| Running Time: 126 mins
Rated: R
Some twenty years ago, a South American rugby team was flying over the Andes to play some games in Chile. They never made their scheduled landing. Their plane crashed high up in the Andes. Five days later, the rescue search was called off, all people on board assumed dead. The only problem - there were survivors, and they were totally on their own, trapped at the top of the world.
This basic story we’ve all heard before, mostly because it was major news - this is a true story. In 1976, the story was turned into a cheap exploitation picture called Survive!, which, if I recall correctly, centred most of its story on the gruesome aspects of the case, namely cannibalism. Cheaply made in Mexico by René Carodna, Jr., Survive! was hardly memorable, and usually garners between one-half and one star in review books.
Forget all about the 1976 movie and move into the nineties. Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy (best known for their work with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg) decided that they were going to tell this story correctly, and would somehow avoid the cheapness inherent in any story that features cannibalism. Well, surprise surprise, they pulled it off! The screenplay by John Patrick Shanley focuses strictly on the human aspects of the story, how the players pulled together to form a common survival goal, the internal politics of the decisions they made, and ultimately serves as a reminder that no matter how great the odds, humans are stubborn and smart enough to survive. I’ll stress the point - this is a human story, a tale of the triumph of the human spirit, and don’t let the fact that these people had no choice but to resort to cannibalism turn you away from this movie - you won’t see any gory, gruesome Night of the Living Dead-style cannibalism scenes in this flick.
In strictly movie terms, this one is a winner. Frank Marshall directs the movie with his usual panache and style, effortlessly switching between the cramped confines of the aircraft fuselage and the sweeping, awesome mountain vistas (the movie was filmed in North America, and the Rockies sub quite adequately for the Andes). Marshall forces us to see just how isolated these people were, with scene after scene of teeny-tiny humans tramping across incredibly huge tracts of mountainous wasteland. Simply awe-inspiring.
In terms of performances, the mostly unknown, ensemble cast turn in generally believable and powerful performances all around. This movie will not make any of them mega-stars, but it will look pretty impressive on their resumes in years to come.
All in all, this version of the Andes survival story comes across very well. By the end of the movie, you will probably have brushed one or two tears from the corner of your eye, and you will believe that the human spirit can and will conquer all. |
