Society of the Snow

I am 61 years old and I remember well the events told in "La sociedad de la nieve". The film does not hide or underestimate what 50 years ago shocked the whole world, but - as the title suggests - it frames it in a broader context: what eventually humanity is. We are not the strongest race, nor the fastest, nor - for some time now - the most intelligent on our planet. But, as a group, we are incredibly resilient. Man is weak, but humanity is impossible to defeat. A message of great hope at a time when we are facing terrible challenges ahead of us. Not to be missed.

Amazing soundtrack by Michail Giacchino. After having watched the movie, listen to "Found" which beautifully captures the message of the whole movie with minimal use of instruments and notes.

First, let's get something out of the way: "Society of the Snow" is not a remake of "Alive" (1993), just like James Cameron's "Titanic" wasn't a remake of 1958's "A Night to Remember", which also wasn't a remake of any previous Titanic-centered movies. This is the adaptation of a different book covering the story of the Andes survivors - another take on the same real-life event.

As directed by J. A. Bayona (back at the survival thriller genre after 2012's "The Impossible") and led by a group of unknown Uruguayan and Argentinean actors, "Society of the Snow" is not only authentically cast and produced, but powerfully moving in its conception of narrative.

There's an unexpected focal character here, but the movie plays out as an ensemble piece and, true to its title, portrays every person as essential to the outcome. There's a feeling that those who lost their lives were just as responsible for the ultimate rescue of their remaining friends as those who eventually reached civilization to seek help - not just for selflessly volunteering their bodies for food, but for providing comfort, solidarity, acceptance, even humor!, under the most dreadful of circumstances.

This is a movie that will stay with you. Please, don't miss out on it.

The real life story of The Uruguayan rugby team and friends, who's plane crashed into a glacier over The Andes.

It's been many years since I watched Alive, a harrowing, but interesting film. I must admit I was staggered by just how good this film was. Upsetting, thought provoking, at times hard to watch, but one I couldn't turn away from.

It is very sensitively handled, the story is told in a very human way, they don't focus on the bleaker side of the story too much, so we're not forced to watch the more unsavoury parts, instead they focus more on the human spirit, the fight for survival.

I was worried that it would feel over long at 2.5 hours, but at no point did it dip, it went by very quickly.

It's very nicely produced, it looks so good, my advice, watch in its original form, with the subtitles, it's so much better.

Impressive.

9/10.

I know there have been many versions of the story told in this movie, but I haven't read or seen any of them, so this was all fresh to me.

This is not a movie I think I would ever want to watch again. The word "grueling" was pretty much invented to describe the experience of watching this film. But damn is this riveting, even if in a kind of morbid way. It's also a dazzling technical achievement, one of those films where the effects are so seamless you can't always tell what's special effects and what's real.

"Society of the Snow" is not primarily a character-driven film, yet I was impressed by how much I came to know and like all of the characters in this despite the fact that only two or three are given the majority of screen time. At first, I didn't even know who was who and only knew they had names because their character's name would be listed before their line of dialogue in the subtitles. But by the time the film was over I felt like a knew all of them and cared about them deeply.

This movie does a great job of showing the capacity humans have for normalizing behavior that in other circumstances would be unthinkable.

One of my favorite movies of the year.

Grade: A.

Already having seen Alive several times and being v familiar with the 1972 story, I honestly didn't believe it necessary to see this version.

However a good friend persuaded me to go see it and the rest is history!

This is without doubt the definitive version, the story is told with authenticity and a v keen Director's eye.

I was worried about the foreign subtitles, but needn't have been since it kept me in the movie and made the connection to all the players even more heartfelt.

This is a reminder to us all, that nothing is impossible and when facing insurmountable adversity the human spirit is capable of triumph! Inspirational and to those who died on that fateful and subsequent days in the Andes, they will never be forgotten 🙏🏿