The story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, the plane that crashed over the Andes mountains in 1972, mainly carrying a young team of Uruguayan rugby players expecting to play a match in Chile, has been told several times. Perhaps most famously in 1993’s “Alive” and the stellar documentaries “I Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash” and “Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains,” to name just a few. After two months of severe, extremely unimaginable conditions, punishing weather, starvation, avalanches, and other shocking horrors, 16 people survived in the end in what was dubbed the “Miracle of the Andes.” And each time the story of survival is told, it never ceases to be just horrifically unthinkable.
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Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona is the latest filmmaker to tackle the story, and his version is no less distressing and anxiety-inducing. In fact, his brutal and harrowing film is probably the darkest, most traumatic version of this story ever told. And yet, it’s also sensitively told, quite intimate in its grueling tale of those forever bonded together by their brush with near death. Bayona is known for horror, magical realism, fantasy, and blockbuster works like “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” and some of the early episodes of Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series. But he’s also no stranger to disaster movies with humanity and intimacy, like 2012’s “The Impossible,” which centered on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and first introduced audiences to Tom Holland in his debut film. While that movie was similarly stressful, emotionally draining, and a would-be triumph of humanity to overcome insurmountable odds, it did eventually succumb to saccharine oversentimentality and cliché, not to mention focusing on a family of affluent white people in a disaster that affected thousands of local Thai people.
Regardless, there was something there about compassion, love, resilience, and the will of the human spirit that Bayona finally gets right here. Arguably much better shaped, defined, less syrupy, and much more soulful, Bayona’s latest effort, his fifth feature-length effort, “The Society Of The Snow,” discovers a balance of raw immediacy, humanity, and heart. Call it take two on a similar idea, if you will, but with less mawkish sentimentality and truly wrenching scenes of loss, agony, and gut-wrenching anguish that feel earned and all too real. It’s a viscerally brutal film, too, unflinching and, at times, hard to watch. And in the scope of considering all things, it feels like a return to the roots of authenticity, away from Hollywood platitudes, and probably his best and most successful film since his debut, 2007’s “The Orphanage.”
“Society Of Snow” begins with how any disaster film might, with optimism about what lies ahead the audience knows will soon go amiss. A plane of mostly buoyant young Uruguayan rugby players confident about the match they are about to play are jocular, jovial, and horsing around, but soon, catastrophe strikes. Fortunately, unlike someone like Robert Zemeckis, who is tremendous at making similar spectacular set pieces (like “Flight” and “The Walk”) but increasingly less attuned to tenderness and sympathy, Bayona resists the urge to make a meal of the plane crash just as a set piece to be thrilled or terrified by. Yes, it’s a startling and disarming sequence, despite you knowing it’s coming, but it’s brief, not showy, and reminds the viewer of one crucial distinction: this is a film about people first, a catastrophe second, and this guiding principle—its poignant sense of empathy for the plight of these people— is what distinguishes the film from similar disaster movies that often place their premium on the cataclysmic event itself and characters as trapped pawns.
The heart of the film really centers on three characters who more or less are embodiments of hope, resolve, and conscience, even featuring a kind of baton toss of the protagonist’s POV, which is a tricky needle to thread, but the film manages it. At first, however, it solely film centers on Numa Turcatti (newcomer Enzo Vogrincic Roldán, who we will surely see more of), who narrates the film, a soulful young man with a strong moral compass who helps marshal the situation and push his increasingly desperate comrades and survivors to endure and persist despite the merciless conditions. Eventually, however, as tragedies mount, the film moves on to two of the latter survivors, Nando Parrado (Agustín Pardella) and Roberto Canessa (Matías Recalt), the two young men able to squeeze out their remaining energy and strength to find help and rescue.
Perhaps more importantly, “Society Of The Snow” keeps you in its grips despite most viewers knowing the exact storyline—a plane crashes in the middle of the remote, barren Andes mountains, and passengers are forced to commit cannibalism to survive. And despite hideous circumstances, dozens of them survive and are reunited with their families and loved ones.
It’s a testament to Bayona’s craft that ‘Snow’ features very few narrative surprises and still holds you in its captivating suspension of disbelief. And it’s accomplished with no stars, mostly newcomers and very few known or notable international actors either (though some cineastes might be able to recognize Argentinian actor Esteban Bigliardi from the recent film, “The Delinquents”).
One cannot understate the emotional and intense qualities strewn through “Society of The Snow,” particularly the delicate evolution of somber moods, gradually evolving from sheer exhausting dread, despair, and desperation to eventually something resembling a potential light at the end of the tunnel. In particular, the scenes of cannibalism, which are unfathomable to reconcile, are never taken for granted or sensationalized. Sensitively and carefully realized, these inconceivable moments are rendered as acts of profound love and generosity, precious gifts from the dead passed on to the survivors so they can continue and persist. Bayona’s film is also spiritual and reflective in nature, almost like a documentary of a nightmarish fever dream that unlucky souls were forced to suffer. Its relationship with the dead and quality of compassion feels key too, at every moment, trying to tenderly honor their passing with the understanding of the sacrifice their remains will eventually make.
Technically, Bayona’s film is a marvel, cinematically, visually, and with great set design precision to overwhelm you in this horrendous experience, but one particular ace in the hole is Michael Giacchino’s moving score, which is heartrending but just as nuanced and thoughtful as the movie is about its bleakest moments. Selected as the Spanish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards and one of the 15 finalist films in the December Oscar shortlist, “Society Of Snow” certainly belongs here just because of the accomplished and confident sense of craft alone.
Ambitious, impressive, and genuine, with a great sense of vast scale and awe, as its title suggests, “Society Of Snow” is not only a three-dimensional cinematic feat of wonder, terror, and emotion-stirring courage but a deeply felt portrait of togetherness, brotherhood, and survival, poignantly commemorating the painful memory of indescribable loss and tragedy. [B+]
“Society of The Show” debuts on Netflix on 4 January 2024.