Susan Granger: “THE ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON’S ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION”
Based on the best-seller by Caroline Alexander and narrated by Liam Neeson, this is a remarkable documentary about human survival on a mythic level. Director George Butler first chronicled Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated 1914 Antarctic expedition as a 40-minute IMAX adventure, replete with panoramic icescape views. Now he’s fleshed that out into a full-length feature-film, dramatizing the story of the glory-seeking, Irish-born explorer who wanted to be the first to traverse the Antarctic continent on foot since a Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, beat him to the South Pole. In 1914, Shackleton set sail from England on the H.M.S. Endurance, a three-masted, wooden vessel named after his family’s motto “Fortitudine Vincimus” or “By endurance, we conquer.” But before he could start his planned trek, the ship was trapped and crushed in the frozen Weddell Sea, leaving him, his 27-man crew, sled dogs and a cat stranded on Elephant Island. Bravely, Shackleton recklessly undertook a grueling 800-mile open-boat crossing through storm-swept seas to South Georgia Island, where he and his navigator had to climb across a glacial mountain range to reach help – but they returned to Elephant Island, where the remainder of the loyal crew was barely surviving on whale meat in bleak, sub-zero temperatures. Making three different trips, George Butler has traced the 22-month path of the Endurance and – in one of the most interesting segments – interviews descendants of the original crew. Most amazing is the black-and-white footage shot by Frank Hurley, the original expedition photographer, that is intercut. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition” is a valiant, exhilarating 9. It’s a tribute to a group of seafaring survivors!
