Alive - Wicasta Lovelace

We watched the movie Alive tonight. It’s the story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 that crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. The flight carried 45 people, but by the time they were rescued 72 days later, there were only 16 survivors. Some people might remember the story because the people who survived the crash were eventually forced to eat the flesh of the dead in order to stay alive.
Well, I’d heard enough of the story to be familiar with it, but I’d never seen the movie. Now that I have, I’m glad that Victoria recorded it. It’s one of those movies that makes you think about what you might do in such a situation, given even more poignancy by the fact that it was based upon an actual event. This isn’t something some hack writer in Hollywood thought up, but something that people actually lived through. As such, I don’t really know what to say about the movie. Was it entertaining? Was it dramatic enough? Did it tug at the right heart strings? How do you criticize a movie that’s about such a profoundly thought-provoking topic?
I liked the movie, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think of it as “just a movie”. It raised too many questions in my mind, about how I thought, or hoped, I might acquit myself in such a situation. Would I be one of those people who helped keep it together for everyone else? Would I be one of those who was willing to travel and do what I could to save the others? Or would I be one of those people who couldn’t cope with the tragedy of what had happened, who curled up into a corner and resigned themselves to their fate?
Those are questions we could all ask ourselves. If nothing else, it’s worth watching this movie to ask yourself what you might do. As such, it’s hard to sum this up as a cinema entertainment. Check it out and make up your own mind.

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