In December, 1914, the Endurance encountered ice packs before reaching 60º South - 400 miles north of Antarctica; an omen. The plan was to land at Vahsel Bay, which had never been done.In December, 1914, the Endurance encountered ice packs before reaching 60º South - 400 miles north of Antarctica; an omen. The plan was to land at Vahsel Bay, which had never been done.In December, 1914, the Endurance encountered ice packs before reaching 60º South - 400 miles north of Antarctica; an omen. The plan was to land at Vahsel Bay, which had never been done.
- Nominated for 2 BAFTA Awards
- 8 wins & 8 nominations total
- Self - Narrator
- (voice)
- Hubert Hudson
- (voice)
- Alexander Macklin
- (voice)
- …
- Frank Wild
- (voice)
- (as Brian Darcy James)
- Frank Hurley
- (voice)
- Walter How
- (voice)
Featured reviews
Without a doubt, Sir Ernest Shackleton is one of the bravest, loyal, and awe-inspiring men I have ever heard of. This documentary does everything right in trying to tell his (and his crew's) story without sensationalizing or mythifying his character. Use of actual still and motion picture photography from the doomed expedition, letters from the crew, interviews and stories with grandchildren of the ship-men, new footage of the original Antarctic sites, and a beautifully written and delivered narration (by Liam Nieson) are blended together seemlessly to transport the viewer back in time, and into the terror that was the voyage of The Endurance.
Although Kenneth Branagh's SHACKLETON (2002) was a good effort and a fine telling, it truly could not capture the real tension, anticipation, expectation and real-life drama in the way this documentary did throughout (I found Branagh's version often played on obvious audience manipulators, ie., heavy-handed dialogue, hammered musical scoring, camera indulgence, etc.).
9/10. ENDURANCE is the greatest example of TRUTH being stranger than fiction, and so much more compelling!
They were the moon landings of their time. Crews setting out with lofty aims of expanding the map of human knowledge, broadening horizons. What captivated audiences back home was either more prosaic or more poetic; will they make it alive, human bravery in an alien cosmos, the attending mystery of venturing in uncharted territory.
One part of the film comprises actual footage of the expedition shot by a cameraman who was among the crew, really exciting (silent film) footage of the ship being crunched by the ice, desperately futile attempts to haul it out, playing with their trusted dogs, their makeshift camps as they have to go out on foot. The second part shows modern enactments, presumably captures views like they would have stumbled through, whether or not the very same locales. It's actually South Georgia later. But how different the visual regions when charged with knowledge that we're actually seeing into things as they happened.
I remember being enthralled as a kid by a book on polar misadventures. It was about an earlier expedition - the Discovery - but very much the same grimly claustrophobic experience. (What I couldn't know as a kid was that so much of my book's power came from the notion that these were things that actually happened.) It was the kind of story that makes you freeze simply to read, glad for home.
I have a quite different response these days than simply being aghast at what a cold universe it is out there.
See, these people ventured full of dreams. They were broken just as they were starting, shipwrecked in the early stages. Can you imagine the kind of disappointment that shakes you to your core? To know your dreams are quashed, your expedition is a complete failure. The same tortuous effort you expected to muster in the course of making history will now have to be spent just making it back alive.
So, you expected life to go one way, it went another. What now? Now dust yourself off and come back to us with a story of making a full return from the edge.
Did you know
- Quotes
Himself - Narrator: Optimism was at the very core of Ernest Shackleton's personality. Known to all as the "boss", he was a born leader who was from his youth driven by the romantic quest for adventure.
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,453,083
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $18,931
- Oct 7, 2001
- Gross worldwide
- $2,453,083
- Runtime
- 1h 37m(97 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1