This mini series was made from the excellent book by Roland Hundford and is faithful to the meticulously researched history in that book. What the movie brings in addition is the palpable sense of being in Antarctica. It brings to life the driving ambitions of the men; the risks they took and the ruthlessness they displayed.
The story is well known: Raold Amundsen, the great Norwegian explorer (what else to call him-he had no other life; from an early age he hungered to be first in a world that was shrinking and would soon have no blank place s in the map) and Robert Scott, the British Naval officer who hungered for glory and would take it wherever he could: a failed Naval career meant he would have to make his mark elsewhere and he decide (or stumbled) into Polar exploration.
In one of the supreme ironies of history, a place that had lain inviolate through all of human history, the South Pole, was the subject of a race in 1910.
The story is told magnificently with scenes of the preparations and the planning; the personalities of the men (and one woman, Katherine Scott, Scotts wife), the scheming and fundraising and bureaucracy. But the story really comes into its own when the men arrive in the Antarctic. There the vastly better prepared and meticulously planned Norwegian party is triumphant and the criminal incompetence of Scott and his shoddy planning and inability to learn doom himself and his men to death.
I have been in Antarctica: I am a scientist who has worked there many many times and I have watched every movie and documentary there is on the continent.
This is by far the best. The cast is superb and the acting is consistently excellent. The production values are first rate: the film was shot in Canada for the outdoor scenes. Martin Shaw as Scott shows the full charm of the man in society and his weakness when confronted with problems. And Sverre Ousdal as Amundsen brings to life the tragic loneliness of the man and his driving ambition and ruthlessness. And as a bonus we have Max Von Sydow as Nansen (another legendary Norwegian explorer and scientist) an Hugh Grant as the very young Cherry Apsley-Gerard (who the wrote the magnificent book Worst Journey in the World about his experiences during that expedition)
The story is well known: Raold Amundsen, the great Norwegian explorer (what else to call him-he had no other life; from an early age he hungered to be first in a world that was shrinking and would soon have no blank place s in the map) and Robert Scott, the British Naval officer who hungered for glory and would take it wherever he could: a failed Naval career meant he would have to make his mark elsewhere and he decide (or stumbled) into Polar exploration.
In one of the supreme ironies of history, a place that had lain inviolate through all of human history, the South Pole, was the subject of a race in 1910.
The story is told magnificently with scenes of the preparations and the planning; the personalities of the men (and one woman, Katherine Scott, Scotts wife), the scheming and fundraising and bureaucracy. But the story really comes into its own when the men arrive in the Antarctic. There the vastly better prepared and meticulously planned Norwegian party is triumphant and the criminal incompetence of Scott and his shoddy planning and inability to learn doom himself and his men to death.
I have been in Antarctica: I am a scientist who has worked there many many times and I have watched every movie and documentary there is on the continent.
This is by far the best. The cast is superb and the acting is consistently excellent. The production values are first rate: the film was shot in Canada for the outdoor scenes. Martin Shaw as Scott shows the full charm of the man in society and his weakness when confronted with problems. And Sverre Ousdal as Amundsen brings to life the tragic loneliness of the man and his driving ambition and ruthlessness. And as a bonus we have Max Von Sydow as Nansen (another legendary Norwegian explorer and scientist) an Hugh Grant as the very young Cherry Apsley-Gerard (who the wrote the magnificent book Worst Journey in the World about his experiences during that expedition)