The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

Explorer Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated 1914 attempt to traverse the Antarctic continent by foot has gotten a great deal of cinematic attention of late, from a recent IMAX presentation to an A&E miniseries starring Kenneth Branagh, with rumors of a big-screen dramatization in the pipeline. George Butler's 2000 feature-length documentary (co-produced by WGBH, NOVA, Discovery Channel, and others, but not to be confused with WGBH Boston Video's Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance [VL-9/02]) is a fairly conventional treatment that employs archival footage and stills, interviews with descendents of expedition members, and narration by Liam Neeson, to tell the story of how the 27 men survived when their ship, the aptly-named Endurance, became trapped in the ice. A gripping account of courage and persistence in the face of looming disaster, The Endurance does the story justice, making especially good use of the shots taken by the team's photographer, Frank Hurley--are pictures of extraordinary vividness and beauty. Though the filmmakers err in revealing the outcome of the venture early on and treat the historical context somewhat too expansively, this is a solid, intelligent rendering, overall, of a tale that remains fascinating however often it's told. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director George Butler, an isolated score viewing option, and four featurettes: “The Tale of the Endurance” (16 min.) with author Caroline Alexander, the 17-minute making-of  “In the Wake of Shackleton,” the 12-minute “Iconic Images” featuring an interview with expedition photographer Frank Hurley's twin daughters, and a 10-minute “Past and Present” featurette in which descendents of the Shackleton crew members attend the Shackleton exhibit at NYC's American Museum of Natural History. Bottom line: a nice extras package for a solid documentary.] (F. Swietek)