Shackleton (2002) (TV)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Charles Sturridge

Writer:

Charles Sturridge (writer)

Release Date:

7 April 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography | Drama

Tagline:

On the brink of death - courage was his only weapon.

Plot:

The true story of Shackleton's 1914 Endurance expedition to the the South Pole and his epic struggle to lead his 28 man crew to safety after his ship was crushed in the pack ice. |

Plot Keywords:

Endurance | South Pole | Ice | Frostbite | Mistress

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 6 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Kenneth Branagh	...	Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
John Grillo	...	Franks
Paul Humpoletz	...	Man in Audience (as Paul Humpeletz)
Phoebe Nicholls	...	Emily Shackleton
Eve Best	...	Eleanor Shackleton
Mark Tandy	...	Frank Shackleton
Cicely Delaney	...	Cecily Shackleton
Christian Young	...	Raymond Shackleton
Embeth Davidtz	...	Rosalind Chetwynd
Gino Melvazzi	...	Head Waiter
Danny Webb	...	Perris
Lorcan Cranitch	...	Frank Wild
Michael Culkin	...	Jack Morgan
Mark McGann	...	Tom Crean
Abby Ford	...	Marcie

Runtime:

206 min (2 parts)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Norwegian | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:Approved | Spain:T | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | UK:PG (part 1) | UK:15 (part 2)

Filming Locations:

Greenland

Company:

A&E Television Networks

Trivia:

The port of Hafnarfjörur in Iceland doubled for the port of Buenos Aires. The Icelandic scenery was later replaced digitally with an Argentinean one.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the men start hauling their boats over the ice, we see the name "J. Caird" clearly painted on one of them. A few minutes later Shackleton announces he has decided to name the boats and unveils the painted names for the first time.

Quotes:

Sir Ernest Shackleton: Chippie... I suppose there's no way we could make the Caird more seaworthy without wood?
Henry McNish: Who says we don't have wood? What do you want to do?
Sir Ernest Shackleton: Make her unsinkable.
Henry McNish: Cover her over, you mean? Like a deck?
Sir Ernest Shackleton: Yes... but I suppose that's impossible.
Henry McNish: Who's the carpenter around here, you or me?

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (2002) (TV)

Ripping yarn from a cold and lovely land

I've not visited Antarctica, but I'm told by those who have that its austere beauty grows on you; far from being a frozen hell, it is a land where one can get closer to oneself and the meaning of things. This film uses Greenland for location shooting and is a dramatised version of Shackleton's 1914-16 expedition which started out as an attempt to cross the continent from the Weddel Sea to the Ross Sea, but, after the expedition vessel `Endurance' was first trapped and then crushed in the Weddel Sea ice pack, Shackleton and his party of 28 men, their dogs and one cat, were caught in a grim struggle for survival.

The first 100 minutes is concerned with the origins of the expedition, and Shackleton's efforts to raise support and prepare for it. The son of an Irish country doctor, he served in the Merchant Navy, but by 1914 he was a very experienced polar explorer, having been on two major earlier expeditions; he was in fact the Englishman who had been closest to the South Pole and survived. Although the first half drags at times, Kenneth Branagh's full-on performance as Shackleton gives us a clear picture of the sort of man he is, ambitious, hard-driving, single-minded, yet one who genuinely cares for the men under his command. He is even aware of the effect his exploration obsession is having on his family life (not to mention his relationship with his mistress), but he plows on regardless.

In the second half we are stuck on the polar pack ice, and the story turns into a conventional ripping yarn, but it is told with economy and a certain amount of humour. It is clear that, apart from luck, Shackleton and his men (the animals, alas, did not make it) owed their survival to Shackleton's good judgment and the fact that he was able to get all of them to rise to the occasion. He might have been slightly mad to get into such a fix to begin with, but he had no wish to suffer the fate of his colleague Captain Scott.

Branagh dominates the film of course, but his crew, mostly made up of little-known actors, come through as characters in their own right. Several stand out; Ken Drury as McNiesh, the feisty ship's carpenter, Kevin McNally as Worsley the lugubrious skipper, Celyn Jones as the Welsh stowaway Blackborow, and Nicholas Rowe as Colonel, the expedition odd-man-out. It is melancholy to recall, that several of the crew survived the Antarctic only to die in the trenches in France. Matt Day as the Australian photographer Frank Hurley, who produced some unforgettable images of the trip, also puts in a strong performance. The characters at home seem bloodless by comparison, with the exception of Phoebe Nicholl's determined Lady Shackleton. One wonders how Lord Curzon, that very superior person, who presided over the very tight-fisted Royal Geographical Society (nicely played by Corin Redgrave) would have got by on the expedition.

In 1922 Shackleton went back once more to the Antarctic but died of a heart attack at the whaling station on South Georgia before he was able to set off for the ice. He was only 48. Clearly, the attraction was more than fame and fortune – he was in love with the place. Since then the whalers have gone and Antarctic is now the preserve of scientists and a small but growing number of tourists. Latter-day Shackletons have no great geographical questions to solve but still persist on doing things like trying to ski across the continent. I think I'll settle for the tourist ship myself, but it's vaguely comforting to know there are still such people around.