Memorergi good film but with many flaws

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

chaos-rampant Shackleton's third and last journey to the Pole in this documentary. We avoid talking heads and instead immerse ourselves in the arduous experience of traversing icy wastes. It has all the staples of polar exploits as have seeped into the popular imagination; valiant human endeavor, pitilessly harsh nature that cares none for our feeble attempts to cross it, scenes of increasing despair and privation, endured nonetheless with stoic composure. 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.

dean-27 This is, quite simply, the finest documentary I have ever seen. The story is one of the most amazing, and harrowing, tales of survival imaginable. In fact, it is beyond anything a novelist could conjure. It is filled with amazing, high quality archival stills and footage. The film is well edited. The hour and a half flies by, and you leave emotionally exhausted and exhilarated. Most highly recommended.

yrral-3 An exciting, amazing and deeply moving story of a heroic escape from an icy trap in Antarctica. In all, it takes Shackleton and his crew about two years to make it back to civilization. What they overcame to get there is beyond belief. This film should not be missed.

LoopyNZ I've given this movie 10/10. That's not like me. But WOW! I can't think of a thing wrong with the movie that justifies taking a point off.I was spellbound from the first ten minutes. I'd never heard anything about this expedition, and perhaps I would have enjoyed the movie a little less had I known all the details beforehand. But as it was, I was captivated by the slow, gently teasing unravelling of an amazing human story.I'm not particular fan of non-fiction, of incredible journeys, of exploration, of Antarctica, even of inspirational human triumph stories, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed watching this film.See this movie!