In 1972, a plane flying a rugby team from Uruguay to Chile crashed in the Andes Mountains.
The survivors hoped for a quick rescue but, as days turned into weeks, they began to realize a rescue would not be coming.
Stuck in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, with freezing temperatures and a quickly dwindling food supply, the survivors had to do the unthinkable to survive.
Directed by J. A. Bayona, Society of the Snow tells the true story of this tragic event, resulting in a film that is both haunting and somehow inspiring.
When a film is based around real life tragedies, it is important to honor the real people involved, and Society of the Snow does this better than any other film I have seen.
The actual survivors who saw and, in some cases, actually had small roles in the movie, have praised it for its mostly accurate take on the events.
It is easy to see why because it is not just the survivors who are honored in Society of the Snow, but also those who tragically passed in the disaster.
This led to an unexpected subversion in the film, which caught me completely off guard, even though I had already heard the true story of the Andes crash before.
What helped sell the respect being paid to both the survivors and the victims were the fantastic performances.
The ones who truly shined for me were Enzo Vogrincic as Numa Turcatti, Augustín Pardella as Nando Parrado, Matías Recalt, as Roberto Canessa, and Esteban Bigliardi as Javier Methol.
The performances were so great that it left me tearing up at two specific points.
Many of the actors were newcomers as well, making their performances all the more impressive.
Along with the acting, what also sells the harrowing events of this true story is the fantastic cinematography.
The extreme wide shots of the landscape help convey just how cut off from the rest of the world the survivors of the crash were.
The depictions of what they endured and had to do to survive is haunting, yet also inspiring when we see the camaraderie between the survivors and their heroic actions towards the end of the film.
From beginning to end, Society of the Snow is a fantastic movie, which I would claim is one of the greatest depictions of a real-life tragedy ever put to film.
It left me feeling haunted, inspired, but also feeling like the movie had honored both the survivors and the victims perfectly.
Check it out on Netflix if you have not seen it yet.
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