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Alive

Alive

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the most compelling true stories ever made
Review: "Alive" is the compelling true story of a Uruguayan rugby team who's plane crashes, stranding them in the Andes Mountains. They have to find a way to survive the chilling cold weather until they find a way to get back home.

"Alive" has many dramatic sequences such as when the people who are still alive have to eat parts of the dead people in order not to starve. There are also many turning points such as the survivors finding out that the search has been called off.

I recommend "Alive" to anybody that likes captivating true stories about survival.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "HUMAN SPIRIT- The innate desire to triumph
Review: ...in the face of adversity."

ALIVE is one of my top favorite movies. It's about the power of the human spirit to overcome anything. I love movies dealing with this topic. The movie begins with: "1972, A South American rugby team, together with some friends and relatives crosses the Andes to play a game in neighboring Chile."

They never arrive at their destination...or do they?

The anthropography (a branch of anthropology dealing with the distribution of man as distinguished by physical character, language, institutions, and customs) is one of the best developed I have ever seen in a movie. (Bravo to Frank Marshall!) This is one of the things I love most about the movie--watching the interactions with each other. I feel as if I know each one. All emotion and soul is bared here, from the deep love and brotherhood to the frustration and anger they feel. They survived many trials besides the plane crash and starvation which I will save for you to see. What impresses me most besides their will to fight and survive, is how, through it all, they kept God with them--through prayer and in their hearts.

I have watched ALIVE countless times and wondered if I were one of them who would I have been? Obviously Nando (Hawke) I considered first, as well as the medical student and his fellow climber, Roberto Canessa. But I must say that Carlitos, is my favorite character and the one closest to my heart. With his remorse ("I yelled at her...God forgive me!") prayers (he led the group each night in Hail Mary), his humor ("Hey, I'll pay for the pizza if you go and get it!"), his spirituality ("Do you feel it?" What? "God. God is everywhere today.") his love ("I love you all so much."/"God bless you all.") and hope ("I had a dream last night, a tremendous premonition. I saw green fields and flowers--I could smell the grass. Your expedition WILL SUCCEED.")

There is so much to learn and take with you watching this movie. Alive is a story that was destined to be told. My highest recommendation and 10/10 stars.

Soar!

Additional comments: "This film is dedicated to the 29 who died and the 16 who survived."
The music by James Newton Howard is the closest to perfect there can be for this movie. I especially love "Ava Maria" playing on the end credits. I must have this score. If anyone can help, please email me.
Do watch the all special features such as "Alive 20 Years Later" and two others. I deeply respect the actual survivors sharing their story with us and wish to say a heartfelt thank you. You all have touched me more than words can say.
o8E

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ALIVE
Review: 5th of December 1999, Kotka Finland I would like to have review from the movie ''Alive'' Ethan Hooke and Malkovitch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: name der rose
Review: 5th of December 1999, Kotka Finland I would like to have review from the movie ''name der rose'' sean connery

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SURVIVAL
Review: A fantastic film that teaches what it means to be human, spiritual and courageous. God bless all those that were affected by the tragedy and thank you to those who shared their story with the rest of the world.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SURVIVAL
Review: A fantastic film that teaches what it means to be human, spiritual and courageous. God bless all those that were affected by the tragedy and thank you to those who shared their story with the rest of the world.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: an ice cold masterpiece
Review: a group of soccer players fly over the Andes mountain and then their plane violently crashes somewhere in the middle killing and injurying mostly eveyone. they have to survive the cold weather, people start to die from sickness, dieases and avalanches,plus they seek out and try to find green land. a masterpiece of extrodinary proportions, with grisly images of death and cannibilism, this one will shock and move you. the plane crash is brutal and the struggle to survive is powerful. Ethan Hawke(Training Day, Mystery Date, Gattaca, Reality Bites, Tape), Josh Hamilton(The House Of Yes, Urbania, The Bourne Identity2002, Kicking and Screaming), Vincent Spano, Illeana Douglas(Bella Mafia, Happy, Texas, Stir Of Echoes), Jack Noseworthy(Event Horizon, Breakdown, Idle Hands) and Josh Lucas(The Deep End, Sweet Home Alabama and The Hulk2003) head some of the good cast in this remarkable and unforgettable picture. John Malkovich(Shadow Of the Vampire, Knockaround Guys) appears unbilled.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great drama, based on true events.
Review: After a Disturbing Plane Crash, more than 10 Survivers have no food, they have to feet on the human flesh to survive through winter and trying to find a way to get back home.

