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Alive!

1993

Frank Marshall

Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton, Vincent Spano, Bruce Ramsay ...

6.8

33,271

Adventure. Drama ALIVE is a gripping drama based on a true story. In October 1972, a plane chartered by a Uruguayan rugby team crashes in the snow-covered Andes Mountains. Many passengers are killed on contact, but most people survive--with only enough rations for a short time. Given the harsh climate and lack of food, the survivors are forced to take drastic measures to stay alive. When they learn through their transistor radio that the search effort ... [+]

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Empire	"Not exactly light entertainment and it can drag in places but when the drama is cranked up, it really works."	POS
United States	Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly	"Alive is an unsettling contradiction: a well-intentioned gross-out movie. It may be the first film in history to say that cannibalism is good for you"	NEG
United States	Duane Byrge The Hollywood Reporter	"Despite some minor Hollywood flourishes, this Buena Vista release is a superb and unflinching glimpse into the reserves of the human spirit"	POS
United States	Janet Maslin The New York Times	"The real problems of 'Alive' have less to do with queasiness-inducing potential than with pacing (...) Mr. Shanley's screenplay injects an element of pretension that would have worked better if the basic story had more vigor."	NEU
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Alive draws considerable power from staying more human than heroic."	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"Skilfully crafted and doggedly performed, the film pushes too hard and too far; it strives for the inspirational but falls well short of inspired."	NEU
United States	James Berardinelli ReelViews	"Despite being broadly classified as an "adventure", it has depth and breadth that would put many dramas to sham (...) this is a film that has to be seen to be experienced, even by those who know the entire story."	POS
United States	Jay Carr Boston Globe	"Pictorially, Alive is breathtaking. But there's no real exploration of character or primal drives."	NEU
United States	John Hartl Seattle Times	"This sobering account of a 1972 Andes plane crash has a spiritual quality that makes the tougher aspects of the story easier to handle."	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Tribune	"'Alive' represents one of Hollywood's increasingly rare attempts to create a religious drama, but that novelty aside, the film is stiff, overlong and frequently risible."	NEG
United States	Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times	"'Alive' does everything it ought to except the one thing you really want with a story like this, and that is transcend its materia"	NEU
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"The movie characters complete their dreadful ordeal, but somehow, walking out, we feel the real Andes survivors would not quite recognize themselves (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Brian Costello Common Sense Media	"Intense, based-on-a true-story survival tale is riveting."	POS
United States	TV Guide	"Director Frank Marshall mounts the story as tastefully as possible, given the subject matter, but it never seems to have much point and is sometimes unintentionally silly."	NEU

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