Society of the Snow Review: The story of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 flying a rugby team to Chile in 1971 is a well known story of survival many are familiar with (the 1993 film Alive is also based off of these real life events). Forty five passengers were aboard the flight that crashed in the Andes where the survivors had to live in frigid temperatures without food, water, or supplies.
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Thirty years after the story was first told cinematically, J. A. Bayona, talented director of The Orphanage, The Impossible (2012), and a personal favorite A Monster Calls has developed a retelling of the famous story in a majorly impactful way that combines his incredible camera work and storytelling techniques.
The cast of young men, mostly consisting of newcomers, is a sight to behold in themselves, giving heart-wrenching performances throughout. J. A. Bayona’s script emphasizes the stories of the victims and survivors as they trudge through impossible circumstances that bring about the film’s major questions and ideas as they pertain to human understanding of survival and even faith.
Society of the Snow’s length finds an excellent balance of monotony in the rugby team’s day to day as they try to survive while subtly incorporating dialogue and imagery that strikes the audience right in the heart. The words spoken by the characters are never wasted and provide insight into their individual morals and faith that affect how they try to survive.
J.A. Bayona’s directorial eye harnesses the beauty of the Andes landscape while also making it a nightmarish hell for the men and women aboard the flight. Their situation greatly impacts the character’s relationships with their faith in a way that Bayona displays throughout the film. He is able to express through the characters how one’s faith seems easy to grapple with when living safely from day to day but how they are forced to look at their relationship with God differently when being dealt such dire cards. The ability to open up such a conversation in a film such as this is a testament to Bayona’s storytelling.
One of the most beautiful aspects of Society of the Snow is the lack of exaggeration to create a film that appeals to audiences looking for “action” or “movie moments” that are typically added for entertainment. Everyone involved had such immense respect for the true story, survivors, and victims enough so much so that Bayona took the liberty of including every name of all men and women aboard the flight whether they were the survivors or those who lost their lives during their fight.
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He does this throughout rather than a simple list at the end of the film and utilizes other creative liberties in the film that fit and encapsulate all aspects of the movie. Society of the Snow is released on Netflix January 4th but I would urge anyone with an interest to see it in theaters as soon as possible.
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