Where I Watched It: Netflix

English Description Provided By Descriptive Video Works

Written By David Chen

Narrated By Paula Hoffman

Directed By JA Bayona

I posted a review of this on my YouTube, and i happened to mention that the film was a little long. Not necessarily a bad thing, depending on how you pace the film, and someone commented that 72 days in the Andes is a long time. Well, yeah, and as intensely tragic as these circumstances are, the film isn’t 72 days long either. Movies are meant to capture and funnel the ideas into a more succinct medium for mass consumption. I know you can watch the Big Brother cast the entire time they are in the house, but, does anyone really truly do that?

So, Bayona has directed an adaptation, which is reportedly the most expensive in Spain’s history, that took years to come to fruition, with the b blessing of the few remaining (or at least some, as they are part of the Oscar campaign), and does a beautiful job telling this story with reverence.

This is the same story told in Alive, which over the years is more known for the inclusion of cannibalism than the actual story. Here, Bayona can’t shy away from the realities of what happened to the survivors but he takes the most human route. It is never to shock you, or to turn your stomach, but he convinces you that as a last resort option it was just a necessary part of surviving that long in a climate designed for death.

I’m eternally grateful to either Bayona, or the person at Netflix that did not stand in the way of this film having audio description. Past major titles from them that were directed by those who typically also direct English language fare have been gate kept under the auspices that perhaps either a blind audience isn’t interested, or somehow providing accessibility for the blind ruins the art form. Could you imagine an author refusing to have their books offered in braille for those reasons? Or some live production refusing ASL interpretation because it takes away from the director’s intent. It’s such a bullshit answer, and for Alfonso Cuaron (Roma), Alejandro Innaritu (Bardo), and others it’s a weak excuse. So however we got audio description on this, I’m grateful. Before losing my vision, I did enjoy watching films from other countries, as their perspectives and cultural differences are fascinatingly different than ours. Let The Right One In is one of my favorite films of all time.

And, last year, my pick for Best Picture was All Quiet On The Western Front, which benefitted from also having audio description. Providing broad access to this true story really only continues to allow the truth and honesty to spread in a way that this group of survivors aren’t just remembered for eating their dead, but rather for surviving the unsurvivable.

The audio description here works perfectly, as there’s even a lot of narration done in journal form that wouldn’t even cause any of that odd effect when an actor is dubbed, and the mouth doesn’t match the words that sighted audiences get. The cast is large, there isn’t a lead, and the description helps with following them all. There’s also a plane crash that is intense, and the description makes it seem more so. David Chen’s script here for Paula Hoffman did everything it needed to, and also did so with the same level of reverence Bayona does for the various crash survivors.

A score from Michael Giacchino helps elevate the harsh beauty of the snow capped Andes, and the impossible circumstances these young athletes face. This is a tough story, but in a year with exceptional international content, this stands tall among them. A triumph for Bayona.

Final Grade: A