Society of the Snow
2023
Docudrama
R • 2h 24m
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Society of the Snow is based on a true story. On October 13, 1972, a Uruguayan airplane with a crew of 5 and 40 passengers was flying across the Andes mountains from Montevideo, Uruguay to Santiago, Chile, after stopping overnight in Mendoza, Argentina. Flight 571 was chartered to fly a rugby team (young men mostly in their early 20s) and some of their family members to an international game.
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The plane did not make it, crashing at the top of a mountain, it lost its wings and the tail section. Miraculously much of the fuselage was preserved but, at speeds exceeding 200 mph, it hurtled down the other side of the mountain in crusty snow until it plowed into a pack of snow and ice, abruptly stopping the motion. Later investigations suggest that one or both pilots failed to read critical flight sensor data while navigating through thick clouds over high mountains. Although the plane may not have been designed well to fly at high altitudes, there was no evidence of mechanical failure and the crash was labeled as a “controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error”. Twelve people died during the crash itself leaving 33 survivors, many critically wounded.
The fuselage came to rest in a mountain cirque covered with deep snow at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet. As night descended, temperatures plunged to below zero. Five more people died that night battling severe cold and serious injuries and a sixth person, a sister of one of the players, died after suffering for three days. The survivors, some with serious leg injuries, were able to create a degree of shelter from the elements using suitcases to fill holes in the fuselage. Battling the cold, fierce snowstorms, and even one or two avalanches, many survived with little but shared bodily warmth. After eleven days, hope for search and rescue efforts to find them died out when they managed to hear on a makeshift radio receiver, that the various authorities had ended the search effort. They were now presumed all dead and were on their own, with whatever hope they could muster. After a month of intense battles with the elements, the southern hemisphere began to thaw and temperatures rose. They survived, first for days, and then weeks!
The uninjured athletes made efforts to climb out of the cirque and, at the top of the mountain, all they could see was more mountains. Eventually, a week-long effort to head west paid off when two of the teammates encountered a caballero on horseback. Help was secured, a recovery effort successfully found them and helicopters ferried the remaining survivors out of what had been their home for more than two months. In the end, 29 of the original 45 people on the plane perished. But, after 72 days, there were still 16 survivors.
At 12,000 feet not much survives – plants do not grow and, without plants, there are no animals to hunt. The human body can survive only three days without water, and maybe three weeks without food. But these survivors lasted more than ten weeks. They did melt snow for water. But the suitcases had little food and it was exhausted after just a few days. And so the real story here is how they survived for ten weeks with the only available nutrition being the frozen bodies of their teammates and companions.
What would you do?
For me, that is the underlying question and it invokes so many competing thoughts and emotions that blur the boundaries between religion, philosophy, and ethics. What lengths would you go to survive? After battling the elements with your teammates and discovering just what their mettle is made of, you then watch one of them die! Could you then consume his corpse because you are starving to death and will die too if you don’t?
Society of the Snow is not a pleasant movie to watch. It asks you to imagine your limits and then push through to the other side. It isn’t fun, and I’m pretty sure it is because of how successful this film works that many people are put off by not just its theme, but also of its own hubris in even attempting to raise such difficult questions.
There have been other books and films telling this story and, I admit, I haven’t seen or read them. But it is difficult to imagine how they could match this film in the way it forces the viewer to absorb what these people went through and the decisions they made. The film’s technical and storytelling qualities are very evident. The movie does not treat these decisions lightly and you watch as each of them considers the possibilities and, with varying degrees of speed, makes their own personal decision. It works so well that you have to periodically be thankful that it does not obliterate all distance and force you to live this nightmare.
I was curious about the title of the film – and of the book on which it is based. Why “Society” of the Snow? Viewed from a sociological perspective the survivors on that mountain meet most of the conditions necessary to be called a “society”. But we also think of a society as having a culture that defines their way of life, establishes beliefs and morals, and embodies them in a shared framework of thought, belief, and feeling. In our world, populated by grocery stores, farms, and ranches we don’t give much thought to some of the basic issues of survival. But when even the idea of continuity is challenged, does “society” and “culture” break down?
I think Society of the Snow answers strongly “No!” This group of mostly young men developed such a profound sense of shared culture – everyone playing an important and understood role. Numa, our narrator, had strong feelings about consuming human flesh – so strong, in fact, that a once capable athlete dies of starvation on day 60, weighing just 55 pounds. Upon his death, his surviving teammates find that he holds a note, written by him and intended for them. It says “There is no greater love than that which gives one’s life for one’s friends.” That defines the Society of the Snow. (4.5*) ,
