Overrated and overhyped

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

One of my earliest memories was when little Billy Markland came into kindergarten and told everyone, "a plane crashed and the people ate the people." That was all he said, and for years if not decades, that's basically all the world knew about it. Sure some details emerged, a book was written, and Ethan Hawke did a movie about it, but we never really got the full story. Not like we finally get here.When I say "the full story", I'm not talking about the gory details of what human flesh tastes like (which, be honest, is what we're all wondering!). But what this film offers is some profound insight into the minds of the survivors, as told by themselves.I was really surprised at how intelligent and philosophical their statements are. The survivors touch on many compelling subjects, like "is cannibalism an act of primitive savagery, or could it be an evolutionary step forward?" The kids aboard the doomed flight were mostly religious and with strong moral consciences. But when morality interferes with survival, does it become obsolete? Another interesting topic touched upon is "how does a social structure form itself?" We are given insight into what codes of behaviour emerge among a group of people who are no longer bound to follow any codes of behaviour. If you think author William Golding had it pegged in "Lord of the Flies", you might want to watch this as the antithesis to that pessimistic parable of human society.Therein lies the power of this documentary. It's not just a tale of 14 survivors in the snow. It's an allegory of the entire human species and what we do to survive and hopefully evolve into something greater.This is the kind of film that can provide hours of interesting debate around the dinner table (uh... well maybe not the DINNER table). If you approach it like a scientist studying an experiment, you will be fascinated. In fact, one of the survivors talks about how it felt like they were guinea pigs in some laboratory test, designed to show how humans hold up under the most maddening conditions.The only minor criticism I have is that the documentary feels slightly biased, aiming to glorify the survivors and shy away from any negative portrayals. That's fair; the survivors doubtlessly deserve glorification. But it made me wonder if there was a little more to the story that we weren't told. I admit that's sheer cynical speculation (I should probably stop watching Fox News).In any case, this is a well-made documentary with lots of intelligent interviews, some convincing, dramatic re-enactments and definitely enough meat to it. Oooh, bad metaphor... Let's just say the film really picks your brain. Oopsie, another TASTELESS quip. Haha, I bet you're FED UP WITH PEOPLE like me... Aw, please don't give me the COLD SHOULDER.....Cannibals hate comedians... because they taste funny. Yuk yuk

The story is one of the most compelling chronicles of survival I have heard about in my lifetime. I remember the headlines at the time it happened and I followed the story as it unfolded as I was a college student at the time, the same age as some of the rugby team members. I don't think this docudrama succeeds on its own steam with its structure of survivor interviews interspersed with some cheesy deliberately muted 'dramatizations.' But then the movie 'Alive!' didn't do it for me either. It was reading Piers Paul Reid's account that made the incident come alive for me - his narrative was rich in detail and suspense. This documentary was at its best when the survivors recounted the avalanche and what their near death experiences were like. Quite memorable. And it was heartwarming to see the survivors alive today and still (apparently) bonded. The best parts were the all too brief newsreel footage clips of Parrado and Canessa being interviewed and of what looks like either Carlitos Paez or Bobby Francois emotionally clutching his father. There should have been more of these and the film should have let those strong types of images speak for themselves. Strikingly missing was an explanation of how Parrado and Canessa reached safety, which Reid's book goes into detail about. Though everyone worked together as a team, as is stressed by all accounts, to be honest, it was the mental determination and athletic strength of the one man everybody put their bets on, Nando Parrado, who really saved the day. There wasn't enough footage devoted to this brave, remarkable man whose insistence on survival is still incredibly inspirational and mind-boggling at the same time.

