The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition (2000)

The spell-binding nature of this film is due to the masterful mix of material from several sources: archival 35mm footage, still photos and drawings from the expedition itself, narrated excerpts from diaries, radio interviews with survivors and filmed interviews with their descendents, and contemporary film footage shot along the route of the men's ordeal. One is amazed at the quality of the 35mm moving images shot by Frank Hurley, the team's photographer. What you see is not a re-enactment - it's real, and as crisp as if shot only last week instead of almost ninety years ago.

Besides being the visual narrative of an extraordinary survival story, ENDURANCE is also a show-and-tell presentation on the essence of leadership. Two years after departing England, Shackleton successfully brought all his 27 men back from the brink of extinction. Not a single member of the venture was lost. (Ironically, they arrived back in a Europe entangled in the throes of World War One, in which some of the Expedition's survivors were subsequently killed.)

For a fuller presentation of the subject in text, I would strongly recommend ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON'S INCREDIBLE VOYAGE by Alfred Lansing.

The breathtaking original footages and still photographs are extremely crisp and it's hard to believe that this was shot nearly 9 decades ago. And while the lack of original materials during the later stages of their ordeals is a little disappointing, we can hardly blame them for that. The narration by Liam Neeson is excellent as well.

The crew endured for 635 days and nights without real shelter or sufficient rations, frequently eating seal blubber and even their beloved dogs. As an animal lover, I came to realize the true depths of their situation when they had to shoot their cat and dogs, and ultimately eat some of their true canine friends.

The story is one of tremendous hubris and heroism all wrapped up into one larger than life explorer. Shackleton's true gift was not in being a great explorer, but in being able to largely control the morale of the crew and provide leadership when it was most critical. Only thanks to that leadership did every man on the expedition survive.

The documentary itself is a brilliant mix of the film shot by expedition photographer Frank Hurley (including a lot of motion picture film) and modern film of the sites in question, along with a bit of reenactment footage of recreated lifeboats identical to the originals. The work is seamless, deeply moving, and will give anyone a new appreciation for the powers of ice and the human spirit.

In addition to the actual documentary the disc has several choice extras including a director's commentary track, interviews with children of survivors, and, best of all, a documentary on the making of the documentary, which I found absolutely fascinating. The most amazing thing that was revealed in the 'making of' documentary was the fate of the duplicate lifeboats, which under the control of the modern seamen ultimately sank in heavy seas, but seas far less than Shackleton encountered.

This is in every way a spectacular production, and I would recommend it highly to anyone. You will never forget this film.