The story of Society of the Snow is well known: a plane carrying a Uruguayan youth rugby team on its way to Chile crashes in the Andes, at a point where searchers weren’t able to explore for any survivors. But there were, and they withstood the weather and hunger by any means, clinging to life. And also to death, that of their companions, who made some of them survive thanks to their bodies.
It all happened on October 13th 1972
Chile was under Pinochet’s dictatorship for over a year. Still, the young Uruguayan athletes saw this short trip as an excellent opportunity to celebrate the natural exuberance dictated by age. After the crash, twelve of the forty-five passengers died; of the remaining thirty-three, sixteen survived. They were rescued after 73 days thanks to a desperate mission by two of them in search of civilisation, crossing the Andes on foot.
It is an incredible story, told twice before in cinema, in 1976 in The Survivors of the Andes and 1992 with Frank Marshall’s Alive, a film remembered above all for the realism with which the air disaster was reconstructed.
A wealth of detail that Juan Antonio Bayona has not shirked, reconstructing the events meticulously thanks to the generous budget of Netflix.
The first hour of Society of the Snow (the title is that of the novel on which the film is based, written by Pablo Vierci) betrays Bayona’s Hispanic horror background, which does not spare moments and situations that flirt with gore. But in contrast to his earlier The Impossible, in which the aftermath of the tsunami was depicted with almost voyeuristic gusto, Bayona manages to strike the right balance.
After conveying the gravity of the events, the director of A Monster Calls (a great film as well) takes the narrative to another plane, first of all addressing the moral question that the survivors had to debate on whether or not to feed themselves with the bodies of their loved ones. And secondly, it shifts the narrative onto a spiritual plane that wraps everything up with natural fluidity.
Society of the Snow is not a spectacularization of a news event.
But a profound reflection about the meaning of life and death. The plateau is a way station, a limbo for the living, and a gateway for those who did not survive. Despite the intense religiousness that permeates the film, dictated by the personal history of the real protagonists, the message is robust even for those who do not believe in a higher entity.
What Tom Hanks says to Private Ryan at the end of Spielberg’s film comes to mind: ‘Deserve it‘. And that is also what comes to mind for those who, like the sixteen survivors, have been given a second chance that is more unique than rare.
And it applies to Bayona himself, who, after directing the second movie of the Jurassic World trilogy and a couple of episodes of the Amazon series of The Rings of Power, needed to confirm that he was a substantial value in the market. He did so in the best possible way, demonstrating that he has a style, a vision, a poetics, and an excellent ability to manage a complex and, at the same time, artistically valid project.
Society of the Snow is a Netflix production well above its average
It would have deserved a collective viewing in theatres for its spectacularity and artistic qualities. Let us hope that, sooner or later, they will change their minds in Los Gatos.