South (1919)

Truly Dreadful Film

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Sadly Over-hyped

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A truly amazing film, and at least one good thing to come as a result of British self-importance. Film was still in its early years; leave it to the Brits to capitalize on it to record their abortive undertaking at the south pole. Still it is an admirable effort, and the photography is often startling, especially since the Milestone release. Thanks to the previous commentor for the bibliography, as I too had to wonder what became of the sled dogs, who seemed at least as dedicated as their human counterparts.

This film is a documentary of the Shackleton Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914. Shackleton's ship was trapped in pack ice and later destroyed, leading to a two-year struggle for survival on the frozen seas. The film is a mixture of live-action movies and still photos from the expedition. It is as much a nature documentary as a record of the voyage, with the latter portion especially paying more attention to the Antarctic wildlife than the struggles of the explorers. It is also incomplete, skipping some important parts of the story, like the fate of the expedition's dogs. Those who want to learn about the voyage might be better served reading Alfred Lansing's "Endurance", or Shackleton's memoir, both of which are still in print. Still, "South" is an interesting video record of the early days of polar exploration.

Anyone familiar with the incredible true story of Shackelton and his entire crews survival against seemingly impossible odds when their ship Endurance became trapped in Antartic ice will appreciate this documentary.The quality of the pictures is outstanding for the time. Frank Hurley the expedition's offical photographer did an amazing job.The first 2/3rds of the film is most interesting. As conditions worsened its clear that Hurley could not take so many photographs (he was confined to a pocket camera in the later stages).The later part decends into a nature documentary of South Georgia. I would have preferred to see more pictures of the whaling station where Shackelton and two companions made contact with civilization after more than 2 years of struggle.A fitting memorial to this century's most inspiring survival epic.

This is a slice of history. The documentation of the expedition that didn't work out and turned into a adventurous flight for survival. Unfortunately, and of course naturally, the real story, the trek to Elephant Isle and then to South Georgia, the pinnacle of the whole event, was not on film. But again, this is were film becomes a 'time-machine'.