Last Updated on January 12, 2024
PLOT: The true story of The Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster, where a team of Rugby players crashed in the Andes, and the survivors had to endure the harsh elements, avalanches and starvation before finally being rescued thanks to their own heroic efforts.
REVIEW: The Uruguayan Andes Crash is one of the most compelling survival stories ever told. There’s a reason it’s become a popular topic for documentarians and filmmakers, but with it dramatized so brilliantly in the film Alive, what’s the point of another version? I was wary of digging into Netflix’s lavish new movie, but the fact that it was directed by J. A. Bayona, whose film The Impossible (about the 2004 Tsunami) is pretty underrated, made me curious. I passed on seeing this at a local theatrical screening here in Montreal to watch the screener, but about 20 minutes in, I realized I had made a terrible mistake. Society of the Snow is immersive and brilliant, with it a staggering retelling of the entire saga. It’s a superb film.
What’s interesting about Society of the Snow is that it takes a different approach to telling the story. It begins well before the crash, allowing us to get to know the people involved before the collision. It also tracks the aftermath of their return to civilization. It’s also interesting that Alive, as per its title, told the story from the survivor’s perspective, while Society of the Snow gives equal weight to the people who died.
Of course, one thing both movies had to grapple with was the fact that the survivors had to resort to cannibalism to stave off starvation. Alive depicted this but took a “less is more” approach, but Bayona’s film tries to be more no-holds-barred in its depiction, as this all happened in cramped quarters and was a decision not everyone agreed to at first (many of the survivors were devoutly religious).
While I’m not prepared to say Society of the Snow is better than Alive (I think they’re both great movies), Bayona benefits from the advances in technology made in the thirty years since that film. While Alive had to settle for a recreation of the Andes, Bayona could shoot extensive footage in the Andes and then project it on giant digital screens for his actors to perform against. David Fincher shot much of The Killer that way. The results are impressive, with you getting a sense of what the survivors were up against, and the fact that any of them got off the mountains alive is a miracle.
The cast is uniformly excellent, with Enzo Vogrincic Roldán, a scene stealer as Numa Turcatti, who wasn’t even supposed to be on the trip but ended up tagging along as a last hurrah before finishing school. Like in Alive, the exciting thing is how the take-charge folks, such as Marcelo Perez (Diego Vegezzi), who was the team captain, initially are the take-charge leaders, only to fall victim to the unforgiven elements in very unceremonious ways. Such is the reality of such a disaster. But then, others like Nando Parrado (Agustín Pardella) and Roberto Canessa (Matías Recalt) become heroes as the film goes on, even if much of it comes down to chance. Society of the Snow does a better job than most disaster film in depicting just how random death can be in situations like this.
Blessed with a terrific score by Michael Giacchino, Society of the Snow is so good that it’s a shame that Netflix hasn’t given it more of a theatrical push. It’s this year’s All Quiet on the Western Front, in that it’s one of their foreign film offerings that, despite not being as hyped as some of their other awards contenders, is their best offering this year. It seems destined to be one of their biggest global hits, with it a deeply satisfying film for any viewer.
Note: When I watched the screener, it defaulted to English on Netflix for some reason. It should be seen in Spanish, not English; although the dub was good enough, it took me a few minutes to realize it needed to be a better audio track.
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