Alive

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton, Bruce Ramsay, John Newton, David Kriegel, Ileana Douglas, Jack Noseworthy, Jake Carpenter, Josh Lucas
Directed by: Frank Marshall
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Adventure
1993

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A plane crash in the Andes Mountains strands an entire rugby team deep in the desolate environment. They fight to survive, going far beyond anything they believed themselves capable of doing.

Review:

Tim: Alive is the incredible true story of plane crash survivors deep in the Andes Mountains. The film does a good job of portraying this real life event. We see the plane crash, the immediate aftermath, the hope of rescue, the despair of feeling abandoned, and the fight for survival. It's an amazing story and I was engaged throughout the film. This is a really, really good movie.

There are dozens of crash survivors, so the film has a fairly large cast. While it's good to see solid actors like Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton (and Josh Lucas for a few moments), many of the other actors weren't exactly incredible craftsmen. I felt like the film had some truly great actors and some truly bad ones. It's been a long time since I have seen such an uneven cast. While Hawke, Hamilton, and a few others really deliver good performances, others detract from the overall quality of the film. For every Ileana Douglas, you had another cast member that seemed to have relatively little experience. This wasn't a huge flaw, but it did hurt the film a bit.

One of the great aspects of this film is how the tale of their survival unfolds. We see so many of the specific decisions that are made in the days and weeks after the crash. We see the survivors dealing with those who were injured or dead. We see the rationing of food, the fight for leadership. We see the battle against hopelessness and depression. Each of these elements were crucial, as they moved the survivors either closer to death, or moved them away from it. I loved watching all that unfold.

Likely the most memorable aspect of the film is the survivors' controversial but ultimately essential decision to resort to cannibalism to survive. They were stranded deep in the Andes Mountains in horrible weather and elemental factors. There was no food. To survive, these people had to resort to eating the dead. I loved how this was portrayed on screen. It must have been an agonizing decision. I also thought the film did a good job of showing the actual act. While I imagine the truth of the situation was far more gruesome than what was shown here, the film did a good job of depicting these scenes in a respectful way. That's still the most fascinating and horrifying aspect of this entire story.

At two hours long, this film might have been 10-12 minutes too long. There are a number of scenes in the soggy middle that tend to drag on. Director Frank Marshall mostly did an excellent job, but there were pacing issues that ultimately pulled this film under the line required to be a great movie. I really, really liked Alive. It was an exciting, nerve-racking film that kept my attention. This is a film that's absolutely worth seeing.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5



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