If you don't understand the intention of the expedition nor the purpose of this documentary, then you may like both.If you don't know what Shackleton's purpose is for the expedition, then you can use this documentary as a sedative to help you fall asleep. Only at the beginning does the narrator's comment stand out about the purpose: to go where many men have gone before, most needlessly.The vast majority of the narration fails to clue you in why these men are risking their lives to travel thru a big chunks of ice to get to other big chunks of ice. Are they suicidal? Are they dumb? No. But you wont find out from this documentary.This documentary should be free on your local PBS station. But if you have as much to lose as the unexplained reason this documentary gives for the expedition's men risking their life, then by all means, save your money.If you want a good documentary about traveling over ice for no real purpose other than glory, try "Touching a Void". Until then, find the better version of Shackelton's Endurance expedition for free.

This is the most unbelievable TRUE story I have ever seen! Thank God I walked into it not knowing anything about Shackleton or the cataclysmic expedition he and his men endured for almost two years of their lives; I was mesmerized by the tale and STUNNED by the conclusion! Without a doubt, Sir Ernest Shackleton is one of the bravest, loyal, and awe-inspiring men I have ever heard of. This documentary does everything right in trying to tell his (and his crew's) story without sensationalizing or mythifying his character. Use of actual still and motion picture photography from the doomed expedition, letters from the crew, interviews and stories with grandchildren of the ship-men, new footage of the original Antarctic sites, and a beautifully written and delivered narration (by Liam Nieson) are blended together seemlessly to transport the viewer back in time, and into the terror that was the voyage of The Endurance. Although Kenneth Branagh's SHACKLETON (2002) was a good effort and a fine telling, it truly could not capture the real tension, anticipation, expectation and real-life drama in the way this documentary did throughout (I found Branagh's version often played on obvious audience manipulators, ie., heavy-handed dialogue, hammered musical scoring, camera indulgence, etc.). 9/10. ENDURANCE is the greatest example of TRUTH being stranger than fiction, and so much more compelling!

I'd seen the version on "Nova" a couple of years ago but viewing these images in the theater on the big screen was a much more powerful experience. There was irony aplenty in store when the name "Endurance" was chosen for the expedition ship. The ill-fated expedition turned into such a test of human endurance as to defy belief: had this been fiction, it would seem too incredible. But it actually happened. And much of the film uses original movie footage, as well as the surviving still photos, to document this terrifying and inspiring story.I came out of the theater convinced that there needs to be a term in our language that goes beyond "heroism." Shackleton and his men would all, in my opinion, qualify for its application.

Let me say first, that I think the story of the Shakleton expedition is a fascinating one. One so strange, that it has to be fact to be believed (no fiction would pass this test). Still, I must say that ENDURANCE stretches the definition of a "movie" a bit much. Basically, it's a big-budget double episode of NOVA. The filmmaking is rather perfunctory. Adding to my disappointment was the fact that although they went to the enormous logistical and financial difficulty of shooting new FILM footage at the South Pole - they now show the alleged "movie" in theaters as a film-to-tape-and-back-to-film transfer! Huh? If you are going to charge people $9 to see this in a cinema, couldn't they have at least done a direct FILM transfer?