Directed by Frank Marshall (Congo) has made a Masterpiece. Written by John Patrick Shanley (Joe Versus the Volcano). This has Strong Performances, including:Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano and John Hamilton. This Film has a Terrific Cast. Based on a True Life Story back in the Early Seventies. It was a modest Hit at the Box Office in the winter of 1993. It was a Big Hit on Video. Alive becomes One of the Best Films of 1993. A sure winner. Grade:A.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dignified account of true events
Review: ALIVE (1992): In 1972, members of a Uruguayan rugby team are trapped in the Andes when their charter plane crashes in the mountains, killing many of those on board. Unable to overcome their situation any other way, the survivors are forced to contemplate the unthinkable - to eat the dead...

Though the cannibalism aspect of this extraordinary true story had formed the backbone of an earlier exploitation movie (René Cardona's opportunistic Mexican thriller SURVIVE! [Supervivientes de los Andes, 1976]), Frank Marshall's dignified Hollywood version takes its cue from Piers Paul Read's bestselling literary account and places a deliberate emphasis on the survivors' spiritual response to their circumstances. Opening with a horrific plane crash (an effects tour de force) which locates the audience at the heart of an appalling catastrophe, the script - by John Patrick Shanley (ARACHNOPHOBIA) - manages to keep repetition at bay by foregrounding a series of moral dilemmas (food rationing, medical priorities, the will to survive at all costs, etc.), though Shanley's dialogue often resorts to speech-bubble platitudes ("If we do this [ie. eat the dead], we'll never be the same again") which sounds a little forced and unrealistic. Handsomely mounted on location in the Canadian Rockies, the film is toplined by some of Hollywood's brightest (and most photogenic) young talents, including Ethan Hawke (DEAD POETS SOCIETY), Josh Hamilton (THE HOUSE OF YES) and Vincent Spano (CITY OF HOPE), with capable support from Jack Noseworthy (CECIL B. DEMENTED), John Haymes Newton (TV's "Superboy"!), and Illeana Douglas (GRACE OF MY HEART) as one of the few female survivors of the initial disaster. Though pretentious at times, and perhaps a little too leisurely for its own good, the movie pays tribute to the power of the human spirit and is often deeply moving. Beautiful score by James Newton Howard (M. Night Shyamalan's composer of choice), with a haunting interpretation of 'Ave Maria' - sung by Aaron Neville - during the final credits.

Though Paramount's region 1 disc doesn't mention it on the packaging, their letterboxed (1.85:1) transfer is anamorphically enhanced, and it runs 125m 54s. For some reason, the print here is missing the Paramount logo which opens and closes every other version of the film. Picture quality is excellent, and the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack (remixed from the original 4.0 stereo theatrical version) reaches a frightening intensity during the aforementioned plane crash and another tragedy which occurs later in the film. The disc also includes English captions and subtitles. Oddly, no trailer has been provided, but there's an invaluable documentary, "Alive 20 Years Later" (51m 12s) - recorded in 1993 and narrated by Martin Sheen - in which the real survivors talk about their ordeal and its aftermath, and some of them are filmed during a visit to the movie's Canadian location. Another documentary, "Return to the Andes" (12m 54s), records an emotional return to the scene of the crash by survivor Nando Parrado, thirty years after the event.

NB. A similar tragedy befell the so-called 'Donner party' - a group of travellers seeking a new life in California - who became stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the harsh winter of 1846-47 and were forced to cannibalise their dead comrades. Movie adaptations include an excellent feature documentary (THE DONNER PARTY [1992]) by historian Ric Burns in the manner of his acclaimed TV series "The Civil War" (1990), and a sanitized Disney version (ONE MORE MOUNTAIN) helmed by veteran director Dick Lowry in 1994.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: INSPIRATIONAL FILM ABOUT INCREDIBLE SPIRIT
Review: ALIVE is a gripping tour de force that focuses on the remarkable durability of the human spirit. Avoiding sentimentality and maudlinism, and focusing on the terrible dilemma the survivors face catapults the movie into a masterpiece of hope, defeat, unimaginable odds and faith. The cannibalism is treated with remarkable dignity, and there are several emotional scenes that leave you drained.
The cast is very good with Josh Hamilton, John Haymes Newton and of course Ethan Hawke standing out. The entire cast however deserves credit for their team performance. John Malkovich's prologue and epilogue are handled very well too. Malkovich has a smooth and hypnotizing voice and behind the smoke from the interviewer's cigarette, he gives us bookend thoughts.
A truly remarkable story but even more remarkable is the courage it took to survive.


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