Get ready for a gut-wrenching tale of courage based on true events. Society of the Snow brings to life the harrowing story of a 1972 plane crash high in the treacherous Andes mountains. You may have caught previous movies or shows covering what these passengers endured, but this latest adaptation aims to capture their ordeal in unprecedented, visceral detail.
Brace yourself as a team of Uruguayan rugby players, along with friends and family members, board a flight from Montevideo to Chile. Disaster strikes when their plane crashes into a remote snowbound mountain range. Of the 45 souls on board, only 29 initially survive the devastating impact. As they take stock of their brutal surroundings—frigid temperatures, avalanches, sheer cliffs—they quickly realize rescue may never arrive.
Facing icy winds and starvation, this group of young strangers bands together to beat the odds. We witness their desperate struggle for survival through the eyes of Numa, a thoughtful 24-year-old who serves as the story’s moral core. Along with team captain Nando and quick-thinking medical student Roberto, Numa strives to keep hope alive. But trapped in the clutch of winter with no food or shelter, devastating choices loom. Will they stand unified and defiant in the face of terror and loss? Can they maintain courage and humanity in the bleakest of environments? Let’s delve into this incredible story about the resilience of the human spirit.
Brace For Impact: The Crash and Ensuing Torment
Prepare to white-knuckle your armrests as Society of the Snow kicks off with one of the most vividly rendered plane crashes ever filmed. Director J.A. Bayonathrusts viewers into the chaos inside Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 as it smashes into a craggy Andean peak. We experience the jolting free-fall and destructive impact firsthand from the passengers’ perspective.
The sequence pulls no punches as the aircraft rips open, seats and bodies catapulting forward in the fusillage. The camera’s shaky, up-close vantage point conveys both dizzying disbelief andbone-deep terror. We glimpse contorted limbs and hear panicked screams pierce the din. When the smoke clears, more than half the people aboard are dead, while most of the shaken survivors suffer appalling injuries—compound fractures, ripped flesh, rushing blood.
The nightmarish scene sets the tone for the abysmal ordeal ahead. As the ragtag group of students, athletes and family members take stock of their surroundings, the outlook appears truly bleak. They’re stranded on a remote glacier encircled by steep, snow-covered peaks. Frigid winds pummel their makeshift shelter within warped shards of fuselage. Frostbite and infection stalk the maimed survivors as meager medical supplies dwindle. Each punishing day claims more wounded as the able-bodied tend to them.
Adding to the abyssal dread, it soon becomes apparent no quick rescue is coming. With rationed snacks depleted, the priority shifts from tending injuries to securing food. But in this frozen hellscape devoid of vegetation or animals, there is literally nothing to hunt, gather or scavenge. As excruciating hunger sets in, the umbrella topic no one dares mention gets whispered between grim faces – the prospect of consuming human flesh from corpses preserved in snow.
Society of the Snow will wrench your gut as this band of innocents endures the initial weeks of savagery. The mental anguish of adapting to the ruthlessness of nature, debating the ethics of cannibalism – it engulfs them wholly. Yet we witness them cling to camaraderie and altruism, even as storms and avalanches compound their adversity. The tenacious refusal to surrender glimmers, lighting an arduous path they feel compelled to walk.
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Banding Together: The Society Rises
As the lost souls trapped on the glacier start to grasp their dire predicament, we witness the emergence of their remarkable cooperative society. United in adversity, this unlikely band of athletes, friends and relatives bands together for strength, dubbing themselves “The Society of the Snow.”
Within this ravaged new tribe, thoughtful Numa becomes a central voice and moral pillar. His first-hand narration lends perspective as the group navigates intense ethical debates surrounding their path forward. Numa strives to uphold dignity and humanity despite degrading physical and mental states. When some propose consuming human flesh from the frozen dead, Numa resists as consent can’t be given. Yet he listens and comes to feel that if faced with death, he’d want his body used to sustain the living.
Around campfires, the group embraces camaraderie and peer counselling to buoy sagging spirits. They share dreams of hopeful futures and lost loved ones through laughter and tears. Townsfolk back home singing their anthem in solidarity via the radio kindles defiant resilience. Each lifeline of human connection fans the inner fire needed to endure.
Make no mistake, the brutal fight for survival continues as the Society marks the passage of days under snowfall. Frostbite claims digits and fever brings delirium. Some wander off alone never to return, while sudden avalanches threaten to bury them completely. Yet we witness a collective determination pulsating in those who remain. Against all odds, this unlikely tribe leans on shared grit to transcend the worst of fates.
