Thai cave rescue: Hollywood hype won't help the boys
July 13, 2018
How has sitting tight in the dark in a flooded cave, hoping for help, affected the Thai boys? A German child psychologist says turning the story into a movie could be harmful to their mental health.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Royal Thai Navy Facebook Page
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Dramatic real-life events turned into movies
Incidents like the Thai cave rescue or airplane hijackings often leave us on the edge of our seats. As plans progress for a film about the Thai rescue operation, DW looks at other emotional events that became movies.
The rescue mission was still underway when the first US film company showed up. "I see this as a major Hollywood film with A-list stars," says Pure Flix CEO Michael Scott. Survivors of the 2010 mining accident in Chile whose story was filmed have already warned the Thai kids, saying they will have no means of dealing with the spotlight and the media. "We couldn't, and we were adults."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Royal Thai Navy
San Francisco (1936) - A destroyed city
Dramatic events and disasters have always moved Hollywood. The 1936 film "San Francisco" starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy set standards for future generations. The film is based on the massive earthquake that shook San Francisco in 1906 and the firestorm caused by burst gas pipelines. The film was extremely realistic at the time.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/WHA
The Hindenburg (1975) - Zepplin in flames
This legendary airship offered its passengers pure luxury on two decks. The Hindenburg had already flown across the Atlantic several times, it had been to the USA and Brazil. On May 6, 1937, 35 people were killed when a hydrogen tank caught fire. Only 65 people survived the inferno, some of them with serious burns. The historical drama by director Robert Wise was released in 1975.
"Houston, we have a problem": This legendary sentence refers to an oxygen tank that exploded on board Apollo 13 on a trip to the moon in 1970. What could have been a total disaster was turned into a film in 1995 starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon in the leading roles. The mission's real astronauts acted as consultants during the shooting.
Image: Imago/UnitedArchives
Titanic (1997) - Doomed to sink
When the Titanic was launched in 1912, the largest ship in the world was considered unsinkable. Cabins and berths were in high demand for her maiden voyage - a veritable death sentence. When the ship collided with an iceberg, 1,541 of the 2,200 people on board died because there were not enough lifeboats. The disaster was turned into movies several times, most recently in 1997 by James Cameron.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Germany's Lengede miracle (2003) - Drama in the dark
In 1963, 11 miners were rescued from a two-week ordeal holding out in complete darkness in a collapsed iron mine in Lengede, near Hanover. Throughout their ordeal, the miners had to tolerate boulders falling from the ceiling. Decades later, in 2003, their rescue was made into a two-part film for German television, that saw more than 11 million people glued to the screen.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/S. Pilz
World Trade Center (2006) - Attack on social order
In recent decades, nothing has shaken the self-image of the US as much as the September 11, 2001 attacks on the towers of the World Trade Center. Oliver Stone's 2006 film shows the events from the perspective of some of the firefighters (photo: Nicolas Cage) who, while searching for injured people in the rubble, end up buried themselves.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/DB UIP
3,096 (2013) - The true story of Natascha Kampusch
In 1998, an Austrian girl was kidnapped on her way to school. She spent eight years in the hands of her kidnapper, only managing to escape when she was 18. Her story became a major media event. "In their sensationalist greed, the tabloid reporters were far off the mark," she once remarked. She published a book about her imprisonment in 2010, the film followed in 2013.
Image: 2013 Constantin Film Verleih GmbH/Jürgen Olczyk
The 33 (2015) - Legendary mining rescue
In 2010, 33 Chilean miners were trapped in a mine for 69 days, struggling to survive until they were finally rescued with escape pods. The mine drama starring Antonio Banderas was turned into a Hollywood movie in 2015. Many of the workers suffered from the media hype: "First everyone talks about you, you're on TV and on the front pages of newspapers. And then ... nothing."
Image: picture-alliance/B.Aguirre
Sully (2016) - Miracle on the Hudson
This film is based on a miracle water landing. In 2009, shortly after take-off from LaGuardia Airport in New York, both engines of an Airbus failed due to a bird strike. Pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger risked a water landing on the Hudson River. All 155 passengers and crew survived. Tom Hanks (photo) stars as "Sully" in the 2016 film, directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood.
