Students who have taken Theology 10: Seminar will be familiar with the 1993 film, Alive. The film is about the Miracle of the Andes, an event where a Uruguayan rugby team flying to Chile for a tournament crashed in the Andes Mountains and 16 of them survived. The team was stranded in the mountains for 72 days and 29 lives were lost. In 2023, Netflix made an adaptation called Society of the Snow. This film tells the story of the rugby team in a much more respectful and realistic light. For these reasons, I believe the theology department should change the curriculum to watch Society of the Snow instead of Alive.
One of my biggest critiques of Alive is how the rugby team is portrayed. The team is portrayed as rude and incompetent. They frequently complain and whine about their situation, barely ever showing camaraderie, trust, and teamwork. They turn on each other on a regular basis and have no respect for the people who didn’t make it. At one point in the movie, one of the teammates alerts another that one of their friends is dead. He does so showing no grief or empathy. The situation is dumbed down to a simple notification that a teammate is no longer with them. While it could be the director trying to tell the viewer that at this point they had lost hope and empathy, the same reactions occur during the initial plane crash. Some of the players go as far as to scream at a woman whose leg was crushed just for voicing her agony. The only time emotion is shown is during a single scene when one of the rugby players finds out about his mother’s passing.
This movie villainizes Hispanics in its portrayal of the team’s personalities. The characters are depicted with a terrible work ethic and no manners at all. This further leads American viewers to dislike Hispanics, especially since this was a common bias at the time of the movie’s release. This movie is extremely Hollywoodized and it shows: they couldn’t even manage to hire Hispanic actors.
Society of the Snow is the Netflix adaptation of the Miracle of the Andes and it was released in 2023. The film is a beautiful retelling of the story and is extremely respectful to those who lost their lives in the mountains. The movie gives the characters depth and emotions while showing how the team worked together to escape and work through their grief. Society of the Snow features Uruguayan and Argentinian actors, while also filming in the exact location of the crash. The movie was filmed in chronological order for realism and the actors were put on a diet to fully immerse them and the viewer. The highs and the lows in this movie are much greater and you empathize with the characters more. This movie allows you to understand and sympathize with the decisions the survivors made, and connect with them emotionally. When they are finally saved in the end, you can feel and understand the hope, joy, and excitement of the players. This adaptation truly honors the survivors and deceased of the Miracle of the Andes.