Society of the Snow will stir your soul as this band of lost innocents chooses to walk hand-in-hand into the breach. Supporting each other emotionally and physically, their refusal to bow in their snow-covered purgatory proves deeply affecting. Out of raw devastation blooms a surround sound of courage, sacrifice and grace echoing off icy cathedrals.
The Harrowing Dilemma: To Eat or Not to Eat?
Among the most affecting portions of Society of the Snow involves the agonizing debate surrounding cannibalism. As we’ve seen, with food supplies nonexistent and the human body needing thousands more calories fighting the high-altitude cold, starvation rapidly weakens the group. Drastic action must be taken, but could crossing this ultimate line be akin to losing one’s soul?
The film tackles this excruciating moral dilemma head-on yet tastefully. There are no explicit scenes of flesh being carved from corpses. What we do get amounts to a few mouthfuls of unidentified pink meat extended on shaking hands. The focus stays on tormented faces, the questioning of convictions, the guilt of weighing religious beliefs against animal instincts clamoring for sustenance.
In a key scene, Roberto and Nando volunteer to be the first to ingest slivers of human meat. As they swallow, tears stream down the faces of those bearing witness. The anguish is two-fold – partly over broken taboos and transgressed values, but also feeling they must themselves follow suit. To refuse would burden the willing and risk group divide. United they stand, divided they fall.
In line with Society’s empathetic approach, director Bayona keenly spotlights the resulting crisis of faith plaguing several survivors. Some like Numa view eating the dead as disrespecting the bodies and wishes of former teammates, classmates and friends. Others insist the departed would bless the sustained health of the living, going so far as formally asking the deceased for permission. Varying perspectives get voiced in what plays like a series of conscience-wrenching monologues around the fireside.
Yet as more of them reach the brink, the notion of cannibalism transitions from unthinkable to imperative. Society of the Snow provokes us to ponder – faced with rapidly approaching death by starvation, what principles still apply? What wouldn’t we do under the same extremis? The film wants viewers to engage thoughtfully, not react out of shock or disgust. Just know that for this stranded group, crossing the final frontier of taboo takes profound tolls both physical and spiritual.
The Grueling Trek: Glimmers of Hope
Two months in, with energy and morale fading fast, a bold plan hatches – two of the strongest survivors will risk it all hiking west over the mountains towards Chile in hopes of finding rescue. Society of the Snow injects some classic man vs. nature adventure during Roberto and Nando’s valiant quest for salvation.
Carrying makeshift gear and meager rations, the daring pair navigates sheer cliffs, fickle weather and ravenous hunger over the brutal, days-long traverse. Meanwhile, suspense intercuts showing those anxiously anticipating their return back at basecamp. Through blizzard and breakdown, Nando urges doubtful Roberto forward each punishing step, driven by memories of loved ones and the responsibility he feels towards those depending on them.
The alternating point of view ratchets up stakes exponentially. Like anxious relatives awaiting news of lost mountain climbers, we glean the tent settlement back at the crash site is concurrently struggling just to maintain. As the duo scales treacherous passes, howling winds flay their flesh raw and frigid temperatures drop survival odds with each downward inch. Careening off an ice bridge at one point leaves Roberto dangling helplessly above a crevasse.
But Society of the Snow ultimately rewards their perseverance with a moment that made me want to stand up and cheer. Just when all seems lost, we share Nando’s teary-eyed revelation of help on the horizon – the red-tinted roof tiles of an outpost peeking out from the whiteout maelstrom. Though near corpses themselves, their triumph paves rescue for those remaining back at basecamp. Talk about an emotional release!
The entire sequence stands out for marrying seat-edge action with significant advancement of the greater narrative. Much as the pair shoulder the fate of their compatriots, the film visitor now shoulders their harrowing outcome. Ultimately we’re reminded how in dire times, heroes emerge willing to sacrifice body and soul for the greater good. What they accomplish and overcome feels monumental.
Stirring Themes & Craftsmanship
Beyond recreating a remarkable tale of resilience, Society of the Snow embedded provocative themes belying its adventure narrative trappings. Director Bayona’s deft storytelling restores our faith in humanity by highlighting cooperation and courage in the face of calamity.
Intent on respectful chronicling over exploitation, Bayona makes thoughtful stylistic choices honoring the real individuals whose nightmarish experience gets dramatized. Rather than stage gratuitous simulations of cannibalism or having recognizable stars distractingly insert themselves into the saga, he films with reverence. Audiences bear witness less as voyeurs than supportive allies.
What we do get are moments of visual poetry capturing the ethereal cruelty of the landscape. Cinematographer Pedro Luque perfectly conveys the alien vibe of a setting at once dangerously volatile yet possessed of otherworldly splendor. Shot after isolating shot of the tiny tent settlement adrift in an ocean of snow burned into my brain. The visuals alone tell a tale of the sublime power and indifference of nature.
