Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-16 expedition to Antarctica would be a fascinating story in itself, but this wonderful documentary benefits from the inclusion of unique archival footage that was filmed during the two-year journey. The expedition, as described in the voice-over narration written by Caroline Alexander, who also authored the identically titled bestseller on the subject, is described as “the last great journey of the heroic age of discovery.” Undertaken as the first World War was just beginning to take shape, Shackleton set sail from England with a crew of 28 in 1914, and would not be heard from again for nearly two years. His ambition to be the first to cross the Antarctic on foot was cut short by only one day’s sail from the continent when his ship The Endurance was frozen in place in the surrounding ice. Thus began a journey of another sort. Stuck for 10 months in the frozen ice, Shackleton’s mission then evolved into keeping his crew’s morale afloat with diversionary daily routines. Eventually, the pressure of the ice began crushing the ship’s hull, and all 29 men abandoned ship with what supplies they could and became castaways for five months on moving ice floes, going only where the ice took them. When the ice became too thin and carried them out into open water, they abandoned the floes and took to their lifeboats, with which they finally found land, inhospitable though it was. From here, Shackleton undertook an 800-mile open-boat journey through hurricane and rough ocean to retrieve help. The story of the expedition is a legend in the modern maritime annals and surefire bestseller and “soon to be a major motion picture” material (a film role for which the documentary’s narrator Liam Neeson is said to be angling). What makes Butler’s documentary so compelling though is the power of its original images. Fortuitously, Shackleton financed much of his expedition by the advance sale of photo rights to investors. Australian cameraman Frank Hurley joined the mission and, amazingly, more than 100 of his photographs and extensive motion picture footage survived. Hurley dove into the icy water to rescue what he could from his sinking darkroom on the ship and then carried the footage from ice floe to lifeboat and beyond. The British Film Institute has recently restored this visual record and the images it provides of such things as the men passing the time with soccer matches, playing with their sled dogs, and attempting to rescue The Endurance are genuine treasures. Enhancing this “you are there” effect are the choice selections read from the men’s diaries. Director Butler is a consummate documentarian, having made Arnold Schwarzenegger’s breakthrough film Pumping Iron and the African game-hunting apologia In the Blood. The Endurance never devolves into the type of “man’s man” adventure story that has become so fashionable again over the last couple of years, but instead trusts the power of its unembellished images and words to tell its tale.
This article appears in November 16 • 2001.
