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Thread: 1972 Andes Air Crash and the Movie 'Alive'

  1. #1
    attackatdawn Guest

    1972 Andes Air Crash and the Movie 'Alive'

    http://wesclark.com/rrr/still_alive.html

    Do you ever remember watching this movie? Alive was based on the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972. Sixteen members of the team, some of them teen-agers, survived 72 days in the mountains by eating those who had died.

    What would you do to survive something like this?

  2. #2
    Layla331 Guest
    Id be yelling dibbies on the drumsticks while grabbing my nieghbors leg on the way down ..JK...I think its natural instinct after so long to do what you have to do to survive..so sadly..and not proud to admit it..id probably eat along..and not like it..and be in majoy therapy if we survived

  3. #3
    different kind of girl Guest
    Haven't seen Alive but I read one of the survivor's tales in Readers Digest last year. I think I'd do the same thing if I had to survive.

  4. #4
    kelbons Guest
    I was enthralled with this book! I coudn't stop looking at the photos... there was one in particular of a human leg that I couldn't get over!

  5. #5
    SW4 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by attackatdawn View Post
    http://wesclark.com/rrr/still_alive.html

    What would you do to survive something like this?
    What they did, I suppose, and the same happened to The Donner Party crossing the Grand Prarie in the 1840's...here's some interesting information on the Donner Party...

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/donner

  6. #6
    RoRo Guest
    I remember reading the book waaay back when ..I really don't know if I could have done that. The survivors recently had a reunion with the cowboy who went for help after thay came down the mountain

  7. #7
    pechar Guest
    I read the book years ago and remember that the families of the people who died were not angry that the survivors ate the bodies to survive. They were actually proud that their dead loved ones kept others alive. If it wasnt for the survivors eating the dead - all of them would have died.

  8. #8
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    Yup, I read that as a young, budding death hag. What I remember is the part where they talk about whether they could have considered eating their friends as a kind of partaking of the Eucharist/body of Christ, etc. The answer was no.

    And I remember that constipation was a problem.

  9. #9
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    I know this is gonna sound weird but I think I would have a harder time with the fact that the meat was raw than the fact it was human meat. Raw meat makes me gag. To survive though? I'd do it.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] ~smoochies~

  10. #10
    Maruz83 Guest
    They had a reunion awith some of the guys not to long ago, and one fo the guys said he would do it again, (eat his buddies)..... reminded me to not let him babysit !!!!LOL

  11. #11
    endsleigh03 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by attackatdawn View Post
    http://wesclark.com/rrr/still_alive.html

    Do you ever remember watching this movie? Alive was based on the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972. Sixteen members of the team, some of them teen-agers, survived 72 days in the mountains by eating those who had died.

    What would you do to survive something like this?
    What a dilemma that would be. The will to survive is so great......yikes

  12. #12
    Mamma Guest
    Different kind of girl ~

    Rent the movie. You will NOT be disappointed. It is tragic, heartbreaking, and heroic all at the same time.

    ~Mamma

  13. #13
    mommafreak Guest
    The movie was very well directed. I felt for those boys and the decisions they had to make. Could I make the same? Forced in the same situation? Feast or Famine? Probably.

  14. #14
    different kind of girl Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Mamma View Post
    Different kind of girl ~

    Rent the movie. You will NOT be disappointed. It is tragic, heartbreaking, and heroic all at the same time.

    ~Mamma

    will do!

  15. #15
    SuckMyKiss Guest
    I remember watching this film as a kid. And everytime I went on a plane after that I was terrified we were going to crash and I was going to have to eat my sister or something LOL.

    But yeah. I would probably chow down too. No point in more of us dying than nessecary. LOL

  16. #16
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    Sorry... I have to say it..

    You know, according to dragons, we are crunchy and good with catsup!
    Performing my signature monkey hump move since 10/16/2007...

    RIP Dad- 11/14/1947 to 12/16/2013

  17. #17
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    What a great book and a really good movie. I can't imagine what those people went through during that time. I think that it would be human nature to do what was needed to survive.
    The survival of everyone on board depends on just one thing: finding someone on board who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner.

