Dan Webster: Thriller recounts 72-day tribulation of 1972 Andes plane crash

No matter what form of media we choose to follow, we’re subjected ad nauseum to stories of disaster. War, genocide, murder, natural catastrophes and fatal accidents all tend to lead the news.

If you were around in 1972, you would have been made aware of one of the biggest stories of that year: the crash of a chartered airplane in Argentina’s Andes Mountains and the 16 souls who, against all odds, survived.

Even if you were born later, though, you might know of the disaster. If you haven’t read any of the dozens of books bearing titles such as “Miracle in the Andes,” then you might have seen Frank Marshall’s 1993 film “Alive,” which stars Ethan Hawke.

Now we have the Spanish-language Netflix feature “Society of the Snow.” And one thing is clear: Despite the film’s many qualities, and there are quite a few, anyone who is sensitive to portrayals of suffering and death should think twice before adding it to their streaming queue.

Based on the 2009 book by the Uruguayan journalist Pablo Vierci, “Society of the Snow” was directed and co-written by the Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona. And true to its source material, the movie takes great pains – no pun intended – to portray the events as they happened.

From the beginning, Bayona puts us in the midst of things. He introduces several members of a Uruguayan rugby team that is bound for a match in Santiago, Chile. One caveat: While the film does an admirable job of identifying all 45 of the passengers, it is difficult to tell most of the players from each other.

One of the mostly easily identifiable is Numa Turcatti (Enzo Vogrinic), a university law student who is loath to go on the trip because he’s concerned about studying for his coming exams. It is Turcatti who, at least for the first part of the film, narrates what happens.

We see the rambunctious atmosphere in the plane gradually turn somber as severe turbulence forces everyone to buckle up. Some even start praying, while others scream when the plane hits a ridge, breaks apart and the main section of the fuselage barrels down a snow-covered mountain slope like an oversize toboggan.

And that’s just the beginning. What follows is a day-by-day accounting of the 72-day ordeal, which involves the unremitting cold, an avalanche that buries the survivors (and kills 10 of them), the hope that gradually dies among the group as rescue planes fly past and fail to see them. And then there’s the hunger.

Ultimately, those who did live did so by resorting to cannibalism, which Bayona portrays graphically. Much of the film involves the young men debating the moral issues of such a controversial last-ditch measure.

Two of the survivors, Fernando Parrado (Augustin Pardella) and Roberto Canessa (Matias Recalt), end things by hiking through deep snow for 10 days to find help.

Bayona doesn’t address the public furor that followed for a time after the survivors were rescued, but he does make sure to identify – and thus honor – all 45 passengers, including the 29 who died.

And, in the end, he leaves us with a question: What would each of us do under similar circumstances?