Frank Marshall's account of the plight of the survivors of a Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the Andes after a horrific plane crash, features a startling and impressive crash sequence in which the fuselage is ripped apart and passengers, still buckled to their seats, are flung from the gaping hole like flies from the windscreen of a moving car. It is a superlative sequence that skilfully encapsulates the helplessness and horror of those trapped in such a situation.
After such an explosive start the movie quickly settles down to depict the struggles of the survivors of the crash to survive the bleak and freezing conditions. The first night is a sub-zero nightmare, filled with the groans and cries of the fatally injured as they gradually die. Ominously, perhaps, the bodies of the dead are not buried beneath the snow, but laid on top of it.
That the writer chooses not to focus entirely on the cannibalism in which the handful of survivors partake strengthens the film, and prevents it from becoming a sensationalist gore-fest. Instead, their decision to eat the dead is just one aspect of a multi-faceted tale of the will to survive against seemingly impossible odds.
One problem I had with this movie is that the makers fail to cast actors who look dissimilar enough for the viewer to be able to differentiate one from another. At times it is difficult to follow the narrative thread because of this, making it hard to be sure what is going on, and what frictions exist within the gradually dwindling group. The impact on the group of the deaths of individuals as the film progresses is also weakened because the viewer is left unsure of who has actually died. While the movie does occasionally focus on the psychological effects their dilemma imposes on individuals and the group as a whole, it does so only fitfully, as if the task is too daunting.
The movie is very gripping, however, and never drags throughout its 2 hour-plus running time, and the makers can, perhaps, be forgiven for an ending that seems just a little too sentimental.
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