Anything to Survive

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.

We stayed up late to watch this film, and never have I laughed so much! The script was poor and, appreciating it was based on a true story, the attempts of the family to escape, for me simply descended into hilarity, where it should have been a more serious film. For example, the ironically funny scene where they stupidly break the oars to use as crutches, not thinking that where there are oars, there is surely a boat! Watch only for amusement....

Too many movies about being lost in the Arctic are Disneyized views of playing in the snow, waiting for the inevitable rescue. This movie shows the real dangers of hypothermia, dehydration, frostbite and isolation, and the hopelessness of waiting for rescue if no one knows you're lost.

Matt LeBlanc was so fantastic and memorable in this great, living-it-as-you're-watching-it, movie. As I understand it, this movie is what basically launched his career, and I can see why.

This survival story of an athletic man (played by the athletic Conrad), his athletic son, and his two daughters is based on a true story.

If so, there aren't any punches pulled on the hatefulness and evil of one of the characters. The father is realistic, and bases his hopes for his family on realism. The son is believable enough as a jock with a decent enough heart. The youngest daughter is subject to harassment and hate that looks to have been going on for way too much from her vicious older sister.

The older sister is, quite frankly, a demonic creature that torments her younger sister even at the point of death. If this was her true character, one would feel sorry for anyone under her control. One must feel for the younger daughter, who can't even trust her own family, and for good reason, and whose struggle for survival is against all the odds.

The story itself has a ring of truth to it, but also a ring of stupidity on the father's part for putting them in this situation, and for being so callous as to allow the youngest daughter to be put through a Hell no one should have to go through. Granted, he's fairly moderate, but the hatefulness of the older sister goes beyond normal "picking". It's sheer demonic possession and evil at best.

As for the rest, it looks like very realistic drama, with the weakening of the senses and the brains affecting even the healthy male members of the party, making the struggle even harder. One should not think this is a fault of their own. It's simply the human body succumbing to the elements, struggling to make the right decisions.