2001. Originally filmed for the impressively massive IMAX screen, SHACKLETON'S ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE is a gorgeously made film tracking the explorer's legendary 1914 expedition to the icey, uninhabited continent. Using original still photos, trek photographer Rank Hurley's 35 mm film, and new recreations, the film reconstructs the harrowing exploration, in which the crew's ship was destroyed by ice and the men were forced to survive in the sub-freezing temperatures for almost 2 years.
To provide modern perspective on what Shackleton and his men accomplished, the film also highlights the experiences of three of the world's most-accomplished mountaineers, Reinhold Messner (Tyrol), Stephen Venables (England) and Conrad Anker (USA), who retraced the historic steps of Shackleton and his two crew members across glacier-clad South Georgia Island. 41 minutes, all region DVD.
From a Newspaper review:
'Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.'
Is anyone up for this?
This is the appealing recruitment notice explorer Ernest Shackleton is said to have posted to attract a crew for his British Imperial Trans-Arctic Expedition. Amazingly, 27 intrepid types, having seen some glimmer of future satisfaction in the advert, went forth with Shackleton, himself already a celebrated polar explorer.
The story of their treacherous ocean voyage and, for some of the crew, eventual trek over uncharted glaciers to find rescue, is one of the greatest survival stories and is the focus of the new Imax film, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure. The film opens at the Gateway complex this Friday.
The large-format film, narrated by Kevin Spacey, tells the true story of Shackleton's ill-fated 1914-1916 British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
Although the expedition never accomplished its goal - to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent - the journey has become an extraordinary testament to heroism and human endurance. Despite harsh conditions, all 28 men survived two years in the barren, frigid Antarctic.
Icy conditions were unusually harsh when the wooden ship, the Endurance, set forth in December, 1914 and the ship eventually became trapped in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea.
For 10 months, the Endurance drifted, locked within the ice, until the pressure crushed the vessel. With meagre food, clothing and shelter, Shackleton and his men were stranded on ice floes for five months, until the floe on which they were living drifted into open water.
The men then sailed three small lifeboats they had salvaged to the bleak Elephant Island. They were on land for the first time in 497 days, but the island was uninhabited.
Shackleton and five others immediately set out to take the crew's rescue into their own hands. In a 7-metre lifeboat they accomplished the impossible, sailing 1 280 kilometres through the world's worst seas to South Georgia Island to a whaling station. The feat is considered one of the greatest open boat journeys of all time.
The six men landed on an uninhabited part of the island, however, so their last challenge was to cross 1 040kms of uncharted mountains and glaciers, considered impassable, to reach the whaling station on the other side.
Starved, frostbitten and wearing rags, Shackleton and two others made the trek and, in August 1916, 22 months after the initial departure of the Endurance, Shackleton himself returned to rescue the men on Elephant Island. Everyone survived.
Beyond the super-sized, crystal-clear, 'you-are-there' images for which giant-screen films are best known, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure features the remarkable original still photography and 35mm motion-picture footage of Frank Hurley, the official photographer for the expedition. Hurley, known as a man who would go to any length to get a shot, documented the ordeal. These pictures provide viewers with an intimate look at the experiences of these 28 men as they struggled to survive.
To provide modern perspective on what Shackleton and his men accomplished, the film also highlights the experiences of three of the world's most-accomplished mountaineers, Reinhold Messner (Tyrol), Stephen Venables (England) and Conrad Anker (USA), who retraced the historic steps of Shackleton and his two crew members across glacier-clad South Georgia Island.
