It's Alive

I recently checked out the movie Alive -- the film portraying the true story of the Uruguayan rugby team's charter plane crashing in the Andes and fighting for survival after search efforts are abandoned. (I was momentarily perplexed by the DVD referring to itself as the "30th anniversary edition," until I realized that it was referring not to the anniversary of the movie's release in 1993, but of the crash itself in 1972.)

I've heard good things about the movie over the years. And while it's not bad, I found on viewing it that the audience has to do most of the work; the movie itself doesn't always manage it.

There are moments throughout that do give a hint of how horrible and dire a predicament these people were in. The crash itself is depicted in rather startling terms (hindered only a bit by now nearly 20 year old visual effects). Certain sequences peppered throughout the film -- an avalanche, reaching the summit of what appears to be the tallest mountain only to reach a view of an even taller one -- do make a strong impact.

But the day-to-day sense of living under these conditions never really lands. You never truly appreciate the bitter cold of the mountains, for example. The lengths to which the survivors must go never really seem that extreme -- though clearly they were. This is where the audience has to jump in and help where the film itself falls short. When you intellectualize the story and really think about what it would mean to survive nearly two-and-a-half months under these conditions, the mind buckles.

The cast features a number of good young actors, including Ethan Hawke. At times, the script doesn't feel like it helps enough in differentiating all the characters, but the actors do a good job of bridging the gap.

Perhaps it's beyond the scope of any two hour movie to capture the reality of such a situation. I suppose it's enough that this movie does at least make you stop and think about it, and then your own imagination can pick up from there. I'd just barely edge Alive in at a B-.