As a sophomore in high school, I read the book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors. It was a good read, a true story, and included cannibalism. When I found out that there was a movie, I didn’t put the effort into finding it. Last week when I was wandering my college’s library, I saw it, sitting there, the Alive DVD. (The movie was released in 1993.) I was curious as to how they would compress the decently large book into a movie, so I decided to watch.

The story is about a Uruguayan rugby team (and family/friends) who’s plane crashed in the Andes Mountains. Most of them die in the end, either because of the plane crash, the cold, or starvation.  Some do survive and venture to Chilean civilization and bring help so the rest could be rescued.

Honestly, the filmmakers did a mediocre job at adapting the story. The movie was okay, but it didn’t hold a flame to the book. The acting was decent, but not outstanding. The movie flew by really fast, the only means of gauging the time in the movie were the on-screen subtitles (ex. “DAY 60”). Nothing about this movie makes me want to watch it again. It is not flashy, the special effects were done just well enough to be believable in 1993. This movie is definitely one that you wouldn’t want to spend any money on. Don’t buy, don’t even rent. Get it from the library, but only if you are interested.

This movie is runs 127 minutes and is rate R. This is the tamest “R”-rated movie I’ve ever seen. It probably would be PG-13 with today’s standards.

I give it an average 5 ramheads out of 10: