The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
by George Butler
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DVD details
Actor: David Cale, John Blackborow, John Henry Cox, Julian Ayer, Liam NeesonDirector: George Butler
Brand: Sony
Producer: George Butler
Producer: Bowe Ferrer
Producer: Caroline Alexander
Writer: Caroline Alexander
Producer: Edward R. Pressman
Producer: John H. MacBain
Writer: Joseph Dorman
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
DVD Review: An Amazing Tale
Summary: 5 Stars
I read the book before I purchased the DVD and would recommend that to any DVD purchaser. I was captivated by the book, and was delighted to see the DVD to be just as captivating. This is an excellent film to show to young people and teenagers.
Ernest Shackleton was what we would call a free spirit today, and independent, determined man obsessed with reaching the South Pole shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. He managed to assemble a polar expedition with an utterly unresistable advertisement for hard, determined men with the caveat that survival was no guarantee. He secured the vessel Endurance and set out shortly after the outbreak of World War I with a crew of similarly independent minded individuals. His experiences on earlier failed expeditions taught him how he was to manage such a crew, and little did he know how much that experience was going to come into play.
After leaving the whaling station at South Georgia at the end of the known earth, his wooden ship stood due south toward Antarctica where it eventually encountered ice floes in the Weddell Sea. As the ship drew nearer to the continent, the ice thickened and the ship bacame ice bound and unable to move in any direction. Repeated attempts to free the ship were futile as the ship was about 100 miles from the coastline of Antarctica.
The story becomes one of a race for survival when the ship was slowly crushed in the ice and sank. Everything salvagable was carried off the ship before it sank, but what was left was pitifully little. Worse, the now ice-bound crew and captain were completely at the mercy of the ocean currents which drew them further from land and toward a very uncertain fate where the ice begins to break up. Shackelford's leadership and resolve kept the crew together and under discipline despite an aborted attempt at mutiny. Rations were soon reduced to almost exclusively seal meat. The plight of the expedition grew more and more grim.
As the inevitable edge of the ice pack was reached, the men had no choice but to take to the two boats left from the sunken Endurance. No sooner had the boats taken to the ocean when fierce storms enveloped the crew in the boats making their lives even more miserable if that was possible. Several alternate destinations were discussed, the most promising being a place where supplies had been cached, but the condition of the men and the boats demanded making landfall at the nearest possible place. That turned out to be Elephant Island, a rocky outcrop on the edge of the Weddell Sea with no vegetation of any kind. Now a real sense of desperation set in among the crew that was already malnourished and weakened physically. Shackelton was determined to save his crew at any cost.
One of the boats was rigged for open ocean navigation and Shackelton and three others set out for New Georgia several hundred miles away across what has to be the worst stretch of ocean anyone could imagine. Howling gales and mountainous waves made the voyage one of complete misery, yet miraculously, the boat reached South Georgia. Imagine a pitiful group of men if there ever was one, and then imagine the realization that they had landed on the wrong side of the island from the whaling station and faced a trek over a 10,000 foot mountain range to get there. Shackelton left two of the men behind and left with one other to make what has to be one of the most remarkable climbs of all time. Shackelton and his companion crossed the mountains and staggered into the whaling station to safety.
Now Shackelton had to organize a rescue effort for not only his remaining crew on Elephant Island, but his other two men on the other side of New Georgia. All this took time, but he rescued the two first, the took a tug boat to Elephant Island to rescue any survivors. In one of the epic survival tales of all time, he found all of his crew still alive and rescued them.
Liam Neeson could not have been a better choice to narrate this film which featured several movie clips and many still photos of the expedition. One can hardly fathom the hardships these men endured compared to any experieces the the viewers might remotely have experienced themselves. This is truly a survival tale for the times and the fact that is is true only makes it more remarkable. The DVD is excellent in all respects and deserves high praise. I heartily recommend it.
Description of The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
ENDURANCE - DVD MovieSeveral films have documented or dramatized the incredible saga of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated trans-Antarctic expedition, but The Endurance offers the most comprehensive one-source reference. Originally presented as a PBS Nova special and narrated by Liam Neeson, this excellent film--based on Caroline Alexander's acclaimed book, also titled after the ironic name of Shackleton's doomed ship--chronicles the astonishing events of 1914-16, when Shackleton and 27 crewmen survived against all odds after their ship was crushed in the polar ice floes. This is the only "Shackleton" film to incorporate new footage, expert interviews, dramatic recreations (without dialogue), and expedition photographer Frank Hurley's archival film and photographs. The cumulative effect of this extensive material gives the viewer an almost palpable sense of the expedition's hardship and unlikely survival, made possible in part by a man who had precisely the required experience and leadership skills, and in part by what can only be described as divine intervention. No matter how you interpret it, this is rightly called "the greatest survival story ever told." --Jeff Shannon
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