White Thunder

While Varick Frissell's story may not be quite as intensely compelling as that of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated arctic adventure, Newfoundland documentary filmmaker Victoria King's White Thunder reveals a fascinating and little-known chapter from the pioneering days of explorational filmmaking. A young, vibrant talent from a privileged Manhattan family, Frissell was a Yale-educated film buff with an insatiable case of wanderlust, which ultimately led him to film what would come to be known, in truncated form, as The Viking, a rousing real-life adventure about the lives of Newfoundland seal hunters. But the film was never completed: Frissell perished along with 26 others in the North Atlantic 1931, when an accidental explosion turned Frissell's filmmaking adventure into one of Hollywood's worst disasters. Combining Frissell's astonishing footage (including the utterly awesome image of sealers strolling across a rolling ocean of ice floes) and present-day location shooting, White Thunder (the original title of Frissell's film) pays noble tribute to the man and his work, ultimately suggesting that Frissell's talent would have taken him to the heights of Hollywood. The impressive DVD extras include three of Frissell's films in their entirety, outtakes from The Viking, and a photo gallery. As a stirring document of a bygone era of dangerously daring filmmaking, this is enthusiastically recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Shannon)