Customer Reviews

Alive

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The plot has been described in other reviews. Well acted and directed, this movie recounts a great survival story, comparable to Captain Bligh leading all but one of his crew to safety after about 3500 or so miles in a small open boat (book "Men Against The Sea"), or Richard Byrd surviving the Antarctic while seriously sick and injured (book "Alone").

The fact that anyone even made it through the initial crash, then tobogganing at about 200 MPH down a mountain in a portion of airplane fuselage is unbelievable by itself. Add the fact that many people, prepared about as well as you or I in our living rooms, lived for 70 days way up on a frozen mountainside, makes it even more fantastic.

To top it off, after weeks of planning and preparation, two of the fittest members hike around and down a 13,500 ft mountain, then trek 50 or 60 miles in 10 days through utter exhaustion, to finally reach help.

It is difficult to really imagine the hardship they went through, even though it is essentially laid out on screen. The days or weeks of planning seemingly small events, and meeting with disaster on most accounts (finding the tail portion with the radio batteries, then having to go back to get the radio because the batteries were too heavy to carry, then not being able to fix the radio, etc.) is bad enough. I can not think of anything worse than having to eat your dead friends, for 50 days in a row, to just get through another day.

I'm going to finish the last 20 pages of the book tonight. It has a few more grisly details than the movie, and some failed search-and-rescue details, and maybe a bit more character depth as well, but this is one instance where the movie is nearly as good as the book. Unfortunately, the money apparently ran out near the end of the production, and the ending was a bit rushed and wrapped up just a bit too nicely, when in fact it was an arduous and tortuous experience down the mountain by the 2 men.

If you think YOU have it bad, watch this movie or read the book. Even athiests will thank God it never happened to them.

This 1993 docudrama capably illustrates the plight of those who were on the plane that crashed in the Andes mountains in October 1972. A Uruguayan rugby team, their friends, and relatives had chartered a plane to fly them from Montevideo, Uruguay to Santiago, Chile for a rugby match. Forty five people went down with the plane, high up in the Andes mountains. Seventy days later, only sixteen of them were still alive. This film is the story of their struggle to survive and the lengths to which they went to ensure that they would.

The film was done in collaboration with some of the original survivors in order to lend authenticity of detail to the film. The filmmakers tried to recreate the experiences of those who were trapped in the mountains and were forced to resort to anthropophagy in order to survive. It is a well made film, which attempts to depict the ordeal of those who were on that ill fated flight. It pretty much follows the events outlined in the book of the same name by Piers Paul Read.

The movie has breathtaking scenery of snow capped mountains. The crash of the plane is one of the most harrowing on film. The treatment of the issue of anthropophagy is not sensationalized and is grounded in the context of the faith of those who were on that fateful flight. All in all, the film is a well made and well cast accolade to the endurance and faith of those who were on that ill fated flight and struggled to survive, despite the odds against them. It is certainly well worth watching.

...in the face of adversity."

ALIVE is one of my top favorite movies. It's about the power of the human spirit to overcome anything. I love movies dealing with this topic. The movie begins with: "1972, A South American rugby team, together with some friends and relatives crosses the Andes to play a game in neighboring Chile."

They never arrive at their destination...or do they?

The anthropography (a branch of anthropology dealing with the distribution of man as distinguished by physical character, language, institutions, and customs) is one of the best developed I have ever seen in a movie. (Bravo to Frank Marshall!) This is one of the things I love most about the movie--watching the interactions with each other. I feel as if I know each one. All emotion and soul is bared here, from the deep love and brotherhood to the frustration and anger they feel. They survived many trials besides the plane crash and starvation which I will save for you to see. What impresses me most besides their will to fight and survive, is how, through it all, they kept God with them--through prayer and in their hearts.

I have watched ALIVE countless times and wondered if I were one of them who would I have been? Obviously Nando (Hawke) I considered first, as well as the medical student and his fellow climber, Roberto Canessa. But I must say that Carlitos, is my favorite character and the one closest to my heart. With his remorse ("I yelled at her...God forgive me!") prayers (he led the group each night in Hail Mary), his humor ("Hey, I'll pay for the pizza if you go and get it!"), his spirituality ("Do you feel it?" What? "God. God is everywhere today.") his love ("I love you all so much."/"God bless you all.") and hope ("I had a dream last night, a tremendous premonition. I saw green fields and flowers--I could smell the grass. Your expedition WILL SUCCEED.")

There is so much to learn and take with you watching this movie. Alive is a story that was destined to be told. My highest recommendation and 10/10 stars.

Soar!

Additional comments: "This film is dedicated to the 29 who died and the 16 who survived."
The music by James Newton Howard is the closest to perfect there can be for this movie. I especially love "Ava Maria" playing on the end credits. I must have this score. If anyone can help, please email me.
Do watch the all special features such as "Alive 20 Years Later" and two others. I deeply respect the actual survivors sharing their story with us and wish to say a heartfelt thank you. You all have touched me more than words can say.
o8E

Frank Marshall's celluloid recreation of Andes tragedy and the stupendous will of the survivors is intensely gripping and moving. As one of the reviewers remarked that if one wants to see a demonstration of human will and spirit, just watch this movie. I watched this movie on HBO and during the entire length was absolutely seized by it. I kind of felt myself going through the horrendous ordeal and was crying uncontrollably in second half. I was so stricken and moved by the tremendous ordeal(there's no stronger word than this)my heart pleaded for their rescue every second of the movie. Kudos to Frank Marshall for managing to create such a masterpiece....few movies manage to seize viewers....this belongs to that elite category.