So many times, when film footage is recreated for a documentary, it has none of the power that actual film footage has. Also the recreated footage usually does not have the dramatic power normally associated with a narrative film because documentaries don't usually have the budget necessary for proper sets, special effects or access to good actors.But, Stranded: I've Come From A Plane That Crashed In The Mountains. . . manages to intermix old film footage, a handful of real still photographs, new film shot in the actual locations of the disaster along with LOTS of recreated film footage into a stunning mix that makes Stranded the best documentary on a disaster I have seen in a long time.The basic story is well known. In October 1972, a small plane carrying a group of Uruguayan rugby players took off for neighboring Chile and disappeared in the Andes Mountains.Rescuers were dispatched on both land and air, but no one could locate the wrecked plane and all passengers were thought lost. Although the plane had crashed, there were 29 survivors, many of them uninjured.These young men would now embark on an ordeal of survival unrivaled in history. They would be pushed to physical extremes like surviving unfathomable cold and hunger to getting buried in an avalanche.They would be pushed to great mental limits by seeing so many friends die along with resorting to cannibalism to survive. When you consider that sixteen would ultimately survive the ordeal, the fact that this story still captures the imagination should come as no surprise.The truth is most everyone only wants to hear about the cannibalism. The fact that the filmmakers very skillfully handle this delicate aspect of the story without exploiting it for its tabloid appeal is admirable.There are a few moments where I groaned though, like when one of the survivors tells us he had a bad feeling about getting on the doomed plane in the first place. Is this true? Who knows? I just wish some of these people who all say AFTER an accident that they knew this was going to happen, would have opened their mouths beforehand.Another man intones with solemnity that they took off on Friday the 13th. Well, so did ten thousand others planes that day and none of them crashed in the mountains.In any case, since there were precious few real photos of this event, the filmmakers had to resort to staging recreations and I commend the imagination of the director, cinematographer and actors for making what could have been cheesy actually interesting cinematically.We hear from some of the helicopter rescue pilots talking about their early forays into the mountains to look for the missing plane. One pilot explains the problem of looking for pieces of tiny wreckage in these huge mountains.Then we see the snowy peaks and valleys from his point of view and your heart sinks because you suddenly realize that seeing some small speck of wreckage from this height will be almost impossible.I had to laugh when a desperate family member contacts a well-known psychic for help in locating the downed plane. Her psychic powers lead her to offer this "helpful" information.They should look for a white plane, which will be hard to see in the snowy mountains. Also, the wings will be missing and the fuselage will be partly buried. Thanks a lot!Did the psychic offer any useful information like where exactly the plane was, or how many people survived? Not a chance! Useless moronic psychic, God how I hate them!Stranded is a long film, but I was never bored for even a second, especially when they find the tail of the plane, and along with a radio battery (that sadly doesn't work) they also find a camera.These pictures taken by the survivors in the middle of their ordeal are stunning. Yet, despite everything, they all manage to smile when a group picture is taken. Still, these photos have a raw power that silenced the audience I saw the film with.Two survivors hike out of the mountains to get help and against all odds, they succeed. Fortunately the moment is not played like a heroic victory. It is admirably downplayed. The men get help and immediately fly back to rescue their buddies.Of course, after the rescue, the press was immediately skeptical about how the men survived for more than 70 days without food. What DID they eat? Some doctors added to the confusion by saying there is nothing known to medical science that would explain how these guys could have survived.Take it from me people, when a so-called "doctor" starts telling you there is no known scientific cause for some phenomena, be wary. It usually means the doctor has fallen into the fallacy of ignorance. He can't explain the phenomena rationally, so therefore, it can't be explained rationally. This is why you get second opinions.As it turns out, the survivors were not being coy or disingenuous about eating their dead comrades for survival, it's just they knew that fact would be sensationalized, blown out of proportion and misunderstood. They wanted to speak to the families of their dead friends first and not have them hear about it from lurid newspaper descriptions.The end of the film shows some of the survivors back at the place that was their home for 72 days in late 1972. As they gather at the metal cross that marks the spot (the bodies have long been buried, the plane fuselage destroyed), they remark that it was the death of their friends that allowed them to be here today with their children and grandchildren and they owe their dead friends everything.It is a moving moment and as worthy a memorial as anyone could come up with.

This is an excellent, respectful piece of work. It made me feel as if I were there and challenged my preconceptions of this story. It's much better than the film from 1993 "Alive" which tended to sensationalise. Do try to see it, you will be a better person for it.Says the Telegraph: "They smelled of the grave," says a Chilean shepherd as he describes his first encounter with some of the survivors of the infamous 1972 plane crash in the Andes which hit the headlines with its tales of cannibalism. Gonzalo Arijón's dramatised documentary recalls the aftermath of a snowstorm that caused a plane carrying 45 members of a Uruguayan rugby team to crash in the appropriately named Valley of Tears. Sixteen of them survived by eating the dead, an "intimate communion" movingly recalled in the reminiscences of the survivors. It makes for a well-crafted, powerful film about human survival."