Hacker Cinema
Alive
1993 · Film · 127 min
Directed by Frank Marshall
The amazing true story of a Uruguayan rugby team's plane that crashed in the middle of the Andes mountains, and their immense will to survive and pull through alive, forced to do anything and everything they could to stay alive on meager rations and through the freezing cold.
2 positive4 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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8 comments on Hacker News
If we keep on praising uninteresting, soulless movies like Villeneuve’s Dune while shooting down more artistic (but weirder) views such as Lynch’s one, then I think we might end up with the opposite: human crews making films based GPT’s scripts.
The same thing happened with Society of the Snow: a technically beautiful movie with nothing to say other than being more “faithful” and using native actors. All that is appreciated but Alive was a flawed but much more exciting telling of the story.
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with your list, even though some of those are mediocre at best, but yeah I did mean per year, and limited to Hollywood (Parasite for instance not counting). And no, ok, I will also straight up disagree with the second Knives out Movie which I thought was absolute trash. A perfect example of poor storytelling and the form over substance of modern cinema.
But just taking say 1992 you have Last of the Mohicans, The Unforgiven, My Cousin Vinny, Malcolm X, Bad Lieutenant, Scent of a Woman, Reservoir Dogs, Dracula, Chaplin.
And then a bunch of fun schlomp like Arizona Dream, Basic Instinct, Sister Act, Army of Darkness, Home Alone 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Mighty Ducks, Wayne’s World.
These are all undoubtedly great movies.
And then another huge bunch of watchable stuff easily comparable to some of your mentions like Watcher or High Life.
And 1992 is not an outlier.
In 1993 you have Jurrasic Park, Groundhog Day, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape, Scindlers List, Meanace 2 Society, Alive, Dazed and Confused, Falling Down, In The Name of The Father, True Romance, Demolition Man, Carlitos Way, The Secret Garden, Philadelphia, A Perfect Workd, Cool Runnings, Short Cuts.
In 1991 Silence of The Lambs, Ternimator 2, JFK, Point Break, Thelma and Louise, Boyz in the Hood, The Doors, My Own Private Idaho, Barton Fink, The Fisher King, Naked Lunch.
In 1990 Goodfellas, Hunt for Red October, Total Recall, Edward Scissorhands, Home Alone, Godfather 3, Dances with Wolves, Tremors, Back to the Future 3, Awakenings, The Witches, Wild at Heart, Jacobs Ladder, Nikita, Slacker, Millers Crossing.
And the quality difference is massive too, not just somewhat better. Like just Millers Crossing is miles better than anything that has been made in the last 5 years, and I’m picking at random.
In 1994 Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, The Lion King, Speed, Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, Stargate, Natural Born Killers, The Crow, Clercs, Maverick, Ed Wood, In the Mouth of Madness, Interview With The Vampire.
I could go on.
And this is not even talking about how the 80s is a better decade for cinema, or how the 70s is the peak of the power of the author with far more experimental, artistic, and substantial productions.
Has quality declined? Yes. Massively. Humongously. Stupendously.
All about the presentation in the end I guess.
In the "Alive" film from 1993 about the Uruguayan Rugby team they started ratting the buttocks out of starvation when their plane crashed on top of a mountain. They couldnt ID which bodies where whom by that point so they chose the meatiest behind among the initial group who died in the plane crash.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106246/
That was a chistmas dinner convo topic, not sure why I felt to re-share.
That's total BS.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/23/cats-bond-with-owners-and-are-not-as-aloof-as-they-seem-study-shows
The cat might eat your dead body because it's trying to avoid starvation (after all, your ghost presumably isn't continuing to feed it, and it's stuck inside with your corpse and doesn't know how to use your cellphone to call for help), just like humans did in the Andes mountains, as seen in the movie "Alive". There's nothing immoral about eating a dead animal to survive.
Because "Eating People is Wrong".
Vegan here, my gf had a shirt saying that, with the Goya picture Saturn Devouring his Son[0] on it. I liked it so much she got me one too. Important message, I think.
But seriously...we can, see the book/movie Alive[1]. If it's that or starve to death, we all would. It apparently was (is?) common in many traditional cultures, e.g. (as I learnt recently) in areas of the Philippines until the 19th C.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106246/
Hi :-) I'm not sure what philosophy "it doesn't seem possible to apply universally".. Maybe "Killing any animal is wrong" (By any animal/person, for any reason, etc)? I don't think that. Also, I don't see this as an "argument in favor of eating less meat", or a "moral requirement".. Is it hard for you to not hunt, kill and eat people? Do you need arguments in favor of having less slaves. No.. Those things seem morally repugnant to most of us now, while they were normal in other times and places.
Two points from the many that bear on this:
1. The line between "humans and uh cats and dogs" and everything else seems arbitrary, human-centric etc. "Those in my group have value, those outside are nothing" comes naturally to humans, but there's nothing reasonable about it. For me, I don't like pain. I think inflicting pain/suffering is bad--not to mention painless killing, which seems worse than inflicting suffering. I would prefer someone inflicted pain on me than killed me painlessly! (How strange that I felt the need to explicitly make that point.)
There is a range of life-forms on this planet, from simple to complex, some of which, like single-cell bacteria, viruses, probably don't feel pain. (Neither do trees, it seems--they can't run away so it didn't evolve. But I respect them for other reasons. I hate seeing heavily graffitied trees, I wonder who could do that desecration.) There seems no obvious line to draw between animals whose pain/suffering, and lives, are worthy of ethical consideration, and those whose aren't. (And conveniently, we put humans at the top of that range, presumably other animals might see things differently) Doctors/vets kill lower-life forms to save higher ones. Personally, I put it fairly low (Oysters?..).. but to save worrying about the exact place to draw the line, I've found it simpler (and painless, I've never missed 'it') to avoid animal products altogether.
2. The matter of need. If it's a matter of killing animals for food or dying, I would do the same. (or even eating people, see the movie Alive.) If it's a matter of, for you and I, wanting a steak, when there's no need whatsoever, it's an entirely different thing. I stopped dairy products when I learnt about what people do to cows and their babies in that industry. And learn about factory farming of chickens, pigs, cows, go on a tour of an abattoir--the gruesome realities are hidden from us.
Also, I'm just talking about ethical considerations for humans, how we treat other life-forms. Because we realize other people than ourselves matter, other species than ourselves. (Not really sure what to say about the lions in your example.)
Speaking personally (vegan here), that's a good question. Well, vegans tend to be people who think for themselves; there's not one thing vegans think on that or any subject.
I was once in the position of having a couple of sausages on my plate at a wedding, that I knew would be thrown out if I didn't eat them, and I was hungry, so I ate them. The person I was with couldn't believe it, as it seemed to go against my professed veganism. But as eating them didn't add to animal suffering, and they'd otherwise be wasted, it wasn't a conflict for me. I don't think I'd eat them now, as I haven't eaten meat for uh 25+ years. (And never once missed it, surprisingly)
So, sure, I think for vegans generally, animal suffering is the issue, and if somehow that wasn't a factor, the issue is then something like yours would be if you were hungry and came across a person that died accidentally. (See the movie Alive 1993 or read the book)
disclosure: Both my gf and I have shirts saying EATING PEOPLE IS WRONG, featuring the Goya painting of Cronus eating one of his sons.
Or watching Alive (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106246/) as a child on your first time ever on an airplane o_0