• Nathan Barr joined the group Group logo of Film TalkFilm Talk 7 years ago

    • Reading Artistotle’s Poetics in preparation for today’s class made me more aware of a potential problem in translating Piers Paul Read’s Alive to film: the episodic nature of the Fairchild survivors’ experiences. Their experience required them to adapt to a surreal routine: melting snow, preparing flesh, going to the bathroom, treating wounds, and insulating the wreckage against the elements. While these daily challenges highlight the survivors’ distress, they are anecdotal. A filmmaker’s task would be weaving these experiences into a compelling narrative. Does Marshall’s film Alive construct a tight narrative? Not in my opinion. Aristotle defines the episodic plot type as episodes or actions succeeding one another without any probable or necessary sequence. Scenes such as seeing the rescue plane, climbing the mountain, the avalanche, finding the tail, and the various character deaths could all be rearranged without affecting the plot (indeed, I had a hard time remembering their sequence before revisiting the film). These plot points did not heighten the tension following the initial wreck, at least for me. And, as several others have pointed out, maintaining a lighter-than-expected tone throughout the movie undercut any sense of growing desperation or hopelessness.