The cast is uniformly excellent in performances and special praise for the Latino looking guy and Eathen Hawke. Cinematography is absolutely stunning right from the plane crash, avalanches, majestic sunrises to seatsledge rides.Watching the movie was so emotionally stirring and I wonder how the real survivors managed to stay alive under horrific odds. Truly a tale of indestructible human spirit, strength of will to survive, courage to face the meanest of hardships.

The basic plot is explained by other reviewers so I won't go into it. Please, please watch it and marvel at the strength of human Spirit. Hope Frank Marshall makes more such movies.

Alive is a powerful and controversial movie about the famous rugby team plane crash, in which the survivors had to result to cannabilism to stay alive. Alive is an excellent movie with a great cast, who present a moving tribute to the actual events that occured in the Andes Mountains. A must see movie which will reach into your heart and show the true meaning of the human spirit and what it can do in times of tragedy.

I saw the film Alive a while before I read the book, and if you haven't done either I'd suggest you watch the film first. I thought it was a superb but harrowing movie and considered it one of my favourite films of all, but my girlfriend later bought me the book by Piers Paul Read and after reading that many times now I have to say I feel the film could have been so much better. Why?? (1) the subject of the consuming of human flesh in the film is restricted to not much more than the scenes where they discuss the morals of doing it and the initial eating when the flesh is cut from one of the casualties. In the book, Read details throughout his account the nausea-inducing levels to much the survivors went to use this food source, including making clothing from the skin, cooking layers of fat in the sun, eating rotten intestines just to have a new taste, cracking open skulls to consume the brains and keeping limbs in the plane to knaw on during the night. I don't think this should have been included in the film for the sake of gore or effect, but should in some way have been shown as to me it indicates how quickly the mindset of the survivors lurched from utter revulsion at eating the flesh to the systematic consumption or utilisation of the entire body without any hesitation. (2) the trek by Canessa and Parrado to find help was an epic on it's own, but the film dismisses most of it with an aerial shot showing a valley turning from snow to vegetation. (3) the film completely ignores the large portions of the book which deal with the efforts made by parents and friends to find the plane wreck. This is as engrossing as the story of the survivors themselves, especially as the reader knows at the same time which of the boys are alive and which are dead as their families search for them. (4) there is a major shock at the end of the book which turns the whole story on it's head (I won't spoil it for those who haven't read the book, but it regards a hotel!!) which could easily have been included in the film as a piece of onscreen text at the end, but again this is totally ignored when it could have added considerably to the story. In all, I guess really this is a review of the film against the book rather than of the film itself. I still love the film on it's own merits and watch it frequently. I just can't help thinking it could have been so much better.

The plane carrying the Uruguayan rugby team crashes in the Andes, and the survivors have to turn to cannibalism to continue to survive.

I'm going to begin by saying, if you want to see cannibalism, get Night of the Living Dead, or Motel Hell. This is not a film about cannibalism. The few scenes that explore this part of the group's survival, focus on the moral dilemma of cannibalism vs. starvation and death. The film doesn't gloss over this portion of the story, but handles it forthrightly and with dignity.

The rest of the film is beautiful. It could have easily descended into a made-for-TV maudlin tale of brave survivors fighting the odds, but it doesn't. It is a story about bravery, perseverance, and teamwork, and it addresses these things so eloquently, that I'm left feeling no one should make another film about "the human spirit," because this film says it all, and does it so well. In fact, I'd like to erase all the cloying films about personal triumph, and make this film the sole bearer of that theme.

Part of the film's brilliance is the cinematography. The camera takes an active part in telling the story, with inspired shots and angles.

The ensemble cast gets credit for the rest of it. Films with ensemble casts often sink under the weight of all the actors, but this film does not. This is one of the best films that doesn't have a star, but relies on the totality of talent available. With so many characters, you might think you'll need a scorecard to keep track, but you don't. Each of the more than 20 actors here plays a fully developed character.

This is one of those movies that seems to step off the screen. The viewer feels like one of the castaways. The tension and drama are that real.

And it made me cry. Few films can accomplish that.

ALIVE is a gripping tour de force that focuses on the remarkable durability of the human spirit. Avoiding sentimentality and maudlinism, and focusing on the terrible dilemma the survivors face catapults the movie into a masterpiece of hope, defeat, unimaginable odds and faith. The cannibalism is treated with remarkable dignity, and there are several emotional scenes that leave you drained.
The cast is very good with Josh Hamilton, John Haymes Newton and of course Ethan Hawke standing out. The entire cast however deserves credit for their team performance. John Malkovich's prologue and epilogue are handled very well too. Malkovich has a smooth and hypnotizing voice and behind the smoke from the interviewer's cigarette, he gives us bookend thoughts.
A truly remarkable story but even more remarkable is the courage it took to survive.

With subject matter like the 1972 crash in the Andes, how could the film not be raw and compelling? Surprising, though, is the quality of depth this movie portrays without taking itself too seriously. There are light moments -- Carlitos' birthdays and the picture of the little girl & cake -- but the real strengths of the film are the subtle nuances brought to life by delicate character-actor performances. Inspiring, entertaining, educational, delightful . . . Alive is the first movie I bought on DVD, and for good reason -- I love it.

Used to really like this movie for what it was: a Hollywood production to make money. How sad it is when tragedy strikes (no matter how many years) Hollywood is going to reap the rewards. If you want to see a somewhat more of a documentary type of a VERY low budget of the Mexican 1976 version SURVIVE! instead. Amazon has a decent copy really cheap and it's not the terrible dubbed American cut. This film is cheaply made but gets to the heart of the situation at hand. This movie to me is more disturbing than the Hollywood re-make. Don't know how many friends of mine tell me what a great film ALIVE is, but I have to disagree. It is like watching Hollywood making war movies that look 'too polished'. Check out SURVIVE!Survive (Supervivientes de los Andes)instead. It's not the great Hollywood show stopper, but it does get the message across!