Society of the Snow Movie Review - The Best Movie of 2024 (So Far)
In October 13th, 1972, an Uruguayan rugby team, Old Christians Club, including 40 other passengers (some of which were family and friends) charted an Air Force flight from Montevideo, Uruguay to Santiago, Chile. An hour after take off, a pilot mistaken flying over a city in Chile’s central valley while hovering over the Andes, and miscalculated his descent with control losing connection to contact the crew. Unable to gain altitude, the plane crashed into a mountain ridge, causing both wings and the tail section of the plane dismembered, and the fuselage cut in half plummeting into the mountains. With enduring overwhelming, harsh might of the Andes, the survivors were put to the ultimate test of will using clothes protect themselves from the cold from other people’s suitcases, withstanding freezing temperatures, exposure and avalanches, to eating limited rations of food, to the point of committing cannibalism as a last resort to survive. After 72 days, on December 23, 1972, the 16 remaining survivors were finally rescued by the Chilean Air Force thanks to rugby players, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa.
Known as “The Miracle of the Andes”, it’s one of the greatest survival stories in human history that showcases the unimaginative perseverance of the human condition when the elements and odds are stacked against them. There have been numerous documentaries covered on this improbable historical event, however, it isn’t often that you would find a feature-length retelling of it. Of course, this tale of endurance has inspired Frank Marshall’s 1993 film, “Alive”, but Juan Antonio Bayona (“The Orphanage”, “A Monster Calls”) sets his directorial sights on retelling the story through an excruciating realistic approach, filming entirely with hispanic actors, practical sets and effects. This project was later distributed to Netflix in January, and over the months has garnered critical acclaim and accolades, including being nominated for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards. Upon viewing it, it is an absolute necessity to watch this gut-wrenching, heart-stopping contender for best movie of 2024. “Society of the Snow” is an emotionally devastating tale that both portrays a documented disaster perfectly and serves as a tribute paying immense respect to the survivors, victims and the families of the passengers.
Bayona is nothing short of a visual-storytelling wizard. He is one of the very few directors who will take an unfilmmable adaptation or historical event and transform it into something spectacular. This isn’t Bayona’s first crack at adapting a tale of people surviving a natural disaster, as his 2012 film, “The Impossible”, was based on the lives of a Spanish family withstanding the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Much like the execution of “The Impossible”, his attention to detail of the story is impeccable. One of the most rewarding aspects of “Society of the Snow” is how deeply accurate it is, not just to Pablo Vierci’s book of the same name, but to the actual survival story itself. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Bayona recorded more than 100 hours of interview footage with all of the Andes disaster survivors, and the actors portraying them kept in contact with them through filming. As you watch the film, the circumstances the survivors put themselves through is executed tremendously as if you are witnessing survivors at their wits end struggling through rigorous situations, with what to use for shelter or clothes for warmth, tools and mechanisms to hopefully make contact or the rations of food or any other object from cigarettes to bootstraps needed to stay nourished.
Story-wise, it’s a surprisingly unpredictable script that subverts the usual beats and outcomes of the survival movies. The actual Andes flight disaster itself is probably one of the single most visceral, horrifying scenes of the whole year, but is a perfect example of the film’s gutsy narrative approach. Passengers who you’d expect to make it are yanked out of the fuselage, some stabbed from the debris, squished against each other, and in the aftermath succumb to their gaping wounds. Without spoiling any further, as it progress towards the third act, the film takes an interesting direction with how it switches perspectives and does so in a natural fashion.
Regardless if the casting might not have the most recognizable faces like Agustín Pardella as Nando, Matías Recalt as Roberto and Enzo Vogrincic as the main character Numa Turcatti, all of the performances are simply gripping. As the actors give their A-game, so does Bayona with the dialogue. The dialogue is extremely authentic making the characters come across as regular people rather than fictional ones and it’s philosophical without being pseudo-insightful. Several examples include a debate between the rugby team of whether the idea of cannibalism is a sinful act or a necessary means of survival, a monologue from one character that explains his own hopeful, irreligious faith, and one of the best sayings in the film is never spoken, but written on paper in red ink. You’ll know it when you see it.
It’s been about two months as of this review, and already, this year has given us doozy. Society of the Snow is one of J.A. Bayona’s most risky, yet prestigious accomplishments as a visionary director and only time will tell if he can knock something like this out of the park again. In the industry there have been several disaster stories told with high-profile celebrities and visual effects, but with a $65 million budget, insane practical effects and makeup to boot, and Bayona’s indefatigable meticulousness as a storyteller, you have never seen anything like this.
Rating: 5/5
