Alive

Alive Information

Alive is a 1993 American biographical survival drama film based upon Piers Paul Read's 1974 book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, which details the story of a Uruguayan rugby team who were involved in the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed into the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972.

The film was directed by Frank Marshall and narrated by John Malkovich. One of the survivors, Nando Parrado (portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the film), served as the technical advisor for the film. The film starred Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano and Josh Hamilton.

Plot

The film opens with a series of photographs of the Stella Maris College's Old Christians Rugby Team. Carlitos Páez explains that the pictures were taken by his father and points out several members of the team, including himself as a young man, Alex Morales, Felipe Restano, Nando Parrado and the team's Captain Antonio Balbi. Carlitos then reflects on the accident in a brief monologue, speaking of heroism, the gravity of the situation and of solitude and faith.

The story moves to October 13, 1972 as Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 flies over the Andes. The raucous rugby players and a few of their relatives and friends are eagerly looking forward to the upcoming match in Chile. Nando's sister, Susana, praises the beauty of the mountains and happily observes that the plane will be landing in 20 minutes.

However, after emerging from clouds, the plane encounters turbulence and collides with an unknown mountain peak. During the collision, the wings and tail are separated from the fuselage of the plane, and the remnants of the fuselage slide down a big mountain slope before coming to a complete stop. Antonio, the team captain, takes charge of the situation, co-ordinating efforts to help his injured teammates. Roberto Canessa and Gustavo Zerbino, both medical students, are the first to address the injured. Six passengers and one flight attendant are killed when they are ejected from the plane, and another six die shortly afterward including both pilots, Alex, Nando's mother Eugenia, and an older couple. Nando, who sustained a head injury, falls into a coma and Susana suffers harsh internal injuries.

As the sun sets, the survivors begin to make preparations for the night. Canessa discovers that the seat covers can be unzipped and used as blankets. The survivors go inside the fuselage and curl up beside one another to stay warm. Antonio, Roy Harley and Rafael Cano plug the gaping hole at the end of the fuselage with luggage to keep the wind out. Two passengers die during the night from their injuries including Mrs. Alfonsín, causing Carlitos to feel ashamed after earlier yelling at her as she moaned about the pain she had been experiencing. With nothing to hunt or gather on the mountain, Antonio declares they will use rationing when the survivors find a tin of chocolates and a case of wine. After seeing a plane dip its wing, the survivors celebrate. Expecting to be rescued the next day, everyone except Javier, his wife Liliana, and Antonio eat the remaining chocolates.

The survivors listen to a radio for word of their rescue but are devastated to hear the search is called off after day nine. This causes a quarrel between Antonio and several others for eating the chocolate. Meanwhile, Nando regains consciousness through the care of Carlitos and Hugo Diaz. After learning of his mother's death, Nando watches over Susana vigilantly. Knowing that she will die of her injuries within a few days, he vows to set off on foot and find a way out of the mountains. When Carlitos reminds him that he will need food, Nando suggests consuming flesh from the corpses of the deceased pilots to survive his journey to find help. Susana dies from her injuries.

After great debate, the remaining passengers decide to eat the flesh of their dead companions in order to survive. Zerbino, Rafael and Juan Martino set off to search for the tail of the plane in hopes of finding the batteries for the plane's radio to transmit their location. Among pieces of the wreckage, the teammates find additional corpses, but return to the group with news that the tail of the plane is likely a little farther away. Later in the week, an avalanche hits the plane and floods the interior with snow. Most manage to climb out of the snow, but some are unable to escape; eight of the remaining survivors are smothered by the snow or freeze to death, including Antonio, Liliana and Juan; Liliana was the final of the five women aboard to die. A second team, made up of Nando, Canessa and Antonio "Tintin" Vizintin, finds the tail of the plane. Unable to bring the batteries to the fuselage, they return to the fuselage to get Roy, who is rumoured to have experience setting up electrical equipment. They bring him to the tail of the plane, where the batteries are, to see if he can fix the radio. When Roy is unsuccessful, the team returns to the fuselage once more.

Federico Aranda and Alberto Antuna die from their injuries soon after and Rafael soon dies after from an illness, leading Nando to convince a reluctant Canessa to search for a way out of the mountains, taking "Tintin" with them. Two days into the journey, they send "Tintin" back to the fuselage so they can appropriate his rations and continue on. After a 12-day trek, the two escape the mountains and alert the authorities of their companions' location. As helicopters land on the glacier, the other 14 survivors celebrate.

