HEY, I’M ALIVE

US, 1975, 75 minutes, Colour.
Sally Struthers, Edward Asner.
Directed by Lawrence Schiller.

An interesting telemovie based on fact. Sally Struthers from All in the Family gives a good performance as the heroine, but Edward Asner of Lou Grant and other series is excellent as the hero Ralph. The film was directed by Lawrence Schiller, who was the photographer who took the first pictures of the real life rescue. The film, while based on incidents in the sixties,. fits into the disaster genre and its popularity of the seventies. Films like Survive also showed the survival of plane victims in the Andes and their worthy thrillers of the airport disasters.

1. An interesting true story? Audience identification with the characters, situation, dangers and challenges? A gripping telemovie? Emotional response to the situation ? television techniques (and commercials)?

2. The significance of the title, its use by Helen? The importance of her narrative and comment on the situations, Ralph’s character, her own reactions? A matter of life and death? The ending?

3. The personal involvement of the director in the story, its exploitation? His work? The authentic background of the story, the story of the sixties? Alaska, planes, distances, the seasons, dangers, survival, searches? How authentic did the film seem?

4. How well did the film establish the basic set-up: Ralph and his work flying, Helen and her need for a trip and answering the advertisement? questions of trust and behaviour and conduct? The hotel sequence? The impact of the crash itself and the repercussions for both? How well could the audience identify with each of the characters? The background of people searching, Helen's boyfriend? Ralph's wife and her fears and her trust? The daughter and the birthday party, the Kennedy background giving a sense of time to the story?

5. The reaction to the crash, to surviving? Its reality? Food, water, snow, the work to be done, coping with injuries and Helen's arm being dislocated? The planes and. the search? The establishing of the calendar? Ice and the freezing weather? The lack of food and calories being taken from fat? Ability to cope or not cope? The average reaction to such a situation and survival?

6. Mutual points of interest, the way of talking? Clashes?

7. Ralph and his religion, his seriousness, explanation, from Catholicism to Christian beliefs, the Bible, the ten tribes of Israel? his reliance on the Bible, his prayer, trust? His forcing Helen to read? Her being affected by Scripture, her saying she was studying it, then trusting it, her not making any bargains with God? How well did the film establish each character especially showing them in interaction?

8. The passing of time, the 49 days, the possibility of survival? Ralph’s trek and his return?

9. The person of each character? Ralph and his intensity and care and respect, his naivety and quaintness? Helen and her toughness and change? The irony that they never met again after being rescued?

10. The importance of the rescue and the repercussions for both? the background of the search, Ralph’s wife and her trust, the journalist and his need for photos?

11. The film as a record of human achievement and survival?