Alone on the Ice; South: Shackleton & the Endurance

If you still harbor any doubts about the strength of the true-life adventure craze (Into Thin Air, The Perfect Storm) consider the current mass market paperback popularity of Sir Ernest Shackleton's South: The Endurance Expedition, originally published in 1919! The story of Shackleton's heroic 1914 expeditionary bid for the South Pole is also the subject of Caroline Alexander's recent coffee table bestseller The Endurance, as well as a (projected) upcoming Hollywood feature, an IMAX film, and a NOVA documentary. After six years of restoration, tinting, toning, and a new orchestral score, the appearance of the 1919 documentary South: Shackleton & the Endurance couldn't have been better timed. Story-wise, it's a beaut: after becoming trapped in the arctic ice, the Endurance sits (along with Shackleton and his 28 man crew) for nine months. Pounded by the ice, the ship finally sinks, forcing Shackleton and his men to continue their harrowing journey drifting on ice floes for five months. Reaching Elephant Island, Shackleton and five men sail 800 miles to South Georgia and then return to make four heroic attempts (the last successful) to retrieve the remaining 22 men. Sound like a white-knuckle nail-biter? Unfortunately, many of the dramatic events occur off-camera, the Endurance bow-cam is allowed to run unchecked for minutes (i.e., we see a ship plowing through ice for long, long stretches) and the scene-setting title cards seem to be written for phonics-learners (they stayed onscreen so long, I could only imagine that the original audience sounded out the words). Still, this is original source material, affordably priced, on a wildly popular subject, so you may want to strongly consider adding it to your collection. Aud: H, C, P.Alone on the Ice, on the other hand, the story of Admiral Richard E. Byrd, combines excellent archival footage with contemporary storytelling techniques and strong narration by Donald Sutherland to create a stirring psychological portrait of the noted early 20th century explorer. In 1926, seven years after the release of Shackleton's story South, Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett would barely beat Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and Umberto Nobile to reserve a place in history as the first men to fly over the North Pole. Or were they? Although many reference works still credit Byrd with this feat, most scholars now agree that Byrd and Bennett--plagued by an oil leak--turned back some 150 miles from the Pole. With his career launched on a prefabrication, Richard Byrd turned his attention south, to Antarctica, where he would not only become the undisputed first man to fly over the South Pole on Nov. 29, 1929, but also help set up a scientific observation post known as "Little America." Mounting a second Antarctic expedition in 1933, Byrd would decide to attempt a dangerous feat: spending a winter alone at a weather hut over 120 miles from Little America. Although he stayed an unbelievable five months alone on the ice in darkness, enduring incredible cold, hunger and carbon monoxide poisoning that nearly killed him, before being rescued by his men, Byrd felt he had failed. A compelling character study, this absorbing entry in the superb The American Experience series is definitely recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)