The film then shifts to the present as Carlitos explains the survivors later returned to the site of the crash and buried the bodies of the dead under a pile of stones, marked with a cross, about half a mile away. The memorial is then displayed with the film's dedication to both the 29 deceased and 16 survivors.

Cast

Survivors

Ethan Hawke as Nando Parrado
Josh Hamilton as Roberto Canessa
John Haymes Newton as Antonio "Tintin" Vizintin
Bruce Ramsay as Carlitos Páez
David Kriegel as Gustavo Zerbino
Jack Noseworthy as Roberto "Bobby" Francois
Kevin Breznahan as Roy Harley
David Cubitt as Adolfo "Fito" Strauch
Gian DiDonna as Eduardo Strauch
John Cassini as Daniel Fernandez
Richard Ian Cox as Ramon "Moncho" Sabella
Nuno Antunes as Alvaro Mangino
Gordon Currie as Jose Luis "Coche" Inciarte
Sam Behrens as Javier Methol
Michael Tayles as Alfredo "Pancho" Delgado
Steven Shayler as Jose Pedro Algorta
John Malkovich as older Carlitos Páez / Narrator (uncredited)

Deceased

Michael Sicoly as Col. Julio Ferrádas, Pilot
Jerry Wasserman as Lt. Colonel Dante Lagurara, Co-Pilot
Tony Morelli as Lt. Ramón Martínez, Navigator
José Zúñiga as Sgt. Carlos "Fraga" Roque, Mechanic
Frank Pellegrino as Sgt. Ovidio Joaquín Ramírez, Steward
Illeana Douglas as Liliana Methol
Ele Keats as Susana Parrado
Jan D'Arcy as Eugenia Parrado
Danny Nucci as Hugo Diaz (based on Daniel Maspons)
Vincent Spano as Antonio Balbi (based on Marcelo Pérez)
Michael DeLorenzo as Rafael Cano (based on Numa Turcatti)
Josh Lucas as Felipe Restano (based on Felipe Maquirriain)
Chad Willett as Pablo Montero (based on Enrique Platero)
Michael Woolson as Juan Martino (based on Juan Carlos Menéndez)
Diana Barrington as Mrs. Alfonsin (based on Graciela Mariani)
Christian Meoli as Federico Aranda (based on Rafael Echavarren)
Jake Carpenter as Alberto Antuna (based on Arturo Nogueira)
Silvio Pollio as Álex Morales (based on Fernándo Vázquez)
Jason Gaffney as Victor Bolarich (based on Gustavo Nicolich)
Seth James Arnett as Tomas Alonso (based on Carlos Valeta)
Patrick Ramano as Jorge Armas (based on Diego Storm)
Aurelio Dinunzio as Dr. Solana (based on Dr. Francisco Nicola)
Fiona Roeske as Mrs. Solana (based on Esther Nicola)

Soundtrack

James Newton Howard's end credit music was reused in a number of film trailers, most commonly during the mid-1990s.

Reception

The film received generally good reviews, with a 68% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Some focused their criticism on the physical characteristics of the cast, arguing that it should have been chosen mainly from actors of Southern European ancestries (i.e. Spanish and Italian, according to the demographic composition of Uruguay), instead of Northern European. However, it should be noted that several of the survivors actually were Uruguayans of Northern and Central European descent (British, Irish, French, German, Croatian, etc.) such as Roy Harley, Bobby François and the Strauchs. In this regard, the passengers were representative of the generally privileged clientele of their school, rather than of Uruguayan society as a whole.

David Ansen of Newsweek said that, while, "Piers Paul Read's acclaimed book ... paid special attention to the social structure that evolved among the group ... Marshall ... downplays the fascinating sociological details"?and the ambiguities of character"?in favor of action, heroism and a vague religiosity that's sprinkled over the story like powdered sugar."

Others, such as Ray Green, praised the tactful nature of the film stating that, "despite the potential for lurid sensationalism, Marshall manages to keep his and the film's dignity by steering an effectively downbeat course through some grim goings on thanks in no small manner to the almost allegorical ring of Shanley's stylized dialogue." Green continues by describing the film as, "thrilling and engrossing as it is at times, Alive is more than an action film"?in its own way it is also a drama of ideas, and of the human spirit as well."

Roger Ebert wrote "There are some stories you simply can't tell. The story of the Andes survivors may be one of them." He also questioned the realism of how normal the actors' bodies looked after portraying two months of near starvation.

Documentary

A companion documentary, Alive: 20 Years Later, was released at the same time as the film. It includes interviews with the survivors, as well as documentary footage of the rescue. The 30th Anniversary Edition of Alive: The Miracle of the Andes (on DVD) includes this documentary in the Extras section.