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THE ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON'S LEGENDARY ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION Send This Review to a Friend
Here's a chance to live an adventurous life vicariously. In 1914 British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set out from England on a risky expedition to Antartica aboard the ship Endurance, a three-masted wooden sailing vessel specially built to cope with the ice that could be expected. He had recruited the crew from among his colleagues and from a newspaper advertisement stressing the dangers, a sure lure to those longing for risk, and promise of glory if the men ever made it back safely.
Producer-director George Butler has made a thrilling documentary recounting the voyage that ended in failure of the primary goal, but succeeded in Shackleton's second aim to rescue those stranded and see that all hands survived. Butler, whose film "Pumping Iron" launched bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger toward stardom, has an eye for the unusual.
Here, basing the film on the book by Caroline Alexander, he combines photographic footage from the expedition itself with recollections of relatives of those who took part. He adds insight with his own expedition tracing the path of those who made the journey in much more primitive conditions. Sandi Sissel, the director of photography, has come up with enthralling images of Antartica and the story itself is dramatically recounted in the narration written by Alexander and Joseph Dorman and beautifully delivered by Liam Neeson, whose voice is a pleasure to hear. The footage from the expedition that survives (some was lost when the ship broke up) includes splendid scenic shots and scenes with the sled dogs taken along and later destroyed when part of the crew had to be left behind as others set out to organize a rescue. We get a sense of being there.
For one whose most adventurous trip has been a photo safari to Kenya with mostly luxury accommodations, watching "The Endurance" comes across as a stimulating, educational and entertaining experience that makes a person wonder what possesses men who will risk their lives to take such a perilous journey under terribly taxing conditions. Butler has captured the spirit of it all, and he has also set it against the background of the time (World War I) and what happened to the explorers upon their return. A White Mountain Films, LLC release.
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