fountainhall wrote:What I object to in the strongest possible way is that whilst faith clearly played a major part in keeping the boys in such an amazing state of physical and mental health, it was their Buddhist faith.
I'm sure faith played a role, but frankly I wasn't as shocked as some at the physical condition of the boys when they were rescued. I'm saying this because Thai boys are as tough as nails and cannot be compared to boys of a similar age in our western cultures. Especially when you consider that some of the soccer players were Aka Indian mountain boys and the others (non-Indian) resided in the same rough mountain terrain in impoverished villages.
Similar to the boys who reside in Issan, they are used to sleeping on hard floors (sometime directly on concrete), live in dwellings with little or no electricity, have diets of whatever pops up on the land and go for very long periods sitting and doing nothing. This is very similar to what I witnessed a few years back when Thai boys got incarcerated into a Thai prison. They lived in conditions which did not offer too many more comforts than the cave did for the soccer team and to my amazement many walked out of those man-made caves smiling after being incarcerated for years. It would be very unlikely that a boy of a similar age from the West could survive those conditions for that duration.
In my opinion the strength, resilience, ability to stay calm, ability to absorb pain and discomfort, and basic survival skills of a Thai boy are unmatched.
I hope whoever it is that produces the Movie captures this aspect of Thai life and Thai boys in general. That's where the story really has its meat.