True life survival tales are very compelling . Remember Readers Digest ? I always thought the best articles in that publication were the ones featuring someone surviving a shipwreck / plane crash etc only to find that their problems were only just beginning . Strangely these type of stories don't make for good cinema , even a big budget Hollywood movie like ALIVE feels like there's something lacking , probably down to the fact that there's narrative techniques that are impossible to realise on screen such as what the characters were thinking at the time , especially where despair is concerned
ANYTHING TO SURVIVE may very well suffer from this but you get the feeling the producers haven't even tried . . Zale Dalen is making a made for television movie and therefore it's television fare for a family audience , an American television audience at that . So what we get is an emphasis of how lovely the Barton family is . Twee music plays as they're introduced . " Oh aren't they sweet " the music dictates . " Oh they're shipwrecked , please feel sorry for them " the music pleads . I'm afraid all this has the opposite effect . " The tide's turning against us " cries Matt LeBlanc . Not only the tide Matt but the entire audience too
ANYTHING TO SURVIVE may very well suffer from this but you get the feeling the producers haven't even tried . . Zale Dalen is making a made for television movie and therefore it's television fare for a family audience , an American television audience at that . So what we get is an emphasis of how lovely the Barton family is . Twee music plays as they're introduced . " Oh aren't they sweet " the music dictates . " Oh they're shipwrecked , please feel sorry for them " the music pleads . I'm afraid all this has the opposite effect . " The tide's turning against us " cries Matt LeBlanc . Not only the tide Matt but the entire audience too