British hero hails US film director’s depiction of Thai cave rescue

Cave hero Richard Stanton believes movie director Ron Howard was the perfect choice to capture the raw emotion of the dramatic rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded grotto in Thailand.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker has retold the climactic tale from four years ago of the cave rescue in a new movie, “Thirteen Lives,” which premiered last night in the UK. Howard also directed the Oscar-winning Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks.

“As far as I was concerned, Apollo 13 was a fantastic film, very relevant, real-life dramatic rescue, just like Thailand, so it was the perfect choice of director from our point of view.”

Ron Howard and Richard Stanton

The 61 year old cave diver, who was awarded an MBE for his heroic act, recalled how he did not have time for emotion as he and his friend John Volanthen set about rescuing the boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach, from the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai in June 2018 after monsoon rains flooded the tunnels and trapped them underground.

“When we arrived in Thailand, it was completely chaotic. It was clear that we had previous experience that could probably make a difference.

“It was like something none of us had ever experienced before, we really did write the operational manuals as we went along. We didn’t have time to be thinking about anything but the nuts and bolts of the rescue, not necessarily emotions.”

The boys and their coach survived nine days before being discovered by two British divers, but it took another eight days to get them to safety.

The movie recreates the 17-day ordeal inside the sprawling cave complex and above the mountain covering it where volunteers, engineers, and soldiers pumped millions of litres of water out of the cave and drilled through rocks looking for gaps to reach the boys.

Howard hailed the heroic acts of all those involved in the rescue, saying there had been risks taken on so many different levels and adding that he tried to dramatise as much of that as he could.

“What I began to recognise as we were working on the movie is that there are a lot of reasons to be fearful in a situation like that, the physical, but also the emotional.

“What scar tissue emotionally can you take away from an event like this, especially if things don’t go well.

“Politics, career decisions, these things, these people took risks on so many different levels to make this happen and I tried to dramatise as much of that as I could in this film.”

The film stars Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell as British divers Stanton and Volanthen, with Joel Edgerton taking on the role of Harry Harris.

Thai actors and amateurs were cast in supporting roles while most of the young boys playing the members of the “Wild Boar” football team had no acting experience.

Stanton admitted he is happy with how the movie portrayed the rescue.

“I think it’s good for people to know what happened. It’s not a documentary, but it’s pretty much true to life.”

The movie is to be released in the US and British cinemas on July 29 before it is launched globally on Amazon Prime Video on August 5.

SOURCE: Belfast Telegraph KFGO