Alive - Frank Marshall
This is the story of a Uruguayan Rugby team whose plane crashes in the Andes and their ordeal to survive. They spend months in the mountains before 16 of them are rescued.
The film is ok but it would be better if it wasn’t framed on ‘Based on a True Story’. That in itself is generally enough to turn me off but the film opens with John Malkovich, playing one of the people who survived, talking directly to the camera about the ordeal.
The reason this framing is such a bad idea is it means we know that at least some of them survive.
While I cannot remember whether they told us who John was playing, that doesn’t matter. The tension is greatly reduced.
If they had said: ‘Based on a True Story’ the tension would still have been there. So we know they survive.
The central question of the film now is either: ‘How do they survive?’, or ‘Who survives’. The how question is a much easier story to tell because it doesn’t require the audience to become invested in one of the characters over another.
They dabble in both but the story ultimately focuses on how they survive. To start off with there is the normal rationing of food and making sure they get seen by any rescuers.
It becomes clear that this is going to be very hard but they work together to achieve group goals.
I am really glad that they didn’t go with a person or group that was unreasonable. There was one crazy guy but very reasonable given the situation they were in.
A lot of this appears to come from the camaraderie as a team. But when the news comes that the search has been called off new leaders step forward.
They now have to get out themselves. They need to survive long enough for them to be able to do that.
An argument for cannibalism is put forward and accepted by many. They need energy to climb out of the mountains.
It is this step that has made this story famous. But it makes complete sense logically. And it works. Two of them walk out of the mountains and return with help from the others.
The film is good, not great. Surprisingly I found the special effects, especially the plane crash, held up well today.
The story of how far would you go to survive is a little perverse in this light but totally understandable. The things that these people go through are extraordinary.
It is interesting to see the negotiation with themselves and others about the terrible things that they are doing to survive but not much to see beyond that.