Beyond reinforcing geography as antagonist, the film stresses shared humanity as salvation. In Society’s universe, ordinary people awaken to their inner stores of mutual concern and courage when facing crises testing moral convictions. United by trauma yet rising above demoralization, the group personifies uplifting themes of kindness, empathy and grace.
Michael Giacchino’s magnificent score additionally amplifies each emotional beat from nail-biting tension to triumphant relief. Haunting choral arrangements give voice to the departed while strings swelling with hope play off moving monologues celebrating sacrifice and resilience. The music provides a lyrical second narrative complementing the visuals.
Society of the Snow ultimately strikes a bravura balance between pulse-quickening entertainment and intellectually resonant human drama. Come for a masterclass in judiciously staged survival action, stay for the celebration of spiritual resilience in the darkness.
Surpassing Prior Tellings
Society of the Snow marks at least the third major movie dramatizing this incredible real-life tale, the most popular being 1993’s Alive directed by Frank Marshall. So in what ways does this latest Spanish-language incarnation distinguish itself from that Hollywood rendering starring Ethan Hawke?
Despite honorable intentions, Alivetook some heat for inserting English-speaking fictionalizations of actual Latin American survivors. Perhaps inevitable for a mass-market studio project designed to maximize profits, casting high-profile American actors like Hawke nonetheless lent a ring of inauthenticity. Flash forward thirty years and Society corrects this issue perfectly by using Spanish dialogue spoken by a Latin cast.
Additionally, Marshall’s film invented interpersonal tensions for heightened human drama that survivors claim misrepresented the cohesive dynamic binding them. Society portrays more of a collaborative fellowship among the stranded, emphasizing cooperation in the face of calamity. Nobody bickers over hierarchical roles or isolationist withdrawal as seen in Alive.
Frank Marshall also incorporated various action thriller contrivances absent from accounts of what went down. Society avoids inserting unneeded ambulances dangling off mountain ridges or other standardized adventure movie cliches. The drama emerges organically from the central conflict of humans struggling to endure a merciless environment.
All told, Society of the Snow succeeds as the most realistic take yet on this incredible72-day survival story. By hewing to the actual languages used and spotlighting themes of collective determination over individualism, it relates an inspirational chronicle free from the tropes and distortions that Hollywood tends to fuel. Authenticity triumphs.
An Affecting Ode To Resolve
Boasting masterful set pieces yet equally adept with emotional intimacy, Society of the Snow makes for an overall effective tribute to indomitable humanity. Those craving a realistic dramatization of this incredible survival story will find it fully delivered without lapsing into gratuity or contrivance.
As covered, director Bayona injects artful sequences capturing both the kinetic destruction of the plane crash and the abstract peril of occupants stranded amid the sublime cruelty of nature. We bear witness through bloodshot eyes and ice-crusted beards. Images of makeshift shelters battered by screaming winds linger long after viewing.
Yet Society’s true rewards stem less from vivid adversity than the shared heart observed beating defiantly through it all. More than an against-the-odds adventure yarn exalting individual moxie, this proves an ode to collective conscience and sacrifice. Incredible but true events get relayed more as parable than exploit.
However one interprets the cannibalism, its heavy tolls ring less aberrant than understandable given the context conveyed. And the ultimate rescue seems less Hollywood miracle than natural result of courage gathering force. As closing anthem notes resound, what resonates most are ordinary people awakened to their latent stores of grace and grit through tribulation.
Add it all up and Society of the Snow makes for a rousing testament to human bonds formed by trauma but emerging stronger. What this group endures and overcomes will linger as reminders of how hope springs eternal from the darkest extremes. Their tale nourishes the soul.
The Review
Society of the Snow
Society of the Snow remains an unflinching yet profoundly stirring dramatization of real-life events testing moral convictions. Through authentic performances and respectful storytelling, director Bayona captures both the visceral extremes and spiritual transcendence of this unbelievable 72-day ordeal. Prepare to be affected on multiple levels.
PROS
- Visceral and emotionally powerful depiction of the crash and its aftermath
- Strong performances from a talented cast of newcomers
- Respectful and thoughtful treatment of sensitive themes
- Stirring themes related to courage, morality, human bonds
- Striking mountain scenery and weather cinematography
- Michael Giacchino’s haunting and evocative musical score
CONS
- Large ensemble makes it hard to distinguish some characters
- Explanatory narration borders on excessive at times
- Could have dared to explore cannibalism more bluntly
- Pacing drags slightly during the middle section
