Previously dramatized in "Survive!" (1976) and "Alive" (1993), the true story of a 1972 Andes plane crash finally gets the full documentary treatment in "Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains" (9:15 tonight at the Egyptian). The director, Gonzalo Arijon, was able to talk to all 16 survivors, and their memories dominate the film.
Never sensationalistic, always sensitive to the deep affection the survivors clearly feel for each other, Arijon deals at length with the avalanches that killed eight people (after the crash), the desperation brought on by hunger (a tube of toothpaste provides dessert for everyone) and the cannibalism that became necessary when the only food available was human flesh.
Actors re-create several key moments and archival footage fills in the rest. The television material from the early 1970s is in shockingly threadbare condition. This was a catastrophe that received worldwide attention at the time, but the remaining footage looks like it was recorded a century ago.
John Hartl,
Special to The Seattle Times
Today's schedule
Egyptian
4 p.m. — "Jar City"
7 p.m. — "The Great Buck Howard"
9:15 p.m. — "Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains"
Midnight — "Otto; or, Up with Dead People"
Harvard Exit
4 p.m. — "This Way Up"
6:30 p.m. — "Half-Life"
9:15 p.m. — "Be Like Others"
Pacific Place Cinema
4 p.m. — "You, the Living"
6:30 p.m. — "The Wave"
9:15 p.m. — "Saturn in Opposition"
SIFF Cinema
4:30 p.m. — "Anvil! The Story of Anvil"
7 p.m. — "Ramchand Pakistani"
9:30 p.m. — "Christopher Columbus, The Enigma"
Uptown
4 p.m. — "Brick Lane"
7 p.m. — "Phoebe in Wonderland"
9:30 p.m. — "A Girl Cut in Two"
See Also
