On A List of Movie Reviews
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Alive (1993)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
11/03, 8/04, 10/14, 12/15
10/14:
John Malkovich's introduction for Alive is comical because he never experienced the harrowing tale,
and I could never stop laughing through it.
He should've been replaced by one of the actual survivors, preferably Nando Parrado, to give the story the justice it
deserves. After the pointless soliloquy is finished, it's the beginning of a pretty darned good movie. I've seen it many
times over the years, and it's the last ten minutes, from the trek to the helicopter rescue that makes Alive
transcendental. In short, there's nothing like it.
What's surprisingly amazing is how accurate the story is: the Fairchild plane carrying a local Uruguayan rugby team that
crashed in the middle of the Andes Mountains and the survivors being forced to battle the wintry conditions, depleting
their supply of food and wine in mere days and therefore succumbing to hunger by eating the deceased bodies.
Most viewers have made too much deal about the unthinkable. They just don't know until it actually happens to them.
As good as the cast is, Ethan Hawke is the standout by giving a special performance as Nando Parrado. Having seen
Alive many times, I'm still conflicted whether or not it deserves '10', but the ending is quite powerful.
All in all, Alive is a true story of human courage and the will to survive.
12/15:
Alive is a heart-stopping adventure survival story.
The cast is terrific, but it's Ethan Hawke who gives a special performance.
All in all, Alive is an unbelievable movie.
6/22:
I finally got around to picking up the book by Piers Paul Read, and what's refreshing is that there isn't much of a difference
between the book and the film.
It's almost exactly how the event happened which took place from October 13 to December 23, 1972. Fernando "Nando" Parrado
wanted to get out of the mountains from the beginning and therefore should be credited for saving the lives of fifteen
people. Religion had nothing to do with it. Eating dead bodies was of absolute necessity. The author was correct: if all
45 did survive at first, there's a chance every one of them would have been dead at the end. In other words, where's the food?
As to getting out of the mountains, it took Nando and Roberto Canessa ten days to walk 24 miles before reaching the green
valleys of Chile. When Canessa said he might have saw a road, he was actually correct. Also, there was a vacant hotel resort
thirteen miles to the east, but nobody could've known that. Their families commissioned plane searches all over the region
but were ultimately unsuccessful. It's because the top part of the fuselage was 100% white, making it hard to differentiate
from the snow. Other issues were high altitude and wintry conditions, hence the unsafe flight travel.
The helicopter rescue at the end isn't how it happened in the film, but it's close enough. The other fourteen already
knew in advance Parrado and Canessa had made it by listening to the radio. Their concern at that point was how they looked
and the dead bodies that were littered around the fuselage. Half were transported to the hospital while the rest
was left behind for another day along with the rescue team of five. When the five tried to enter the fuselage, they were
overcome by the stink inside, so all but one chose to sleep in their own tent overnight. None of the pilots
believed Nando when he showed them the way because of how he climbed the mountains without special equipment.
The movie is still powerful while the acting is uniformly great. Most importantly, the story is essentially
the same which is a rarity from Hollywood. The only misgiving I have is John Malkovich's narration which
should've been done by one of the actual survivors, preferably Nando.
All in all, if you read the book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, you'll be pleased with the film.