South (1919)

When Frank Hurley loaded his cameras onto the Endurance in August 1914, ready to set sail with Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic expedition, he had no idea of what he would end up filming. This silent movie, released in 1919, contains Hurley's record of the expedition, and of what happened when the ship became stuck in the ice, leaving the explorers with little hope of rescue. Of course, we know that they were eventually saved, almost two years after setting sail, thanks to an astonishing 800-mile voyage by Shackleton and a handful of men in a tiny boat, but this film shows the resilience of…

CinemaSerf

7.0

Jun 6, 2022

Using some originally shot footage from the expedition that started just as Europe went to war in 1914, this tells a fascinating story of human endeavour in the face of just about everything hostile that nature has in it's armoury. We see elements of their preparation, their voyage and of the treacherousness of their new environment as their ship struggles to make headway through the ever thickening ice - before ultimately ending up as glorified kindling! Unfortunately, though not unsurprisingly, there are no images as the majority of the crew are left on Elephant Island whilst Sir Ernest Shac…