La tenda rossa

The Red Tent chronicles the series of polar disasters beginning with the crash of the dirigible piloted by Italian General Umberto Nobile trying to make a historic air crossing of the North Pole. Nobile is played by Peter Finch in this epic film that unfortunately due to a bad publicity campaign and an indifference to the subject by western audiences made this historic Russian-Italian jointly produced film a financial disaster.

That's a pity because photographically it's one of the finest things ever put on celluloid stock. There are some absolutely breathtaking shots of the frozen tundra and the performances of the actors battling the elements are first rate. Maybe a straight narrative might have been better instead of having the aged Nobile confronting some angry spirits of the past. Nobile was still alive when this film came out, he would die in 1978 still a figure of controversy. The dream with the angry spirits is a device frankly ripped off from George Bernard Shaw's St. Joan.

Maybe the film could be best compared to William Wellman's Island in the Sky that starred John Wayne. The fictional characters there are mostly rescued and held together by Duke's leadership. Of course some thirty years advance in aviation and no political interference helped Wayne's men. And Island in the Sky is a work of fiction.

Maybe it wouldn't be so if men of science could simply be men of science without answering to competing ideologies. Nobile and his men got caught up in the politics of the time. Politics claimed a lot of their lives and the lives of Roald Amundsen and party who vanished in a rescue attempt.

Nobile also made some bad choices and had some bad choices forced on him by Mussolini's fascist government. He was also a man out of his element, he was great aviation pioneer, but not a polar explorer. He paid with his reputation, some of his party paid with their lives.

Sean Connery has a small role as Roald Amundsen and I wish we had more of him here. Finch has a very effective scene with Claudia Cardinale the widow of one of his men where she takes him to task. Hardy Kruger does a fine job as the aviator presenting Finch with a very disagreeable choice.

I'd recommend seeing it, but only on the big screen. Or definitely in a letter box version. The formatted VHS I have definitely hampers the spectacle.