  18. #18
    ShatteredMirror Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by nytkrew View Post
    What a great book and a really good movie. I can't imagine what those people went through during that time. I think that it would be human nature to do what was needed to survive.
    I agree. Read the book, have the movie on DVD. And, to be honest, under the circumstances they were in, I'd probably have done the same.

  19. #19
    endsleigh03 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by DietCokeofEvil View Post
    Sorry... I have to say it..

    You know, according to dragons, we are crunchy and good with catsup!
    Ummmm...what I was wondering is if anyone said "just hold your nose and pretend it's chicken" (Bad joke, I know )

  20. #20
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    l remember seeing 'Alive' in the cinema and wondering if they kept the theatre freezing cold on purpose. on the way home, the discussion was all about if we would eat each other's bums to survive (the meatiest part, l guess). interesting topic for a double date!!
    we decided we'd rather eat a stranger's bum than a friend's.
    but all in all we'd do what we had to do to live.

  21. #21
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    Remember in the book where the blood clots around the hearts were highly prized because they were......... ummmm....tastier? Yikes.

  22. #22
    Cathy J. Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by attackatdawn View Post
    http://wesclark.com/rrr/still_alive.html

    Do you ever remember watching this movie? Alive was based on the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972. Sixteen members of the team, some of them teen-agers, survived 72 days in the mountains by eating those who had died.

    What would you do to survive something like this?
    Actually there were TWO movies made about this.

    from 1976...
    http://imdb.com/title/tt0075290/

    and the one most people remember...
    http://imdb.com/title/tt0106246/

  23. #23
    SlippyInvader Guest
    I remember seeing the film years ago and nearly puking when they ate their buddies..I really don't know if I could do it myself.

  24. #24
    lisalouver Guest

    "Alive" The plane crash, cannibalilsm and survival in the Andes

    This might belong in the airline crash thread, but I think it deserved it's own thread since the circumstaces are so different.

    The crash of the plane carrying the rugby team from Urguayin 1972. Plane crashed in the Andes and the survivors were stranded in the broken fuselage for 72 days. They finally turned to cannibalism to survive.

    The 1993 movie "Alive" was based on the story and on the book by the same name by Piers Paul Read. Great book, great movie.

    Ethan Hawke played one of the main characters, Nando Parrado, who was one of the men who finally decided to walk for help. It was that walk that finally got them rescued.

    I just picked up his book, written last year I think called "Miracle in the Andes"

    I started it last night, it is really good.

    Here is Wiki on it, but you can google any number of things to find info

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay...rce_Flight_571

    The Official site is here - great pics and survivor pics and stories.

    http://www.viven.com.uy/571/Eng/default.asp


    Nando's site is here

    http://www.parrado.com/eng/main.html

    Facinating story.
    Last edited by lisalouver; 03-07-2008 at 05:29 PM. Reason: To add a site

  25. #25
    smooches27 Guest
    Lisa,

    Great post! This story has always fascinated me. I need to go to Amazon and order the books. The biggest thing that is on my mind after I watch this movie is always "What would I do to stay alive?" Thinking about it now, consuming human flesh makes me want to throw up, but if I was in that situation I might feel way different!!

  26. #26
    lisalouver Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by smooches27 View Post
    Lisa,

    Great post! This story has always fascinated me. I need to go to Amazon and order the books. The biggest thing that is on my mind after I watch this movie is always "What would I do to stay alive?" Thinking about it now, consuming human flesh makes me want to throw up, but if I was in that situation I might feel way different!!
    I know. You will love the books. I read "Alive" when I was in high school. I saw the movie when it came out in the theatre. Nando's book is proving to be very, very good.

    You can not know what you will do until you are placed in that situation. I think they were the bravest people ever.

  27. #27
    smooches27 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by lisalouver View Post
    I know. You will love the books. I read "Alive" when I was in high school. I saw the movie when it came out in the theatre. Nando's book is proving to be very, very good.

