Stranded - Review

I had a really cool opportunity this week to pre-screen a film before it’s out in theaters. I blogged about Stranded “I come from a plane that crashed on the mountains” recently.

I knew the basic plot of the film since it is a documentary on the 1972 crash of a plane carrying a Uruguayan football team who survived for 72 days deep in the Andes. The incident was mostly famous because the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism due to the lack of food at the high elevation and remote location where they crashed.

The documentary follows the survivors back to the site of the crash where they recount their memories of the 2 1/2 months they spent surviving. The film does an amazing job of letting the survivors narrate and describe their days in that cold place.

I found each of them very well spoken, and very well adjusted to the incredible ordeal they had to experience. In the end, each of them somehow seemed richer for having lived through it. They relived the day they had to make the decision to use the victims who did not survive for food. As you can imagine it is heart wrenching to hear the debates that went on within the group and within each survivor.

Ultimately the film weaves together a tale of survival that the viewer prays they will never have to live through themselves. It portrays the difficult decisions with the honesty and matter-of-factness they deserve. Anyone would make the choice these men made when faced with these challenges. But many could not have done it with the dignity they did.

Bottom Line: Great movie of physical and emotional survival in the face of the worst mother nature can throw at a person. I would recommend checking this out in the theater if it comes near you. But if not it’s definitely worth renting/buying when it shows up in your local video store.

Opens in theaters today in limited release. Check here for locations.

1 comment October 22nd, 2008