to the success of the film. With skilful recreation of the interiors of the Tham Luang cave and with an unbearably claustrophobic array of sub-aqua sound design that was quite eerie in its depiction of water and cave noises, the movie brought the events in the cave to life. For their roles, Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell also got SCUBA-certified so they could dive without much use of stunt doubles. The editing of the film involved cutting between what was going on underground in the cave and the numerous attempts to divert water above, providing an encompassing and gripping view of the rescue efforts
What Was The Impact and Significance Of Thirteen Lives?
The cultural significance of the film is highlighted by Rick Stanton who said “We didn’t realize at that time how emotionally invested people were in the story, but once we did, it was clear it had all the ingredients of almost the perfect film.” By providing a gripping dramatization, the film has contributed to a deeper understanding of the Tham Luang cave rescue. It brought to public consciousness the hazards of the rescue as well as the political and social pressure on the divers and team of rescuers.
Thirteen Lives serves as a reminder of the courage and bravery of the emergency responders and divers. It also highlights the power of the human spirit to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Reminding viewers and the world of the importance of international cooperation in times of crisis.
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