Society of the Snow (2023)

August 12, 2024 9:37 AM

[TRAILER] On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to take a rugby team to Chile, crashes into a glacier in the heart of the Andes. Director J.A. Bayona (The Impossible, The Orphanage) adapts the true story into a Netflix original film.

Spanish title: La sociedad de la nieve

Starring Enzo Vogrincic, Matías Recalt, Agustín Pardella, Felipe González Otaño, Luciano Chatton, Valentino Alonso, Francisco Romero, Agustín Berruti, Andy Pruss, Simón Hempe, Juan Caruso, Esteban Bigliardi, Rocco Posca, Esteban Kukuriczka, Rafael Federman, Manuela Olivera, Agustín Della Corte, Tomas Wolf.

Directed by J. A. Bayona. Screenplay by J. A. Bayona, Bernat Vilaplana, Jaime Marques, Nicolás Casariego. Based on the book La sociedad de la nieve by Pablo Vierci. Produced by Belén Atienza, Sandra Hermida, J. A. Bayona for Misión de Audaces Films/El Arriero Films/Netflix. Cinematography by Pedro Luque. Edited by Jaume Martí, Andrés Gil. Music by Michael Giacchino.

87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

A Netflix original. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)

J.A. Bayona has done good work in other genres, but between this and The Impossible (the harrowing tsunami film with Ewan MacGregor, Naomi Watts, and Tom Holland as a tyke), disaster/survival stories might be his best lane to work in. Even the parts of Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom that the terrible script didn't sink were essentially disaster/survival scenes.

This is limited, in the way that predicament/survival stories are limited, but there is such care put to the characters, such understanding of the underlying drama, and such amazing virtuosity in the disaster/action scenes, that it pretty well maximizes what this subgenre can be/do.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:59 AM on August 12 [2 favorites]

I thought this movie was good; I've heard it's extremely similar to the '90s movie about the same event, Alive, but I've never seen that movie.

Either way, I thought it did a pretty decent job of explaining and putting you into the event, in terms of distance, starvation, etc.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:36 PM on August 13 [1 favorite]

It may just have been me, but what struck me as unexpected was the lack of sentiment. They survived, but it's really up to you whether that's inspirational. It's a film about people of faith that doesn't try to move the audience one way or the other on the subject of faith, and I find that really interesting.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:45 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]