THE SOCIETY OF SNOW
(directed by J. A. Bayona, 2023)
****+ (out of 5)
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> Man versus Nature is, for me, the most compelling of conflicts. What are your odds of survival if you are one puny human, when your adversary is a phenomenon as massive powerful and uncaring as the awesome forces of Nature?
. This is not the first telling of this true story of disaster and brutal survival- in fact, it’s the third one I’ve seen. This notorious story was dramatized in the serviceable but plastic ALIVE in 1993, and recounted as an excellent documentary in STRANDED: I’VE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED IN THE MOUNTAINS, in 2007. Of the three, this is certainly the best.
. THE SOCIETY OF SNOW is the hellacious story of a Uruguayan rugby team on their way to play a match in Columbia in 1972, when their plane crashed in the remote heart of the Peruvian Andes. Snowbound in the middle of nowhere, the survivors were confident help was on the way. And it was. But with the technology available at the time, finding a crashed plane somewhere in a vast rugged mountain range was like finding a grain of sand in the Sahara. Before their ordeal was over, the living were forced to eat the flesh of the dead to survive. (More accurately anthropophagy than cannibalism, because the latter implies slaughter for consumption, not just a strategy for survival.) Obviously, it’s gruesome, sensational stuff, still Spanish director J. A. Bayona (THE ORPHANAGE, A MONSTER CALLS, the most recent JURASSIC WORLD flick), handles the fraught subject with directness tempered by a respectful delicacy. It is not exploited for shock value, but delt with deftly and soberly. The names of the deceased are dutifully remembered, as they fall.
. After 72 days of waiting (punctuated by a terrifying and damaging avalanche!), it became apparent the search had failed to find them, and that the whole effort was being suspended until spring thaw made it easier. With no rational alternative except to stay put and wait to die, a bold party of three desperately set-off to do the impossible, and cross the towering mountain range on foot, without proper gear, in a state of near starvation.
. Bayona manages to wring every drop of drama from this intense story and from his quietly devastating cast. He made some potent choices: firstly, not to cast prettyboy Hollywood faces like Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton who prettified ALIVE, but to place actors from the region in the central roles- people who actually looked like they might be from South America. Secondly, he shot part of it on the actual location of the crash. Talk about verisimilitude! That must have been a grueling shoot! He also opted to film in chronological order, something very rarely done because it tends to create obstacles and slow production. It’s just not an efficient way to compose a movie. But here, it’s an effective choice, because we watch as the actors become noticeably thinner and more grizzled by the elements. Bayona simply got everything right, when so much could have gone wrong.
– THE SOCIETY OF SNOW is intense stuff! See it for 4-and-a-half-stars worth of nail-biting excitement and catharsis!
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© Kevin Paul Keelan and lastcre8iveiconoclast, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kevin Paul Keelan and lastcre8iveiconoclast with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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