Common Sense Media Review
By Jennifer Green
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Snowy survival tale has violence, emotional intensity.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Society of the Snow
What's the Story?
In October of 1972, at the start of SOCIETY OF THE SNOW, the members of a professional Uruguayan rugby team board a charter jet bound for a match in Chile. The plane is full of players, friends, and families. Mid-flight, the plane goes down somewhere in the middle of the vast Andes Mountains. Only 29 of the original 45 passengers survive the crash, and those souls won't all endure the next two and a half months in the extremely hostile conditions of the mountains before they're finally rescued.
Is It Any Good?
This true events-based film's impressive production values compensate for a two-and-a-half-hour ordeal of disaster, death, and survival. Society of the Snow focuses on the realistic horrors of what the passengers aboard a crashed Uruguayan jet suffered to survive for months in the remote Andes mountains, including cannibalism. Though director J.A. Bayona and co-scripters Nicolás Casariego and Jaime Marques weave in themes questioning the meaning of life and death in the face of meaningless tragedy, the movie centers on the calamities more than the characters.
The script offers a limited backstory and development of the individuals' lives and personalities. We care about their survival because they are the ultimate underdogs, and fewer and fewer keep making it through the unthinkable. We watch them struggle against every possible odd and want there to be purpose to their suffering. Bayona throws disturbing images at us—starting with the realism of the crashing bodies when the plane goes down, and ending with a stripped-down view of their battered physiques and psyches. He relies on effects, including an impressive sound design and intermittent extreme wide shots and close-ups, to convey the psychological and physical trauma of these men. The feat is sure to win the team technical recognition, but it won't be for all audiences.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how the men survived in Society of the Snow.
The men have conversations and the narrator talks about faith, the meaning of life and death, and the significance of what they've gone through in the mountains. What lessons or messages did you take away from the movie?
The men demonstrate perseverance and teamwork. Would they have survived without these character strengths? Why, or why not?
What do you think of the choice of narrator? Was his fate unexpected?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : December 22, 2023
- Cast : Enzo Vogrincic , Simon Hempe , Rafael Federman
- Director : J.A. Bayona
- Inclusion Information : Latino Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Adventures , Friendship , History
- Character Strengths : Perseverance , Teamwork
- Run time : 144 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : violent/disturbing material and brief graphic nudity
- Last updated : September 18, 2025
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