Shackleton's third and last journey to the Pole in this documentary. We avoid talking heads and instead immerse ourselves in the arduous experience of traversing icy wastes. It has all the staples of polar exploits as have seeped into the popular imagination; valiant human endeavor, pitilessly harsh nature that cares none for our feeble attempts to cross it, scenes of increasing despair and privation, endured nonetheless with stoic composure. They were the moon landings of their time. Crews setting out with lofty aims of expanding the map of human knowledge, broadening horizons. What captivated audiences back home was either more prosaic or more poetic; will they make it alive, human bravery in an alien cosmos, the attending mystery of venturing in uncharted territory. One part of the film comprises actual footage of the expedition shot by a cameraman who was among the crew, really exciting (silent film) footage of the ship being crunched by the ice, desperately futile attempts to haul it out, playing with their trusted dogs, their makeshift camps as they have to go out on foot. The second part shows modern enactments, presumably captures views like they would have stumbled through, whether or not the very same locales. It's actually South Georgia later. But how different the visual regions when charged with knowledge that we're actually seeing into things as they happened. I remember being enthralled as a kid by a book on polar misadventures. It was about an earlier expedition - the Discovery - but very much the same grimly claustrophobic experience. (What I couldn't know as a kid was that so much of my book's power came from the notion that these were things that actually happened.) It was the kind of story that makes you freeze simply to read, glad for home.I have a quite different response these days than simply being aghast at what a cold universe it is out there.See, these people ventured full of dreams. They were broken just as they were starting, shipwrecked in the early stages. Can you imagine the kind of disappointment that shakes you to your core? To know your dreams are quashed, your expedition is a complete failure. The same tortuous effort you expected to muster in the course of making history will now have to be spent just making it back alive. So, you expected life to go one way, it went another. What now? Now dust yourself off and come back to us with a story of making a full return from the edge.

I really do enjoy adventures and real stories of survival, and this wasn't a bad movie, but let's bring this one back to reality. Most of the reviews here are obviously on the Shackleton band wagon. I think for obvious reasons because no one else but the enthusiasts have even heard of the movie or the book.Let's start with the movie. It was a bit slow even for a documentary. However, my biggest complaint is the fact that I didn't even know there were deaths on the supply side of his expedition until I read it here on IMDb, and I watched the movie twice, because my wife had fallen asleep during it the first time. Isn't it relevant to the movie? I think the story on the other side the expedition is interesting as well. Why wasn't it told? Perhaps a little bit of Shackleton hype maybe? However, I must say the movie had absolutely stunning photography and does a good job of helping us to live the tail.Now let's go after Shackleton. His expedition failed so miserably that I can't imagine how he is deemed a great leader. Yes, everyone survived his part of the expedition but only after complete failure of their objective. What were his back up plans for getting stuck in the ice? He had none. The real genius of the expedition seems to have been the "mutenous" carpenter. Maybe if Shackleton had listened to him and built a boat out of the remains of the Endurance they would have been home sooner and in better shape. This same carpenter saved them again by upgrading their life boat so that it could survive the South Atlantic from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island. Yet, even after the expedition was over he continued to punish the Carpenter for his disloyalty. Shackleton seems to be a stereotypical know it all that does not know how to listen.Let's also pick on the mission. It was an egotistical crusade for nothing. What a waste of time and money. The South Pole had already been discovered. Even if he succeeded he basically accomplished nothing for the world, only for his own ego.Great leader? I think not.

Endurance, the Shackleton expedition is more compelling depending on how the viewer views the material. I stayed awake throughout (the candy and soda helped, but still), but that might not be the case for the entire audience. The tale tells of Ernest Shackleton (is that his name), an expeditioner who took a crew of men on an expedition to search more of the Antarctic continent. This turned out to be not the case, however, as they had to endure the loss of their endurance ship, a number of crew members, and most of the morale that came with them in the beginning, but they still had to pull through, to survive to get back home. Compelling from a view it more or less stays on that track with some interesting and poignant interviews with historians and relatives of the crew on the voyage. It does get a tad boring in parts though; Liam Neeson provides narration. B

I saw this film in the fall of 2000, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at the Telluride by the Sea Festival. It was amazingly beautiful. The director fused modern cinematography of the antarctic with old moving pictures taken by the expeditions photographer. The landscape hasn't changed a bit.This was a stunning piece of work. It would be easy to let the story speak for itself, the survival of all crew members for over a year in inconceivable surroundings. But, these film makers didn't just tell the amazing story, they brought it back to life. Most stories of this ilk are old legend. They are being told by historians and great great grandchildren. This story is laid out before our eyes, in movies shot at the site. It didn't happen all that long ago. 1914, or thereabouts. Their children are alive to tell their tale. It makes you realize that we have come as far as we have come in a very short span of time. All of our technological advances are still very new. Perhaps this would not happen to a crew in the age of cell phones, world wide web, helicopters, survival suites, satellites, etc. But it happened in our century. The century of advancement.