Society of the Snow (2023) review

Members of the Uruguayan rugby team, which include narrator Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrincic), Roberto Canessa (Matías Recalt) and Nando Parrado (Agustín Pardella), are enthusiastic to take a flight from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile but their plane crashes in the Andes mountains, several passengers are immediately killed, they then get hit by multiple avalanches, and because of a lack of food they face the moral and ethical decision as to whether or not to consume the dead for sustenance.  The true story is unbelievably alarming and it's a miracle anyone made it out alive - director Bayona smartly cast some of the actual survivors in small roles to add to the authenticity - but the scenario is so unnerving it didn't really need to be as hyper-dramatized as it is, and the middle section sags a bit by being repetitious ... but it does spring to life for the final act, which is when Canessa and Parrado make a perilous hike for ten days (without the proper equipment) in order to locate help.  The cinematography by Pedro Luque is both glorious and ominous and the dark cloud of Catholic guilt looms over the whole biopic as the living "rationalize" eating their friends by comparing the action with receiving the Eucharist ("This is my body which is given for you: do this in remembrance of me").  But how about this for a sign of the times: they can't find anything non-human to eat but never run out of cigarettes ... that's the 1970's for you.