Writer: John Patrick Shanley (Screenplay) Piers Paul Read (Book)
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton, Bruce Ramsay, John Newton, David Kriegel, Kevin Breznahan
Plot: A Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the snow swept Andes are forced to use desperate measures to survive after a plane crash.
Tagline – They survived the impossible…by doing the unthinkable.
Runtime: 2 Hours
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Brilliant Survival Story
Story: Alive starts when the plane crashes in the Andes, the surviving passengers, including Nando Parrado (Hawke), Antonio Balbi (Spano), Robert Canessa (Hamilton) and Carlitos Paez (Ramsay) look to help keep people calm and deal with injuries as they look to plan for rescue.
Antonio does take control of trying to keep the survivors alive, which includes making sure the food and drink lasts until rescue and people could survive the freezing nights, at this time, 26 people made it through the first night. As the time starts passing by, the realization that they are not being looked for sets in, which sees them having to make a drastic decision in their attempts to survive.
Thoughts on Alive
Characters – Nando is one of the few survivors that wasn’t awake after the crash, once awake, he starts to help with the survival attempts and is one of the few that pushes through the idea of needing to eat the dead to survive. Antonio is the captain of the rugby team and takes the leadership position, trying to keep everyone calm and alive for as long as possible, planning on making sure the food supply and other essentials is being supplied for the survivors. Roberto and Carlitos help with the medical problems after the crash, proving to understand how to survive the injuries they have received. These men and women are based on the real survivors of the accident, not everyone made it out alive and going into character details, might seem unfair to the people.
Performances – Ethan Hawke and Vincent Spano are both excellent in their roles in the film, they do show both sides of survivors as well as understanding how important they both are meant to be. The whole cast is great, showing how difficult it was to survive and instead of just turning to the accents, they keep it looking like an American version of the film, with the Uruguayan names
Story – The story here follows the true story of the survival of members of the Uruguayan rugby team and other passengers of a plane crash in the Anders mountain range, which sees how they must survive over a 2-month period, while they are waiting for rescue. This is a truly amazing story of survival, it showed us just how difficult each day would be for the survivors and shows us how they faced a horrible decision, but one that saved their lives. It is one that does rely on how people did do anything to survive and how we wouldn’t be telling this story if some of the people hadn’t survived.
Adventure/Biopic – The adventure side of this story follows the survivors as they plan on surviving until rescue, which does play into the biopic side of the story, because this event did change the lives of the survivors.
Settings – The film is set in the Andes mountain range, it shows the cold conditions, the fact they can’t just walk away from this location along with the brutal plane crash to start the events off.
Scene of the Movie – The crash is a brutal and honest watch.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – They all seem so perfectly shaved considering they are here for 2 months.
Final Thoughts – This is an amazing story of survival, one that couldn’t even be written by a writer, it shows the impossible and has wonderful performance from the whole cast.
Overall: Must watch survival story.