Back in 2019, I watched a documentary about a diving accident (see Movie: The Last Breath). This year, I watched the Hollywood version. It’s the same director, but upgraded to meet the diversity quotas imposed by Hollywood for Oscar eligibility:
It’s difficult for three guys to have sex with each other while hundreds of feet down under the North Sea, so an Academy-approved LGBTQ+ theme was not going to be possible. The real-life individuals in this drama all appear to be white males (Scottish and English; see photo below (source), though perhaps David Yuasa has some Asian heritage). The filmmakers nimbly substitute an East Asian guy as one of the divers, a Maori actor as the captain, and a female as the ship’s first officer (maybe these last two aren’t doing their respective victimhood groups any image favors given that it was entirely the ship’s fault). I don’t think that it helped Oscar eligibility, but they put an American actor (Woody Harrelson) with an American accent in as one of the Scottish divers.
The dramatization is more dramatic and has much higher production values than the documentary (which includes a lot of 2012 footage from the ship, the ROV, etc.).
I recommend the movie. There’s not too much colorful language, especially considering how dire the situation got, and there is no sex despite the Academy’s attempt to make everything LGBTQ+. Therefore, our 9-year-old didn’t learn anything new about things that we don’t want him to learn about.
Related:
- the real story, from The Times of London
Is “Dave Yuasa” white English or white Scottish name?
You can see a photo of David Yuasa at https://www.readersdigest.in/amp/true-stories/story-trapped-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea-127576 and judge his ethnicity for yourself.
“The “Shang-Chi” actor shares that “Dave is Asian. He’s half Asian.”
https://www.mochimag.com/entertainment/last-breath-simu-liu/
“He’s half Asian… He might not be the exact same type of Asian as me” is an https://alllooksame.com/ situation?
I tweaked the original post to include a photo of the real-life participants in the drama.
Rumor has it that Hollywood is working on a film about Mother Teresa of Calcutta and, in an effort to meet diversity standards, plans to cast a Black LGBTQ+ actress for the Mother Teresa role.
Speaking of Hollywood, when was the last time Hollywood produced an original movie? These days, most films are remakes or reboots of older classics.