Friday 18 January 2008

Weekend telly

And on the seventh day God said thou shall rest.

So I did. It's a good ol telly evening kind of time.

Thanks to Gail at Yorkeys Knob Video who is getting rid of her entire VHS video collection at a mere $0.50 cents each, we settled into watch Alive.

It's about the true story, based upon Piers Paul Read's acclaimed 1974 book, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors.

It's in the vain of Aron Ralston's story who had to cut his arm off to escape being trapped in the Colorado wilderness in 2003, and Joe Simpson's Touching the Void.

It's the story based upon interviews about a group of young rugby team survivors of a Uruguayan flight that crashed on the the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972.

I guess many of you have probably seen this doco-dramatisation before. I'm a bit behind in my movie watching, and although I'm a huge movie buff, reading and writing have been occupying my primary time of late.Here's the actual crash sequence, that is often rated the most realistic air crash portrayals on film.

What was most controversial about this story, a dramatic decision was made to eat the flesh of those that had died in order for their own survival. It's portrayed in gritty realism in the film. Most of the young lads were Roman Catholic, and the church has since said their actions were acceptable.

I don't know if facing the same dilemma, I could do the same. Imagine if I, as an independent journo, was travelling on a Cessna to a remote Cape York township with the entire Cairns Council's Unity team on board, and we crashed. I dunno if I could munch into Kevin's thigh, or Terry's back bone, or Freebody's breast. Or even Gill's torso. Maybe Quick's tongue would be a starter. I really couldn't say.

24 were killed in the 1972 accident. The 16 survivors were rescued after 72 days in the remote Andes mountains, when Nando Parrado along with two others, trekked to find help to the amazement of the world as heros.

They've since set up a website to tell their story, and they still meet annually on the crash date.

A third movie has just been filmed and released called Stranded. The survivors take part in the film, relive, revisit the site, and retell their amazing ordeal, yet again.

Here's a clip:

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