Halloween slasher films are all the rage in October, but what’s scarier than running for your life from some masked villain? Surviving a plane crash in the Andes mountains with no food, and no hope of rescue. This week a look back at the true-life drama of Alive.
The Plot
A Uruguayan rugby team is on their way to Chile when over the Andes Mountains the plane crashes and the survivors are left to fend for themselves. The rescue is called off, believed dead, those that still live are left having to make some tough decisions.
Without food or hope, the players must confront the worst decision they could make. To survive they must eat the dead. To live, they must save themselves. Will the players be able to live with their decisions, or will the mountains claim them all?
The Good
The story is compelling. How do a group of humans survive when they have limited to no resources? How do you eat when there is no food? The fact that the survivors resorted to cannibalism is not shocking, but what makes the film compelling is that not everyone was eager to go to such extremes.
The idea of eating the dead is debated, flat out rejected, argued about on moral and religious grounds, and then adopted because the survivors want to live, and this is the only way. Alive is excellent at showing that the survivors make this decision not out of depravity, but necessity. Even after the idea of eating the dead is adopted, whenever we see the people eat, it is not a joy, but a task that they know they must do.
What an awful choice to make. Alone, desperate, and in need of food, the true fear of the film is the idea of what will become of the survivors if they choose to eat the dead. That’s the horror of this movie, the unknown that each survivor must face within themselves.
The cast is brilliant with some incredible performances by Vincent Spano and Ethan Hawk. Josh Hamilton is the perfect counterpoint to Hawk’s Nando, and while much of the attention goes to Hawk, Hamilton establishes himself early as a heavy weight on the scene and allows the audience to feel for the survivors.
Alive is a beautifully crafted story of survival that still holds up almost thirty years later. Director Frank Marshall doesn’t dwell on the gruesome aspects of the cannibalism, but he does show the audience that this is a desperate situation, and if one wishes to survive, desperate choices must be made.
The Bad and the Ugly
If you require precise historical accuracy in films, then you will dislike Alive. Certain survivors were removed from the story, and some names had been changed. It is not a perfect adaptation.
Beyond the Film Facts
- Kathleen Kennedy was a producer on the film.
- The film won the Cinematographer of the Year Award from the Australian Cinematographers Society.
- The movie was also nominated at the MTV Movie Awards for Best Action Sequence, with the plane crash scene.
- Josh Lucas has a small part as Felipe.
- John Malkovich’s part as Carlitos Paez, the narrator, had his opening and closing statements written by the real Carlitos Paez.
- The tagline for the movie is “They survived the impossible . . . by doing the unthinkable”.
- In the movie, Roberto is seen in the rescue helicopter arriving at the scene of the crash. The real Roberto was so sick that he wasn’t able to walk anymore after getting help, and never made the trip back.
- The real Nando Parrado was a technical advisor on the film.
- The date of the plane crash was Friday October 13, 1972.
- The film was shot far from the Andes mountains in a skiing town named Panorama in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
- The film was shot in sequence.
- Brad Pitt auditioned for the role of Roberto Canessa.
- The plane that the real team used was often cited for problems and was referred to as a ‘led sled’.
- This was the first co-production between Paramount Pictures and Touchstone.
- The real Nando Parrado can be seen in a picture at the beginning of the film.
The Streamy Award
{The following four categories are based on a Film Reel scale.
1 Reel-Bored and Killing Time, 2 Reels-When You Have Some Time, 3 Reels-Make Some Time, 4 Reels-Big Screen Event}
Alive is not a documentary, it’s a big screen movie that is trying to condense a 70-day survival tale in under two hours. Some aspects of the story are missing, but the narrative that is put on the screen is fantastic. The film drew attention because of the true-life tale, and the cannibalism, but the movie endures because of incredible performance by a group of actors who told this tale.
Ethan Hawk is the big star to emerge from the pack, but Vincent Spano is brilliant as Antonio, Danny Nucci excels as Hugo, Josh Hamilton gives the best performance of the group as Roberto, and even Illeana Douglas brings a touch of warmth and humanity to the film.
Alive continues to be enthralling and suspenseful, because even though you may know the ending, it’s the journey that is the most difficult to watch, and the actors, and director Frank Marshall have made a terrific film.
Alive gets a 3 Reels rating. Make some time to watch this film, preferably on a big screen, but any format will work.
Cast and Crew
- Ethan Hawk as Nando Parrado
- Vincent Spano as Antonio Balbi
- Josh Hamilton as Roberto Canessa
- Danny Nucci as Hugo Diaz
- Illeana Douglas as Liliana Methol
- John Malkovich as the Narrator
Directed by Frank Marshall
Produced by Touchstone Pictures / Film Andes S.A / Paramount Pictures / The Kennedy/Marshall Company/ United International Pictures
Release Date: January 15, 1993
Budget: $32 million
Box Office Gross
Domestic: $36,733,909
Coming Soon
Next week we conclude our look at frightening films of October with Cold Creek Manor.