By Julz Levesque and Elizabeth Hildebrandt, Staff Writers
Society of the Snow is one of Netflix’s most recent films being theatrically released on December 13, 2023, in Uruguay, following a release in Spain a few days later, and finally hitting streaming in the United States on January 4th, 2024. Society of the Snow was directed by Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona who has works such as Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, A Monster Calls, and The Impossible as previous projects. Bayona adapted his screenplay based on the works of Uruguayan journalist and writer Pablo Vierci. The film follows the incredible real-life event of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 that crashed in the Andes Mountains in October of 1972. The plane came from Montevideo, Uruguay and was traveling to Santiago Chile. It held 45 people in total consisting of 19 young adult rugby players from the Old Christians Club union team along with their friends, families, and 5 crew members. The film introduces the audience to the young men before the flight, then subsequently the crash and the 72 days of harsh weather, resourcefulness, and teamwork at the site of the crash that lead up to 16 of them surviving impossible odds. Society of the Snow is the most recent retelling of the event as well as the most accurate out of the two other films preceding its release.
The film focuses on Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic), a 24-year-old law student as he recounts the events from his perspective as the narrator. It opens on the snowy landscape of the Andes Mountains focusing briefly on the remnants of the plane crash before cutting to a fast-paced rugby game with Roberto Canessa (Matías Recalt) as the leading man. Later on in the locker room, the young men speak of a rugby trip to Chile that they’re trying to persuade everyone on going since it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance before they all go off into the real world as adults, especially for the cheap price. The story goes on to show them at the airport saying goodbye to loved ones and their moments before the crash, then the devastating initial crash into the frigid mountains where the plane splits in two with the tail of the plane flying off and the nose of the plane barreling down into the valley. The rest of the film shows their 72 days of survival in increments, displaying some of the dates as they pass by and the victims’ names as they depart from life. The focus is geared heavily on their resourcefulness as they all work together to create inventions to collect drinkable water from the snow, keep warm inside the wreckage, create snow shoes and sunglasses, and fix the radio. When they realize the search has ended and that it’s impossible for overhead planes to see the wreckage from above, they begin to take matters into their own hands as survival becomes slim and food sources begin to run out. Numa and the two Strauch cousins (Esteban Kukuriczka and Daniel Fernández) make attempts to explore the landscape. As days go on without food, the remaining passengers start thinking about alternatives to food in a barren lifeless valley. With very little possibilities they begin to give consent to their own bodies for the nourishment of others. The film centers around themes of religion and camaraderie. To quote a priest at the beginning of the film, “And at once, the spirit drove Jesus out into the desert. He remained there for forty days and forty nights, tempted by satan. ‘If you are the son of God command that these stones become loaves of bread.’ but Jesus answered ‘One does not live by bread alone…’ ‘Take this, all of you, and eat of it. This is my body’”. Once a decision is made and the Strauch cousins begin to retrieve nourishment from those already passed, many of the remaining are hesitant and disapproving as they believe they’ll be subject to damnation. After some time Nando Parrado (Agustín Pardella) gains strength after being badly injured and as time goes on the remaining passengers work together to stay alive and train for a trek to find help.
The documentary behind the filming is also available on Netflix. Society of the Snow: Who Were We on The Mountain? Showcases the intricacies behind the filming process and gives us a deeper understanding of who the actors are and how involved survivors were in filming. There were around 9 cameos in the film. What I really enjoyed were their casting choices. Film production wanted to have unknown actors portray the real-life victims as a way to make it feel more genuine. They cast the actors based on not just looks but personalities similar to the victims as well. The filming process was insanely brilliant with so much attention to detail and a focus on as many practical effects as possible and while watching the documentary I felt how passionate all of these people really were for this project. The design and engineering were astounding with 5 fuselages being built with different purposes in production. One of the fuselages was built entirely on a gimbal that could tilt at any angle for crash scenes to simulate turbulence, another was transported from Madrid to a mountain where they filmed off-studio in the Sierra Nevada, and smaller ones to produce more intense scenes of turbulence. The day they began filming the director and all of the actors had COVID so being able to see how they choreographed scenes around these difficulties was also super interesting. What I enjoyed the most was seeing how they filmed the avalanche scenes with actors breaking through the snow by pushing themselves through holes within a platform built under the fuselage. I didn’t realize how much practical effects were used in the film and it was even more interesting to know that even though they filmed the majority in the Sierra Nevada the images shown of the Andes Mountains within the film were genuine and taken on-location but added to scenes to get a genuine feel for audiences. It was also filmed chronologically and within that time many of the actors that went on lost weight with the progression of the event and grew out their hair and facial hair. I was even more blown away by this after my initial watch.
Society of the Snow has two preceding films and in my opinion, they do not do the event or victims justice. I watched them both recently, the first one being Alive (1993) directed by Frank Marshall. I just couldn’t pay attention to this one knowing that the entire cast was American and had no ties to Uruguay in any way. The lead actor was Ethan Hawke, which in my opinion casting him as Nando did not make the story believable one bit. I felt bored by this one and could barely pay attention because there was a lack of depth within all of the characters and it was heavily Americanized with nothing but the names of victims being the only tie to South America. It was entirely different from the camaraderie I saw in Society of the Snow and felt it leaned into individualism seen in western culture. I felt every 15 minutes someone was arguing or getting into physical altercations. They also brought up pizza… a lot for some reason. What I did enjoy about this film was how they still brought in themes of religion because faith was so important to the actual victims. I also appreciated that they kept a scene in about Nando and his Nephew’s shoes. He had a pair of red shoes he was going to give his nephew but before departing on his trip to get help he left one behind as a promise he’d come back. On the other hand, the Mexican film Survive! Directed by René Cardona was absolutely horrific. It’s the very first film depicting the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash and was released just 4 years after the real-life event. I believed this film would’ve been a bit better and maybe more accurate than Alive. I had high hopes until mid-way into the film. The characters and plot fell flat and Cardona leaned heavily into the horrifying aspects of cannibalism in a way that was used for shock value. Scenes of flesh being cut made my stomach churn. The posters for the film were distasteful and disrespectful and I felt Cardona’s approach to adapting the event on-screen was heavily exploitative and vulgar. I only watched the 84-minute version so I can’t imagine what could be in the original 111-minute version.
Society of the Snow told the heart-breaking and miraculous story of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash in a way that was respectful and honest. I felt it was the most accurate out of the three films I watched and the cast was genuinely so talented. Everyone in production was so passionate and caring about the story, that you could feel it through your screen. The effort everyone put into this project was astounding. I truly did enjoy this film a lot and felt it was one of the best I saw out of 2023. I highly recommend it as well as the documentary behind the casting and filming process. Society of the Snow is up for the Oscars with two nominations including Best International Feature Film and Makeup and Hairstyling. The film is available on Netflix with subtitles and is most definitely worth watching.