Image: Warner Bros.
Watu Wote (2017) - Solidarity prevails
The film by German director Katja Benrath tells the true story of an Islamic attack on a bus in Kenya. The head of the terrorist group forces everyone out: "Muslims and Christians apart," he shouts. Some of the passengers are shot dead, but that doesn't diminish the solidarity among the remaining passengers. In 2017 "Watu Wote" won the Student Academy Award.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Hamburg Media School
7 Days in Entebbe (2018) - Hostage rescue
In 1976, left-wing terrorists hijacked an Air France plane from Tel-Aviv to Paris with 250 passengers onboard. They demanded the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel and intended to free members of the Red Army Faction (RAF) from prison. Director Jose Padilha spoke to some of the former hostages. For many, the drama is still as real as if it had happened yesterday.
Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection/Focus Features
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Twelve boys and their soccer coach were rescued after more than two weeks of hunkering down and waiting for help in a flooded cave in Thailand – an opportunity US film producers seem intent on seizing to turn the dramatic events into a movie.
German child psychologist Renate Schepker warns that a feature film about their ordeal could pose an incalculable risk to their mental health.
DW: A radical situation like the one the boys just survived can have repercussions much later in life. What are some of the possible psychological effects?
Schepker: They could suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, which means they would relive the situation in nightmares or flashbacks. Triggers in everyday life could bring the memories rushing back, and the person actually physically relives the situation. There is fear, anxiety, and in the worst case, fear of dying - which the kids must have had in the cave at some point. People can also be in a bad mood. Disorders can crop up months after the situation ended.
How would you treat the boys? Is there some kind of "first aid" for the soul?
Yes, in fact there is: first of all, the kids must recognize that they are safe, cared for and that the traumatic situation is over. A warm bed, food and sleep are a start, and all of that has been provided for these children.
It's likely that the media will want to hear about their plight, talk to them, drag them into the public. Is that good for them, or rather bad?
It's good only to a certain extent. They should not be forced to speak about what happened if they are not ready. It is also important that they speak about their harrowing experience in a familiar situation and not in public, in the limelight of the cameras.
So the adage that it is a good thing to get something off one's chest isn't necessarily always true?
No, it isn't, and certainly not across the board and in every situation.
Bikes outside the cave the soccer team wanted to explore for an hour - but was trapped in for weeks Image: AFP/Getty Images/Krit Promsakla Na Sakolnakorn
It seems more than one film production firm is keen on making a Thai cave rescue movie, and reportedly there have already been interviews with people involved in the rescue. What do you think about a possible Hollywood film?
Actors could play the scenes, but not people who were involved, and certainly not at this point in time. Anything along those lines is exploitative and voyeuristic. It is, from a psychiatric point of view, totally inappropriate. It oversteps ethical boundaries.
How could this be stopped?
Perhaps we need a press code for such major events. I think this would also be handled much more carefully in Germany.
Should there ever be a film, the rescued children and their parents would inevitably be in the focus of the media and not come to rest. They might benefit financially, which would probably be welcome as the families are not rich. Is there anything other people can do to help them?
The state could for instance offer compensation for their suffering. I think speaking to anyone apart from family, friends and people who have professional psychological training is problematic. No interviewer, no journalist and no filmmaker has mastered the technique of being there for a child after such an interview.
The story of Chilean miners trapped in a mine for 69 days before they were finally rescued was filmed in 2015. Some of the miners who were rescued at the time have spoken out to warn the rescued Thai children and their parents of the consequences of this enormous publicity, only to be forgotten again. What would you recommend?
As a mother, I would protect my child. The feeling of security is not stable if the child is constantly reminded of his or her victim status by the media. It can have very negative consequences. Parents are ill-advised to make their child a victim again, so to speak, for the sake of quick money.
Prof. Dr. Renate Schepker (born 1954) is Joint Technical Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Weissenau, Ravensburg and Calw. She is also the author of books on various forms of therapy for children and young people.
