Superficially ALIVE follows the plot of most disaster movies. A plane crashes in the Andes, leaving the Uruguayan rugby team and their fellow-passengers stranded. Some are already dead; the survivors have to learn to cope with an adverse situation in which help never comes and they are left for dead. The plot has distinct echoes of classic ice-bound thrillers such as SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (1948), especially when three members of the team (Josh Hamilton, John Hames Newton, and Ethan Hawke) volunteer to cross the mountains on their own, despite the potential risks involved.
Yet Frank Marshall's film makes some serious points about the ways in which we can deal with traumatic situations. At the beginning the rugby team resemble any set of boisterous young men enjoying themselves, as they throw a ball about on the plane, make fun of the harassed cabin staff and willfully break the no-smoking rule. Once the disaster has happened, they are forced to learn the importance of true teamwork, where individuals have to sublimate their inclinations to the group ethic. It is not easy - especially for some of the team - but it is the only way to survive.
As time passes, so the rugby players understand more about their lives. They try their best to survive using primitive materials (and even choosing to eat the dead, despite their religious scruples), but they come to realize that this might not be enough to guarantee their collective futures. Nonetheless they continue to work together; it is the act of doing that ensures their future, coupled with a belief that God might help them, should they pray fervently enough.
The environment is not always friendly; sometimes it can destroy as well as support. The survivors have to cope with an avalanche that kills some of their number; but they come to realize that acceptance is an important strategy for survival. You have to take the rough with the smooth and try to move on, however painful that might be, while understanding that everyone around you shares that experience.
Acceptance and action; community endeavor and mutual support; these are the qualities that ensure the future of at least some of the survivors, who admit at the same time that their lives are insignificant when compared with the universe around them. They have been brought together "by a grand experience," as the narrator (John Malkovich) tells us.
Yet Frank Marshall's film makes some serious points about the ways in which we can deal with traumatic situations. At the beginning the rugby team resemble any set of boisterous young men enjoying themselves, as they throw a ball about on the plane, make fun of the harassed cabin staff and willfully break the no-smoking rule. Once the disaster has happened, they are forced to learn the importance of true teamwork, where individuals have to sublimate their inclinations to the group ethic. It is not easy - especially for some of the team - but it is the only way to survive.
As time passes, so the rugby players understand more about their lives. They try their best to survive using primitive materials (and even choosing to eat the dead, despite their religious scruples), but they come to realize that this might not be enough to guarantee their collective futures. Nonetheless they continue to work together; it is the act of doing that ensures their future, coupled with a belief that God might help them, should they pray fervently enough.
The environment is not always friendly; sometimes it can destroy as well as support. The survivors have to cope with an avalanche that kills some of their number; but they come to realize that acceptance is an important strategy for survival. You have to take the rough with the smooth and try to move on, however painful that might be, while understanding that everyone around you shares that experience.
Acceptance and action; community endeavor and mutual support; these are the qualities that ensure the future of at least some of the survivors, who admit at the same time that their lives are insignificant when compared with the universe around them. They have been brought together "by a grand experience," as the narrator (John Malkovich) tells us.