South: Ernerst Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition [Blu-ray]

Frank Hurley

Overview

In August of 1914, dogged Australian photographer Frank Hurley joined Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated Trans-Antarctic expedition. Shackleton had hoped to make an historic first crossing of the icy continent while recording valuable scientific data, but when the men reached the bottom of the world, things didn't go exactly according to plan. The ship Endurance, which had been slated to explore the treacherous coastline after ferrying Shackleton and company to the Weddell Sea, became frozen in place between two gigantic ice floes. This silent film, first released in 1919 and then restored in 2000, is the stunning photographic record of the long months these men spent fighting for survival -- learning to ski, hunting seals and penguins, and warding off madness and despair. Hurley filmed everything, right up to the moment when their beloved ship disappeared beneath the ice -- he even photographed wildlife on the island of South Georgia, where the explorers were eventually taken to recover from their ordeal. This is a moving, artistic portrait of true adventure and human courage that brings you as close to the action as the men who lived it. ~ Sarah Welsh

Product Details

Release Date:	09/20/2022
UPC:	0738329260095
Original Release:	1919
Rating:	NR
Source:	Milestone Video
Language:	English
Time:	1:21:00
Sales rank:	26,441

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Technical Credits

Frank Hurley

Director

Editorial Reviews

"Like an imprisoned bird she lies in the hands of her ruthless captor," reads one of the title cards in this stunning, meticulously restored silent-era documentary. These words describe the fate of the ship that carried Sir Ernest Shackleton on his heroic expedition to the South Pole in 1914. Trapped for nine months on the Antarctic ice, the ship finally broke apart and sank, forcing Shackleton and his fellow explorers to sail in an open boat to a remote island 850 miles away. Filmmaker and crew member Frank Hurley documented the harrowing voyage, capturing on glistening nitrate film the brutal beauty of the frozen, uncharted wilderness. Hurley's primitive cinematography imbues the delicately tinted images with a dreamlike quality: the ship's masts rising out of fields of ice and snow, its frost-covered riggings illuminated against a night sky; giant icebergs looming like mountains. Delightful footage of sled dogs, penguins, and other native wildlife injects lighthearted moments into this true-life tale of men struggling courageously for survival in one of the most inhospitable spots on earth.

Barnes & Noble - Kryssa Schemmerling