The Anthony Powell who made this documentary is not one of the famous artists by that name, not the great costume designer nor the author of the classic novels "Dance to the Music of Time". He's just another member of this generation's "me generation" followup, one of the millions of believers that the most trivial "human" story is intrinsically interesting. This pointless feature is not, it's just dull footage.As a kid living in Cleveland I enjoyed watching our local TV series Jim Doney's "Adventure Road", in which guests would narrate silent films they shot on world travels, just like the travelogue documentaries that still played as movies in film houses of the day. They provided an eye on the outside world, uneventful slices of life or distant places, pointless but handy time-killers.Powell tells us this took him 10 years to make and he fails to bring to the project an offbeat or even original point-of-view (what our greatest contemporary documentarist Werner Herzog always tries to do), just giving a banal slice of life of folks who choose to live out the long, dark winter of living on the Antarctic continent. No sense of adventure or even danger/dramatics intrudes on the calm, tedious progression of scenes. In common with fiction cinema there is a story credit, but no actual story.I have always felt that documentaries need to be taken off their pedestal and judged by the same (or at least roughly analogous) parameters as fiction features, since the illusion and pretense of objectivity is a myth. Whether fact or fiction the filmmaker puts his or her personal stamp on what the feature is trying to say, and most docs are scripted, either beforehand or in post-production. In the wake of the revolutionary Godfrey Reggio films like "Koyaanisqatsi", a philosophical bent has permeated many docs, but this one is frankly stupid - the final line during the film proper is by a young misogynist who compares the "square world" (that means us, in the audience) to cattle -not the Hitchcockian view of those necessary evils, his actors, but rather as the guy voices over "just moving from place to place". At this point, Powell ends the show not with a striking vista of the Antarctic continent's steely beauty, but rather another of many cornball time-lapse shots of a frenetic metropolis at night, the sort of image that typifies "Koyaanisqatsi". Yes, we poor humans are in a rut, scurrying around in a pointless existence. No more pointless than the self-shut-ins who revel in living out the endless night of Antarctic winter in lonely fashion, even complaining (as we see in the film underlined) when new folk arrive sporting dreaded sun tans yet, to invade their privacy and solitude.With such dull stuff to watch my mind wandered and I thought of a movie (fiction for now but someday documentary in nature) about life in an expatriate Earth colony on Mars or perhaps a moon of Jupiter, as presented by some earnest fellow like Powell. If it was a sci-fi entertainment there would be drama and an inevitable existential crisis threatening the colony with extinction, or even bug-eyed monsters attacking. But in "Antartica" nothing happens, and because it is cloaked in the form of a documentary it passes the low-low bar as quasi- entertainment or educational content. Even the most minimalist of fiction directors (think of Lonergan and the stupid "award-winning" Manchester by the Sea) would have trouble getting away with that.

A point off for giving so much screen time to the Asian-American woman who jabbers endlessly in her dumb New Age hippie manner. It's these kinds of over-emotional, childishly over-sentimental dreamers (read: fools) who are diluting the once-great Western civilizations. It's people like her (unsurprisingly women, far too often) who are making it increasingly difficult to vote into office politicians with common sense (read: non-Marxists), and who – with their boundless naivety - are making it increasingly easy for Islamic terrorists to have their way. Listening to this woman's hormonal, bird-brained, idealistic drivel reminds me for the umpteenth time why I am right-wing hence a Martian on this goofy little planet.But I digress. AAYOI isn't about her, though one might assume she co-produced the damn thing, seeing as how her opinion is shoved down the viewer's throat on just about every topic the film touches. Every five minutes her mouth opens and puke comes gushing out. I certainly hope she doesn't represent the majority working at those South Pole stations. If those adventurer communes down there are made up of wide-eyed mindless hippies, count me out: visiting Antarctica would be a great experience, but could we right-wingers have our own base, just for ourselves? These touchy-feely soft-heads would be too much to have to deal with – especially during the long winters when it'd be literally impossible to get away from these knuckleheads (save for seeking refuge inside the mouth of a walrus). Fortunately, most of the other interviewees don't appear to be lobotomized hippies.What was Powell thinking, giving this airhead so much jabber-time? Powell is obviously a top-notch pro when it comes to filming landscapes, but as a person he is very average in every way. He reminds me of a chartered accountant: dull and unexceptional. He makes an "observation" that cold is a relative thing when you live in the Antarctica – as if the "discovery"/realization that everything is relative is some kind of new insight, some philosophical breakthrough that needed to be shared with the viewers. Perhaps that's why he found the airhead American woman so fascinating, interesting enough to give her the most screen time of all the people he interviewed. I'd much rather listen to experiences from level-headed, down-to-Earth humans than deranged cloud-9 peaceniks. When I want fantasy bubbles I watch "Star Wars", not neo-hippies.The scenery is terrific, as was to be expected, but the film offers more: there are many little things - related to the weather for example – which provide some of the highlights. The way snow fills up "sealed up" rooms is one of them. The way a hot drink evaporates in a millisecond when exposed to freezing temperatures is another. It's little details such as these that make the film better than "just" a collection of beautiful images, which in itself would have been sufficient.Nevertheless, there is one "fact" Powell got wrong, and that's penguin intelligence. There is a (admittedly hilarious) caption I have an issue with: "Penguin intelligence: similar to chickens". Anyone with half a pigeon-brain must have the intellectual faculties to notice the self-apparent difference in intelligence levels between a chicken and a penguin. It's especially amazing to get this kind of misinformation from a guy who has spent countless hours staring at penguins from up close. Or is the real problem here that he is suffering from Antarctic Alzheimer's (briefly mentioned in the documentary) hence can't really remember anymore what chickens are like? Come on, penguins are smarter than that. Certainly they're a lot smarter than that hippie woman - who (I believe) is smarter than a farm chicken.Less anti-penguinism and less hippie woman, and this would be even better.

Several years ago I watched Werner Herzog's documentary "Encounters at the End of the World", and I know that I would be interested in this movie.It's hard to say this movie is better. They are both similar, but the photographer in "Antarctica: A Year on Ice" had the time to think and explore and set up shots that are just out of this world. I feel like I had the wonderful experience of living in Antarctica and for that I am thankful to this movie.I won't go on at length, because this is a movie that has to be experienced. I sadly notice that some people have rated this low and it is hard to believe. Were they forced to watch it? I can't figure out why other than they are just not ready in a place to experience this idea.This would be a little like going to another planet or living in a generation ship, isolated from humanity and yet maybe feeling your humanity so much the more.Great movie ... 10/10.

This film by Anthony Powell shows us what it is like to spend a year in Anarctica. The winters are killer! The temperature goes to -40 degrees and winds blow at 100 mph. The sun disappears for 4 months at McMurdo Station. This film is not about scientists. It is about the people who work at the base and keep it functional. We get inside their heads. There are folks who fell in love with the place and can't seem to get enough of it. There are others who wonder if they did the right thing by coming here. I actually found myself wanting to spend some time in Anarctica even while knowing it will never happen. The stars of the southern sky are compelling and, of course, everybody loves penguins!