Shackleton's Captain

I saw this movie on TV in New Zealand. It is the most incredible story. I didn't really know anything about it and now I don't know why everyone in NZ isn't aware of this incredible Kiwi. This movie explains that while the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was a great leader, without Frank Worsley he may have been just another dead English explorer. I love to sail and I was in awe of what Worsley achieved. The journey on the lifeboat must be one of the great sailing journeys of all time. Anyone who is into yachting should see this film. Aside from anything else it is incredible to see what these men endure. Just inspiring that they could keep going. The movie itself is really great it mixes old footage, with interviews and scenes with actors. I was pulled into the story and by the end I was actually cold. I thought Craig Parker who played Frank Worsley was wonderful.

An outstanding docudrama which tells the true story of the Shackleton adventure from the perspective of Captain Worsley, the captain of Shackleton's ship "Endurance". The film gives us an accurate, rather than a popular sensationalist account, of the adventure in which Shackleton is revealed to be not as big a hero as he has been made out to be. Here we learn through a gripping portrayal of how the survival of the stranded adventurers depended on the skill and judgement of Captain Worsley, rather than Shackleton; and that Shackleton himself showed poor judgement in undertaking the expedition in the first place, given the pack-ice conditions. The filming combines contemporary footage and dramatised reconstructions with interviews of writers, mountaineers and other experts in the field. The narration is achieved through a dramatised portrayal of Captain Worsley giving a lecture to a small audience at a club in the 1920s, in the calm manner of an English gentleman. The information presented is accurate and great attention is given to the visual details using CGI in a subtle but highly effective way. The casting is spot on and the acting is excellent.

...you would never believe it. You would roll your eyes and complain about how ridiculous a story it was. Truly an unbelievable survival story. I've read about this Shackleton expedition before but this gives another angle on the story. Well worth watching.

I read about Shackleton's expedition many years ago. Having spent 30 years going to sea, and having experienced some pretty terrible conditions, I am still in awe of these individuals. Worsley's feats of navigation in getting the expedition to Elephant Island, as well as the subsequent voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia stand among the greatest achievements in the history of navigation. As if that weren't enough, the men followed that up by crossing the island of South Georgia on foot, something which no one had ever done before, with nothing but a length of rope and a carpenter's adze. I don't know how they made it, except that they simply knew that failure was not an option. Although the movie centers on Captain Frank Worsley, these were all truly iron men, of a sort whose like we shall never see again. For example, First Mate Frank Wilde deserves a tremendous amount of credit for keeping the shipwrecked survivors on Elephant Island alive for over four months, during which they had no idea whether rescue was ever going to come. And, of course, although the film plays down Shackleton's contributions in favor of Worsley's, it was Shackleton who was the supreme leader, "The Boss", who held everyone together throughout the entire ordeal.

This is one of the most incredible true stories you will ever see. If anyone ever wrote this story as a work of fiction, no publisher would ever accept it because they would consider it too far removed from realm of possibility. However, this all actually happened just the way it is depicted here. They even brought back the pictures to prove it, thanks to the expedition's photographer, Frank Hurley. This film will make Hollywood action-adventure movies seem tame by comparison.

I felt underwhelmed by this film even before I learned more about Frank Worsley. As another reviewer mentioned, the acting is weak. The actor playing Worsley looks nothing like him- the real Worsley was 5'7" and had brown eyes, not blue. The negativity in this film about Shackleton is odd. Shackleton was not a born navigator, but Worsley was not a born leader. Take either man out of the equation and there would have certainly been loss of life. It feels disingenuous to play up Shackleton's "failures" in a film about a man who loved and respected him, and was loved and respected by him.

The best film about the Endurance expedition is the 1933 "Endurance", featuring Frank Hurley's spectacular cinematography, and presented and narrated by Worsley himself. You can view the film for free on Tubi.

Frankly (pun intended), Worsley's connection with Shackleton is far from the only interesting thing about him. If you are interested in Worsley, read his books "First Voyage in a Square-Rigged Ship", "Endurance", and "Under Sail in the Frozen North". This way you can piece together his life, in his own words, from ages 0-53. He was a wonderful writer! His books are funny and heartfelt. To adequately cover Worsley's rich life and many adventures would require a miniseries. This docudrama just doesn't cut it.