Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains - 3 1/2 stars

In 1993 I saw Alive. Its the movie about the Uruguayan rugby team who's plane crashed in the Andes in 1972. They survived for 2 months by eating the flesh of the dead. The movie starred Ethan Hawke. I've always liked the movie. I think the recreation of the plane crash and the avalanche that hit 16 days or so in are about the most frightening things I've ever seen in a movie, mostly because they actually happened.

Stranded is the documentary of the same story. Part of the documentary consists of some of the survivors taking their families to the place where they crashed and telling the story in their own words. As we hear them tell the story, we also see a recreation of the events.

One thing I always missed from Alive is the fact that once they are rescued, the story is over. I wanted to know the details of how they were rescued. The only thing we know from Alive is that two of the guys walked out of the mountains and made it to civilization. Next thing we saw was the helicopters coming to rescue them. In Stranded, we are told more details of how the rescue happened. We also see footage from a press conference the survivors held where they had to defend the decision to eat the dead to survive.

The movie premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and I saw it last weekend at the Park City Film Series. I don't think it ever opened at any other theaters in Salt Lake, but it will be available on DVD in April. I highly recommend it, especially if you are a fan of Alive.