On-Air Film Review: Staying Alive in ‘Society of the Snow’

Submitted by PatrickMcD on January 8, 2024 - 10:33pm

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on January 4th, 2023, reviewing “Society of the Snow,” the third film version of one of the great survival stories in history, as it occurred in the Andes Mountain. Currently on Netflix.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

In 1972, an Uruguay rugby team takes off in two engine prop plane to fiy from Montevideo in Uruguay to Santiago, Chile. While over the Andes mountains in western Argentina, the inexperienced pilot reads his instruments wrong and hits a mountain ridge, shearing the wings and tail off. The fuselage with the passengers then slid down a glacier to rest in a snowy expanse in the middle of Andes nowhere. Of the 45 passengers and crew aboard, 12 died immediately and several others succumbed thereafter in the harsh conditions. It came down to 16 souls. They survived 60 days before two of them climbed a mountain to rescuers. Afterward it was revealed that the survivors had resorted to cannibalism for food.

”Society of the Snow” is in select theaters and currently streaming on Netflix. Featuring Enzo Vogrincic, Agustin Pardella, Matias Recalt, Esteban Bigliardi and Diego Vegezzi. Screenplay by J.A. Bayona, Demai Vilapana, Jaime Marquez and Nicolás Casariego. Rated “R”