Society of the Snow aka La sociedad de la nieve by Pablo Vierci has inspired the Golden Globes Nominated film of the same name - 9 out of 10

 

 

I am not sure if this motion picture should be rated as horror, however inspirational, stupendous it might be, spoiler alert – you should not read these lines, the conclusion over the feature is pronounced already,for  this is an incredible, if absolutely real, saga which has brave, resilient, intrepid, generous, strong, determined, uber mensch and super women, crashing on top of the Andes...

 

The previous cinematic adaptation of the real tragedy was Alive http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/alive-based-on-book-by-piers-paul-read.html with Ethan Hawke as Nando Parrado, one of the heroes of the tale, an impressive achievemnt, which somehow was less noticed, albeit i see it as just as good, telling much the same thing, insisting on Nando and his expereince more

 

Furthermore, Alive had a script by Piers Paul Read, who wrote a book about the same astonishing plane crash and the ordeal of the survivors, and this author is a favorite and a glorious creator that has enchanted me with A Married Man http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-married-man-by-piers-paul-read-is-as.html a mesmerizing novel that is on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read...

Society of the Snow is inspiring and overwhelming, you may experience both beatitude and horror, indeed, you will move between buyoncy and terror, impressed by the resilience, strength, bravery, viatlity, munificence of most of those involved, while looking away from the screen, during the more demanding scenes

 

We have at the center a group of mostly young people, members of a rubgy team from Uruguay – here we must note that this is a noble sport, conaisseurs praise it and say it is far superior to soccer, and this featue could be the ulitmate proof – together with staff and relatives that fly over the Andes in 1972

Their plan crashes on top of the mountain, and some of them die, including the pilot, who has some minutes left, they try to get him to use the radio, give them some instructions, but the poor man has an losing blood fast and then says soemthing like ‚God be with you’ and expires – they would try to get to the batteries of the aircraft, left in the tail which has broken off and fell at what seems as an unreachable distance

 

They try to get organized and throughout this is an impressive story of human achievemnt, under extreme duress, overcoming trauma and adveristy, they prove that there is an alternative to PTSD, which is PTG aka Post Traumatic Growth – they get all they can from the luggage, and plan to survive the cold and hunger

 

We are told about the rule of three, you survive three minutes without air, three days without water (though they have that, using the abundant snow, this is The Society of The Snow, after all) and three weeks wtihout food, wich is finsihed fast, for they only get a small suitcase filled with crackers, some chocalate...

The cold is a formidable enemy, they try to use the fuselage, the wreck of the plane, but the temperature drops way below freezing, so that they seem to be unable to reach the tail, to get the bateries for the radio, so that they can send an SOS to the world – at least they do not get there for a while

 

When they reach the tail, they see that the batteries are so big, that it makes more sense to bring the radio to them, but the way back is almost tragic, becasue they have to spend the night in the snow – the three that took the adventourous climb up the mountain – and they see from the top that their wreckage is almost invisible

They have had high hopes that the search teams will see and save them, one aircraft had been flying just on top of them, but looked from afar, their site looks like some rock, and what is worse fro their morale is that they hear on a portable radio, good only for getting sound, not for sending anything, that the search has stopped, since it has been too many days since the crash and they are sure there are no survivors

 

Now the problem is food, they will soon starve, if they do not eat and the only ‚nourishment’ is human flesh, they have cadavers burried in the snow (well, sort of, covered somewhat) and the question is raised – we need to use those bodies to survive, or we will just perish on these mountains together

They also have a sort of pact, one by one they agree to be used, their bodies, if they die, so that the others get a chance to escape this white nightmare – this is generosity, but not the only example, we could argue that they survives as a team, they helped each other, and the social netweork was essential in keeping them alive

 

Man’s Search For Meaning http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/mans-search-for-meaning-by-victor-frankl.html by Victor Frankl is a classic of psychology which uses the awful experience that the fabulous psychologist has been through in the Nazi extremination camps, where he saw that when prisoners started giving their cigarettes, they would soon die, they lost their will to live – in contrast, those that fought with the intempériem the cold, hunger, exhaustion had a phenomenal will to survive, and some of them did, against all odds, through freezing cold, a couple of avalnaches, trauma, seeing their freinds and in some cases realtives die, suffering injuries, looking at impossible odds...what an isnpiring story!

 

Now for my standard closing with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”