INTRODUCTION
In Uruguay 1972, 45 passengers including a local rugby team flies to Chile but suffers from a flight disaster when the plane crashes into a glacier in the Andes Mountains. 29 of them dies but 16 survives. La sociedad de la nieve is a Spanish film based on this actual event and their survival. The story of such miraculous survival is adapted from Pablo Vierci‘s book with the same title. Director J. A. Bayona discovered this book while researching for his the-then upcoming film, The Impossible.
REVIEW
At a 2 hours and 20 minutes stretch, the heart of the film is in the unthinkable courage of those remaining passengers counting their seconds and making effort in somehow distancing themselves from an agonizing death. My objection is the length due to a very limited growth of the plot.
If humans are stuck at a particular geography for almost two hours of the film, two factors are important to be taken care of. One is that the pace of that portion of the film must not drop down to death. And the other is that the screenplay (again, of that portion) must offer a lot of sub-plot developments for the audience to grow in it. Neither the pace dropped nor the growth of their survival story faltered. In that case, 144 minutes were too much for such a film.
HISTORICAL ACCURACIES
Director Bayona carried out 100 hours of interviews with the survivors and gathered information to make the detailing of the film authentic. He even signed South American actors mostly from Argentina and Uruguay instead of North America and Britain.
Taking the picture before the crash is real with accurate detailing of postures of other passengers.
The blame for the flight disaster has been burdened on the inexperienced co-pilot who was controlling the plane at the time of the event. To my amazement, there was no scene shot about the pilots facing any difficulty and making any error while flying their way out.
Two survivors did hike their way out for any hope. And it is also true that the third one returned to the survivors.
The plane in the film flew from Montevideo to Santiago but in real, the flight also had a stop in Mendoza due to bad weather. Nothing interesting occurred there so ignoring that stay was acceptable liberty.
The scene about helicopters coming to rescue and collect 14 survivors is incorrect. It took two days to take all the survivors due to helicopter’s weight, bad weather, and high altitude.
THAT CRASHING SCENE!
The biggest attraction of the film that wins the global audience is the sequence of the plane crash that is engineered for our scariest imagination of a terrible traveling experience.
The whole setting up of the impending disaster, that aerial scream of an unannounced death confusing the angel of death dancing on their heads, the window giving them a chance to witness the horror and feel the punctuality of coldness in their chest and feet, the sudden dropping of luggages like debris, the last breath in consciousness that makes them remember that God certainly exist, the state of shock and despair, the shining light of the destruction, the bodies getting smashed unalarmed, and the wisdom of pain mocking the cold blood. With such hold of high-class detailing about a flight disaster, the viewers are not prepared to take this cinematic experience without breaking into it.
A METICULOUS EFFORT
Without a doubt, the film heavily punches the detailing of their struggle as well as their souls knocking the body to leave. I like that interesting scene when four of them hike their chances and realize while reaching at an altitude and looking back that they just cannot see the plane at some distance. If they cannot, then no aircraft at their height can ever trace it due to white fuselage against the snow.
The disaster in the film dreadfully commands the implementation of extreme measures that challenges the survivors. The consumption of very limited food, the delirium of smoking to pass over this unimaginable cold weather. The cold winds blowing their hopes. The drastic loss of weight, shivering in their hugs, discussing about eating dead bodies, marking the ice, desperately listening to the radio, passing unusual urine, burying their loved ones. All the hearts break into pieces when the radio announces that the search ends. And the excitement over believing that an aircraft passing by may have noticed them.
CLOSING REMARKS
Society of the Snow, as it is translated and titled in English, is an excellent survival thriller that has possibly accounted all canyons of miseries and setbacks orchestrating in superb direction by J. A Bayona. The film is obviously very human and gives a much-needed inspiration that in the worst possible scenarios where survival is highly unlikely, people can work together and can defeat death in any given weather. Protecting each other and surviving together at all cost is the last thing humans can do to escape this horror. Do yourself a favor and watch this magnificent film.
RATING 8.5/10
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Sami Naik | Film Critic 