Alive (1993)
After crash-landing in the snowswept Andes, a Uruguayan rugby team has no choice but to turn to desperate measures in order to survive.
Desperate measures as in cannibalism.
It's a classic movie this one. I've heard of it before but had yet to see it. It tells the tale well, with a semi-realistic plane crash (it looks violent, at least, if not a hundred percent authentic) and the desperation that follows... they enact it well. The crash site looks real. You can see the characters gradually getting more and more tanned as the movie progresses, though not looking as malnourished as they most certainly did in real life.
I thought I recognized Ethan Hawke in here too! As a very younger, but still very much recognizable young E... I don't think I know any of the others, but they're all good. Ethan apparently refused to grow a beard during the movie, and I wonder why. If it was vanity it feels pretty disrespectful. I hope it was for other reasons. Like staying true to the character he played. Maybe the real Nando couldn't grow a beard either...
It's a beautiful movie overall. One about overcoming hardship more so than about the dark side of humanity, and religion probably was a big thing for the main crew too. They came from a Christian country after all. In desperate times I've no doubt even non-believers might turn to God, yet there's one particular scene where an agnostic suddenly starts praying as a storm starts raging, after weeks of telling the rest of the team that 'he won't pray, cause he's agnostic'. I cringed a bit at that, and apparently it did not happen for real either! It felt like like one of those things they'd include in a movie just because it's a movie, or because they have an ulterior motive with the religious theme, and it was so.
It may be a slightly glorified and dramatized movie overall, but it's true. The avalanche really happens. I tear up occasionally, and unexpectedly, too. Sometimes it seems a bit dated, or angled for faith, yet the next moment it feels real and raw and like they're really managing to bring out the essence of humanity in the best possible way...
I'm glad I watched this after all. It's a classic for a reason. And there are a few other movies centered around this same event, which I just might need to see too... the Alive: 20 Years Later one in particular is intriguing. It came out the same years, but deals with the backstory and survivors more so than the tragedy; the filmatization of it all.
rated 4/5: fo shizzle