Alive (1993)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Frank Marshall

Writers (WGA):

Piers Paul Read (book)
John Patrick Shanley (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 January 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History | Thriller

Tagline:

They survived the impossible...by doing the unthinkable.

Plot:

Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the snow swept Andes are forced to use desperate measures to survive after a plane crash.

Plot Keywords:

Rugby | Rugby Team | Mountain | Stranded | Snow

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Ethan Hawke	...	Nando Parrado
Vincent Spano	...	Antonio Balbi
Josh Hamilton	...	Roberto Canessa
Bruce Ramsay	...	Carlitos Páez
John Newton	...	Antonio 'Tintín' Vizintín (as John Haymes Newton)
David Kriegel	...	Gustavo Zerbino
Kevin Breznahan	...	Roy Harley
Sam Behrens	...	Javier Methol
Illeana Douglas	...	Lilliana Methol
Jack Noseworthy	...	Bobby François
Christian J. Meoli	...	Federico Aranda
Jake Carpenter	...	Alberto Artuna
Michael DeLorenzo	...	Rafael Cano (as Michael De Lorenzo)
José Zúñiga	...	Fraga, the Mechanic
Danny Nucci	...	Hugo Díaz

Also Known As:

Alive: The Miracle of the Andes
¡Viven! (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Les survivants (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Életben maradtak (Hungary) [hu]
Überleben! (Germany) [de]
Alive (Finland) (DVD title) [fi]
Alive - 20 år efter miraklet i Anderna (Sweden) [sv]
Alive - Dramat w Andach (Poland) [pl]
Alive - Sopravvissuti (Italy) [it]
Elossa! (Finland) (video title) [fi]
Estamos Vivos (Portugal) [pt]
Leich'yot (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Oi epizisantes (Greece) [el]
Vi lever (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Vivos (Brazil) [pt]
Zivi (Slovenia) [sl]

MPAA:

Rated R for crash scenes too intense for unaccompanied children.

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | South Korea:15 | USA:R (Certificate #32112) | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:12 | Norway:15 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Film Andes S.A.

Trivia:

Shot in sequence, an unusual practice for a film of this size.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The story takes place in the southern hemisphere. However, the sun orientation suggests that they are in the northern hemisphere. Based on what is being described as East and West in the movie, the sun should be slightly to the north during the day, but it's slightly to the south.

Quotes:

Roberto Canessa: We're gonna die, you know.
Nando: Maybe. But if we die, we're gonna die walking.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Father Ted: The Mainland (#3.4)" (1998)

Soundtrack:

Do You Know The Way To San Jose?

The best that could have been done.

Critics often fault Alive with petty complaints: Gee, wasn't the avalanche a convenient plot device? Why didn't the plane have signal flares? How come the survivors were all those pretty boys? Why don't we see the dramatic search? In doing so, they're faulting reality: The avalanche really did happen when and how it was portrayed. The wreckage really did lack signal flares. The plane really was chartered by a bunch of ruggedly handsome young men -- what else do you expect from a rugby team? And yes, the search was dramatic (the moment when Roberta Cannessa's father learned that his son is alive is one of those stranger-than-fiction moments), but it was enough of a task to compress the survivors' story into a feature film. The search would have comprised another film entirely on its own.

How do you compress nearly three months of terror and tedium into less than two hours while still holding the attention of the audience? It's a daunting task, and Alive manages quite nicely. With technical consulting provided by crash survivor Nando Parrado, Alive captures the look and mood of the crash site, and sketches in the relationships among the passengers of the ill-fated flight.

It leaves many strange questions hanging (Where, in this plane full of mostly unmarried adults, does Nando come up with two tiny red sneakers?) and those questions are best answered by reading the book. And watch Alive again. Things become clearer with multiple viewings.