Alive (1993)
Movie rating: 8/10
If the essence of drama is conflict, the fight to stay alive against the harsh, pitiless forces of nature is the most basic conflict of all. Alive, based on the eponymous non-fiction book by Piers Paul Read, tells the story of the 1972 Andes flight disaster involving Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, in which a plane carrying a young rugby team along with friends, family, supporters, and the flight crew crashed in the Andes mountains. Many were killed or seriously injured upon impact. Trapped in freezing conditions, with search efforts called off after eight days, the survivors soon ran out of food and were forced to consume the bodies of their dead to stay alive. It’s an astonishing story of resilience against seemingly insurmountable odds.
As for the movie version? I thought it was very good overall. The film, directed by Frank Marshall from a screenplay by John Patrick Shanley, conveys the shock and desperation of the survivors following the crash and their efforts to protect themselves against the cold, hunger, and injuries that threatened to kill them for several weeks. It gets most elements right. The depiction of the crash itself is effective, capturing the sudden chaos and terror experienced by the passengers and their shock as whole sections of the plane are torn off by the mountains. We feel the helplessness of passengers whose legs were broken on impact, and the pain of those who saw their friends and family die around them. Subsequent disasters further compound their suffering, notably an avalanche.
The efforts of survivors to organize themselves, care for the injured, keep warm, distribute limited rations, and overcome conflicts and all-pervasive despair make the film a riveting experience. The characters’ decision to eat human meat to survive makes for some interesting debates. Many of the flight passengers were fervent Catholics, and some convince themselves by comparing it to the Eucharist. In one scene, characters declare that if they die, their companions should eat them to survive. For Christians, John 15:13 provides a spiritual foundation for this pledge: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
I recalled hearing criticisms about “whitewashing” in this film. While the cast is predominantly white American actors with few Latinos in the cast, I didn’t find it a problem. Most of the cast looked like, well, young South American men in the 1970s. A lot of credit has to go to the hair stylists and costume designers. The big exception is Ethan Hawke, who plays Nando Parrado, the survivor who leads the climactic expedition to seek help. The issue isn’t Hawke’s performance, which is perfectly fine. Through no fault of his own, Hawke here screams “1990s American”. That’s more my baggage, associating him with roles in films like Reality Bites, but Hawke’s greater stardom does make him feel a bit out of place.
A larger problem is one identified by Roger Ebert. “There are some stories you simply can’t tell,” Ebert said, making the case that the Andes disaster is one of them:
The problem is, no movie can really encompass the sheer enormity of the experience. As subtitles tick off “Day 50” and “Day 70,” the actors in the movie continue to look amazingly healthy (and well-fed). Although some despair, most remain hopeful. But what would it really be like to huddle in a wrecked aircraft for 10 weeks in freezing weather, eating human flesh? I cannot imagine, and frankly this film doesn’t much help me.
Ebert makes a good point. When telling a story about people trying not to starve to death, it matters if the actors don’t look emaciated or even that hungry. My brother, who saw this movie with me, said he was never able to suspend his disbelief and forget that we were just watching a bunch of actors.
Alive made me appreciate the efforts of actors who lose drastic amounts of weight to convincingly portray characters in life-or-death survival situations. To play a man stranded on a desert island in Cast Away, Tom Hanks lost 50 lbs. To portray a sailor cast adrift in a lifeboat for In the Heart of the Sea, Chris Hemsworth lost 33 lbs. These efforts paid off in spades, because I fully believed I was watching men at risk of starving to death. As good as the performances in Alive are, the cast doesn’t captures the threat of hunger to quite the same degree. In that way the film shows us the importance of the body in acting, and that actors who gain or lose large amounts of weight for roles aren’t just showing off. Changes in body weight actually do make a difference in how effective such a performance is.
Despite these quibbles, and the movie skipping over some significant details — it would have been nice to see the climactic rescue trek actually reaching civilization and finding help — there’s a lot to like about Alive. The cinematography of the snow-swept mountains is breathtaking. James Newton Howard offers up a fine musical score, and aside from the lack of visible weight loss, the actors offer good performances. As someone who loves survival films, I was able to overlook the film’s flaws. The inherent drama of the story, the details of how the characters managed to survive and overcome this unthinkable ordeal add up to a satisfying survival adventure. If you’re into survival stories, you’ll likely enjoy this film.