    You can not know what you will do until you are placed in that situation. I think they were the bravest people ever.
    I just ordered "Alive" on Amazon, please let me know how Nando's book turns out!

  28. #28
    lisalouver Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by smooches27 View Post
    I just ordered "Alive" on Amazon, please let me know how Nando's book turns out!
    I certainly will!!

  29. #29
    harlequin_clown Guest
    If I am ever in a situation like that I hope there's a full load of chickens being transported along with us.....

    Fascinating book and story, I couldn't put it down

  30. #30
    kelbons Guest
    I didn't really know much about this story until the movie came out when I was in college. After that I went straight to the library and got the book. AWESOME. There was a photo in there of a half-eaten leg. I couldn't stop looking at it!

  31. #31
    pvezz Guest
    The scene in the movie that shows the plane crashing is one of the most horrible things I've ever watched.

    I, too, said that I would never resort to cannabalism no matter what the circumstances. How do we really know what we'd do to survive, though, until we're faced with dying??

  32. #32
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    Glad to see that they're all still "alive" so far, including Javier who was the oldest and will be 72 this year, and that even Carlitos's Dad made it to their 30th reunion a few years back. Wonder if any of the Strauch sisters, who, like Carlos, Sr., were the strongest supporters of the continuing search for their sons, are still with us.

    Glad that most of them married and had several children each. (Javier was the leader in this regard--- he already had 3 girls and a boy with wife Liliana who died on the mountain, then fathered 3 boys and a girl with his second wife Anna Maria.) I know some of the survivors did make it known that they suffered what we now call PTSD, but upon the whole, they seem to have made the most of the lives God and/or fate permitted them to continue.

    Also amazed at how many of them seem to have become motivational speakers, in addition to whatever professions they took up or resumed. I always admired Nando because he overcame grief, injuries, and his own modest personality to become a expeditionary who helped get his team-mates off the mountain, and then went on to many more activities.

  33. #33
    lisalouver Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Linnie View Post
    Glad to see that they're all still "alive" so far, including Javier who was the oldest and will be 72 this year, and that even Carlitos's Dad made it to their 30th reunion a few years back. Wonder if any of the Strauch sisters, who, like Carlos, Sr., were the strongest supporters of the continuing search for their sons, are still with us.

    Glad that most of them married and had several children each. (Javier was the leader in this regard--- he already had 3 girls and a boy with wife Liliana who died on the mountain, then fathered 3 boys and a girl with his second wife Anna Maria.) I know some of the survivors did make it known that they suffered what we now call PTSD, but upon the whole, they seem to have made the most of the lives God and/or fate permitted them to continue.

    Also amazed at how many of them seem to have become motivational speakers, in addition to whatever professions they took up or resumed. I always admired Nando because he overcame grief, injuries, and his own modest personality to become a expeditionary who helped get his team-mates off the mountain, and then went on to many more activities.
    Much agreed. Roberto Canessa, of course became a doctor, as a matter of fact, a peds cardiologist. Nando is deserving of much admiration. They all are really. And I too, am glad to see that they are all still alive. Javier did indeed go on to have more children with his second wife.

    Nando's book is more than an account, it is him speaking to all who have suffered loss and thought they could not go on. What he (and the others) overcame is more than any of us will ever go through. Nando lost his mother in the crash and his sister died in his arms in the time following the crash after much suffering. He saw his friends wither and die and still had the courage to walk through the Andes for help. How he did it, I will never know. There is a picture of him shortly after the helicopters landed with him safe. They wanted to carry him on a stretcher. He refused. He had walked miles through the Andes, he said. He could walk a few more steps.

    What a story.

  34. #34
    pvezz Guest
    Damn, Lisa. I'm going to buy the book. All I know about it is the movie.

  35. #35
    lisalouver Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by pvezz View Post
    Damn, Lisa. I'm going to buy the book. All I know about it is the movie.
    You won't be sorry!! Have a box of kleenex handy!

  36. #36
    lisalouver Guest
    Finished Nando's book today!! It is awesome!!!

    I also found this, in Feb of 2005, a Colorado mountain tour guide climbed to the crash site (what, is he nuts?) and found some pieces of the plane, including a piece that was fashioned into a knife for cutting the bodies, it appears.

