Anything to Survive

Based on a true story, this television drama was filmed along Canada's west coast, in winter. The cast and crew worked in icy waters and freezing rain. It was a miserable "shoot" but so was the horror of the real people involved. You will notice a very young and green Matt Leblanc in a roll years before "Friends". Robert Conrad was very strong and real...a true professional.

Richard Long

This is a fantastic true story drama, that introduced the world to hollywood hero, Matt LeBlanc. A family are left stranded on an unknown island, all they have is each other, and human spirt. Though out the mind numbing twists in this classic adventure the close family have to make some life or death decisions that keep you on the edge of your seat, thoughout. Although Matt LeBlanc has only gone onto world stardom in such classics as "The red shoe diaries 3 and 7" and "Reform School Girl" i don't think we should forget the performance of Emily Perkins (Krista) who really made the film what it is. A fantastic emotional rollacoster of a film that you leave you breathless. Congradulations to Zale Dalen for making the greatest TVM EVER.

Otherwise known as "Almost too late" this based on a true story tale see's a families boat capsize. They are forced to seek refuge on an island but as the cold sets in it becomes increasingly difficult to stay alive.

I'm always sceptical of true stories, chances are at least half of it is untrue and/or exaggerated.

Starring Matt "Friends" LeBlanc and Emily "Gingersnaps" Perkins this is some really made for tv stuff. It looks passable, the writing is mostly okay but the whole thing just comes across painfully generic.

Alas the further in the movie goes the more it starts to trail off and by the end I didn't find myself caring quite as much as I'm sure I was supposed to.

For fans of these cheesy made for tv efforts you can do worse but this is hardly a movie worth most folks time.

The Good:

Perkins is a solid actress

The Bad:

Generic stuff

Ending is questionable

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Before he was famous Matt LeBlanc was known as Matthew LeBlanc, edgy!

I lived in Juneau, Alaska in 1978-79, the winter that this originally happened to the family in the film. A friend read a newspaper article about it to me and I cringed. The accident happened during the worst February we had had since I could remember, and I was born and raised there. They were actually stranded for the entire month, not a few days or a couple weeks, and the fact that they survived amazed me. I don't know of anyone in these dire circumstances that would NOT "whine" a bit.

Granted, this film took some poetic license as all films based on true stories do. I felt that Matt LeBlanc was a poor choice for the son. He looked nothing like the rest of the family. But in spite of that, I was impressed with the performances and the way the family clung together. This is not a film for the weak hearted. The reality of it was all too real for me, as I knew first hand the sub-zero temperatures and high gale winds that were present at the time of this accident. Only true Alaskans would ever have survived this experience and my heart goes out to the family to this day.

All in all, the film was excellent at portraying the harsh circumstances the family faced. That was not made up. The relationships that they shared were also well portrayed. I have often wondered how they all were today, what, if any, lasting affects the experience had on them. As far as films based in Alaska, this was perhaps the most true to life of any I have seen. Excellent film.

This is quite a good TV movie of a family stranded in cold alaska. The father and son go looking for help and the two sisters cant do anything but wait to live or wait to die. The older sister eats cold seaweed with worms it in. Worth watching about once.