It was time. While 1993’s Alive was fine, the movie suffers from West Side Story syndrome, in that it takes an Uruguayan story and whitewashes it, Hollywood style. Netflix and J. A. Bayona not only correct that glaring problem, but enhance the 1993 movie in every way. Other than maybe the title, Society of the Snow feels like a Dead Poets Society Ripoff. Yikes, poor choice of title on my part, sorry.
For those unfamiliar, Society of the Snow is based on the real life Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 disaster. In 1972, this flight went down in the Andes in the middle of South American Winter. On the flight were 45 passengers total, including a Uruguayan rugby team captained by Marcelo Pérez del Castillo (Diego Vegezzi). 12 people died in the crash; what happened to other passengers, like the de facto doctor Roberto Canessa (Matías Recalt), the narrator Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic Roldán), and unconscious, hurt sole survivor in his family Nando Parrado (Agustín Pardella), encapsules many of Dante’s circles of hell.
Before I get you too gloomy, there were 16 survivors. But rest assured, Society of the Snow is a harrowing survival tale. Thankfully, they got the right director, J. A. Bayona, who’s staged a tsunami, a volcanic eruption, and a tree coming to life. He was ready to film that 571 plane crash: it’s tensly built up to, with great use of sound and claustrophobia on that plane as the turbulence gets more and more violent. Bayona convinced Netflix to actually have him shoot on location at the site of the crash, which really helps the movie’s stakes feel impossible. The director repeatedly shows just how tiny and small these boys were in that ginormous valley with god like mountain peaks imposingly surrounding them. And when the boys get a glimmer of hope and solace. Bam! Elemental curveballs like avalanches or unyielding freezes in the dark night. Bayona’s previous work also let him do a decent job at some character development for the main players in the story, so when bad things happen, it’s not “faceless rugby players”, but Roberto, or Numa, or one of the few women on the flight, Liliana Methol (Paula Baldini).
Caring about these people is important, because of the lengths they had to go to to survive. And it’s not just those elements that proved daunting. Half a plane. Only a few suitcases. Endless winter. No rescue until warmer weather a month from now. As tense as those disasters were to watch, maybe the most tense scene is the first night these young men and women realize what they are going to have to do to survive long term on the mountain. The conversation is heartbreaking, as the burden of sin weighs heavily on the Catholic raised passengers, considering breaking one of the most universally accepted taboos in modern society. From there, we see the depths people will go to for sheer survival: those prioritizing it first sacrificing customs, ego, and other norms to simply live another day, while others decide it’s better to die a good Christian than live an eternity in damnation. I hope no one has to go through what the Society of the Snow did, but the conversations and evolution of each person as they inch closer and closer to death makes the movie a more fascinating and compelling watch instead of just a soulless set piece machine.
If you have a flight coming up, definitely DON’T watch Society of the Snow. Otherwise, please do! It’s another reason why Netflix can be so great, giving a decent budget to tell a compelling story outside of the United States. I know more about Mexico, Germany, Italy, Dakar, Syria, Chile, and now Uruguay thanks to the streamer. I hope they don’t stop until all 195 countries get a film representative. How about Eritrea, Netflix? What do they have going on?