Saturday, April 30, 2011

My Netflix Movie Review: Alive

"In 1972, an airplane carrying a team of rugby players came down in the Andes. Those who survived the crash then fended off starvation by eating the dead. Piers Paul Read told the story in his book "Alive," the basis of this movie. Judging by the audience reaction, most people know the story already; everyone began to titter with anticipation whenever one of the characters said he felt hungry. A helping of ghoulish bad taste would have slipped down nicely, in fact, but director Frank Marshall and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley solemnly wring a message of togetherness from the horror. Come closer to your friends than ever before, the movie says: have them for lunch. The crash itself is a knockout, with the fuselage tobogganing down snowy slopes, but from here on the plot grinds to a halt. The cannibalism seems rather gloomy and low-key, but then nobody enjoys frozen food every day. Ethan Hawke and Vincent Spano lead the worrying; a bearded, uncredited John Malkovich looks back on the whole experience and says that it took them spiritually onto a higher plane. Not the happiest choice of phrase to describe an air crash, perhaps, but there you are." ~Anthony Lane (Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker) 

General Movie Info:
Genre: Drama, Action, Adventure
Plot: Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the snow swept Andes are forced to use desperate measures to survive after a plane crash.
Rated: R


My thoughts:
The movie was good but the story itself was better.  The fact that this movie was based on actual events kept me interested from beginning to end.  While watching the movie I kept wondering how I would react if I was placed in that situation.  Hopefully I never have to find out!  Since this movie was made in 1993 it is not likely to be on top of your Netflix queue but I would definitely recommend watching it.

Check out the official trailer:

Information provided by:
www.imdb.com

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