The Society of the Snow is a film based on a true story, the Uruguayan Andes flight disaster of 1972. The flight from Carasso, Uruguay, to Santiago, carrying 45 passengers and 8 crew members, most of the passengers being students, crashed before it reached its destination in the heart of the Andes glaciers. Having tried to locate them with no success, the world assumed that they all died. However, most of the passengers had survived, only that the snow temperatures were too unbearable, leading to some of them passing away. The remaining passengers tried everything in their power to signal that they were still alive and get to a safer place, Chile. They searched for the airplane radio and circumnavigated the glaciers to locate their destination.
Nevertheless, surviving the glaciers without food was not easy. They even reached the point of feeding on corpses, and some even allowed others to provide for them once they were dead. Eventually, after so many instances of trying to find their way to land, two passengers successfully found land and got help from their friends. A plane was sent immediately to rescue the 16 survivors; they were taken to a safer place, bathed, treated, and fed. The story’s primary focus is their struggles while in the heart of the Andes glaciers.
Hall (1980) describes decoding as the process of interpreting the message. However, this process differs from individual to individual as influenced by personal experiences. In decoding the film Society of the Snow, I paid attention to the time setup, language, the narrative voice in the background, the background music, the lighting color, and the way the characters expressed their emotions. Regarding time set up, the characters, such as Numan Turcatti, are wearing bagging clothes, mainly denim and hippy shoes. The types of cars used and even the radio station Impactos and Independencia Radio, shared among the Spanish community in the 1970s, also depict the period the film is based on.
Moreover at the beginning of the movie, before the crash of the flight, an amber lighting is used to depict the era the film is based. Regarding how the characters expressed their emotions, I paid attention to the tone of their voices and facial expressions. For instance, the narrating voice is calm, but the tone is sad, indicating that the film is of a tragic theme. Also, when the plane crashes, there are numerous voices in the background, for example, ” I don’t want to die, ” painfully said. After the crash had ended, there was silence, just the facial expressions of the passengers, which painfully indicated a loss of hope and struggle.
Encoding is the process of putting things together, as Hall describes. In regards to the film, it is how it has been created. How the sound has been recorded, how the video has been shot, and how the characters are directed, all encompass encoding. In Society of the Snow film, the encoding process made it easier for me to decode. This is because a lot of attention was paid to the visuals, which immersed me in the film and allowed me to read through every emotion and action to understand the context better. Regarding relative autonomy (Seymour & Peterman 2018) explain that individuals can explore culture in their context. I already knew from the synopsis what the film was about: the disaster and endurance on the mountaintop based on the true story of Flight 571. However, when I watched it, the characters’ experiences were so horrific that the end did not appeal to me even though it was happy. The film going extreme to include characters feeding on corpses just to remain alive gave me nostalgia that I even preferred death over life for them. As much as endurance was well depicted, my perspective is that it was not worth it.
Regarding misunderstandings that accompanied my viewing experience, the film began in a happy mood that I could not expect the sudden turn of events. Moreover, there was a church congregation just before the flight, and I failed to understand its context. If anything, I thought they would experience a smooth flight and the film would maintain its happy mood because they had prayed for a safe journey. So, the sudden turn of events, or rather misunderstandings, invoked me to look into different interpretations, thus encouraging critical thinking.
I watched the film at a cinema. The sound quality and the visuals were better than watching it at home. Moreover, the screen was big enough, offering a panoramic view. Using the 3D glasses gave me a natural feeling; I was immersed in the film. Moreover, I had better concentration because of the absence of distractions, and everyone around me was engaged in the movie. As such, decoding the message was enhanced.
References
Hall, S. W. (1980). Encoding/Decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis (Eds). Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 63-87.
Seymour, G., & Peterman, A. (2018). Context and measurement: An analysis of the relationship between intrahousehold decision making and autonomy. World Development, 111, 112. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.06.027
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