    He also fouund the wallet of one of the survivors and returned it to him.

    Here is the link, hope it works - it is facinating.
    http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/36790...rsion=20071003

  37. #37
    Kugmu Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by lisalouver View Post
    Finished Nando's book today!! It is awesome!!!
    Yes it is!
    I read it last year. Very good read.

  38. #38
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    Love that movie. Always makes me hungry.

  39. #39
    Ghoulie Girl Guest
    incredible story

  40. #40
    PlumCrazyPurple Guest
    The book Alive by Piers Paul Reed, is excellent! I've read it several times. Absolutely worth getting.

  41. #41
    twist340 Guest

    alive!

    i had a book called survive that was based on what happened in the andes.and also in the mid to late 70's i remember my mother going to see the movie survive.i loaned the book out to a friend years ago and she never returned it to me.but i do know that,that was the first book written about the ordeal in the mountains.i'm sure it could be found in a used book store.

  42. #42
    Lisamarie Guest
    I have never seen the half eaten leg pic can someone post a link?? Or the pic itself??

  43. #43
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    Amazing how anybody survived this... what a will to live that one guy had, as I was reading the Wiki article it almost sounded like something out of the bible when they finally saw the man on the horse after hiking it for so many days.


  44. #44
    bluebear71 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Kugmu View Post
    Yes it is!
    I read it last year. Very good read.
    Its kind of a disturbing story but yes, very good.

  45. #45
    bluebear71 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by buzzzx View Post
    Love that movie. Always makes me hungry.
    HA!

  46. #46
    lisalouver Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Jason View Post
    Amazing how anybody survived this... what a will to live that one guy had, as I was reading the Wiki article it almost sounded like something out of the bible when they finally saw the man on the horse after hiking it for so many days.
    Great point Jason. I just finished Nando's book over the weekend and I will tell you as you read it and come to the part where they saw the peasant on the horse, you just start bawling, because you can feel what he must have felt (well almost)

    In 2005, the man on the horse's wife called Nando and Roberto Canessa (the other man who walked through the mountains for help) and asked them to come as a surprise to her and her husbands 50th wedding anniversary.

    So as they drove through the mountain valley where he lives, they spotted him outside. They parked the car on the mountain road and approached him. At first, he did not recognize them and looked a bit taken aback just as he had over 30 years ago. Nando asked him "Say young man, we are lost again, can you help us?"

    I believe they all started to cry.

    What a story, each time I think of it, I find it more amazing.

  47. #47
    Cathy J. Guest
    Besides Alive there was another movie about this crash that was filmed back in the mid 70s called Survive. I don't remember much about that movie other than many people didn't like it. It was also very low budget I remember reading about it but it was the movie Alive that most people remember.

  48. #48
    Jack-O-Lantern Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Cathy J. View Post
    Besides Alive there was another movie about this crash that was filmed back in the mid 70s called Survive. I don't remember much about that movie other than many people didn't like it. It was also very low budget I remember reading about it but it was the movie Alive that most people remember.
    "Alive" was the better movie, I also saw the 70s "Survive" and it was very low budget, produced in Mexico.

    This is an astounding story. I myself hold no delusions about my behavior in such circumstances--I'm sure as the agony of starvation set in (and it IS an agonizing, awful way to die), I would chow down. No doubt about it.

  49. #49
    Guest Guest
    I always wondered if this story was a myth just to make a movie, I never realized it was based on a true story. wow. how horrific. I just spent about an hour googling and reading about it. I would want the survivors to chow down on my leg if I had been one of the dead. No point in letting myself go to waste!!

  50. #50
    lisalouver Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Jack-O-Lantern View Post
    "Alive" was the better movie, I also saw the 70s "Survive" and it was very low budget, produced in Mexico.

    This is an astounding story. I myself hold no delusions about my behavior in such circumstances--I'm sure as the agony of starvation set in (and it IS an agonizing, awful way to die), I would chow down. No doubt about it.
    I totally agree.

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