Back in 1972, a team of rugby players, mostly 20 year olds, flew across the Andes on the way to a soccer match. They wore T-shirts, drank and caroused in the plane, and laughed as they told stories of sports games. Right over the middle of the snow-covered mountain range, their plane shook. Seconds later, the plane hit a mountain peak, sheared off the rear, and sent about 25 passengers to a snowy death. The other 49 players miraculously survived as the front fuselage slid down a mountain slope and came to an abrupt stop.
In 1993, the story was popularized with a movie that starred Ethan Hawke. It was a moving, harrowing tale of how the survivors stayed alive (by eating human flesh) for more than two months, before two brave souls, half starved and bearded, somehow hiked 37 miles across the snowy peaks to get help and save the others. This movie is a must-see.
However, this review is not about the film. It's about the documentary made just last year on the incredible story. Done by the History Channel, this is no doubt the most riveting, rounded, unbiased documentary ever produced. In it, we meet Nando, one of the two fearless warriors who defied the odds and made it to safety....but only after being stranded for some 63 days with fellow survivors in the fuselage.
I am entranced by what drives people to survive. If you are too, consider watching this story. You'll reflect on the strength of the human spirit. You'll weigh moral decisions the survivors had to make. You'll marvel at how young people grew up in the course of two months.
Most of all, you'll ask: What would I have done?
A+ grade. Fantastic, gripping work.
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