DVD Andrew Nickolds
SHACKLETON
Director Martyn Friend, 1983, Simply Media 220 minutes
This is a decent, well-told BBC version of Ernest Shackleton’s extraordinary adventures in the Antarctic.
But, rather like the relationship between Shackleton (played here by David Schofield) and his better-remembered captain and competitor, Robert Falcon Scott (Neil Stacey), it has been overshadowed by more glamorous rivals.
Kenneth Branagh appeared in the title role in a TV version in 2002 – glossy where this is more rugged – while the definitive, British-heroism-via-defeat story of reaching the South Pole remains Ealing’s Scott of the Antarctic from 1948, with its dazzling colour cinematography from Jack Cardiff and stirring Vaughan Williams score.
This Shackleton, much of it filmed on location in Greenland, starts with Scott’s first expedition in 1902 – named ‘Discovery’ after the ship which carried the explorers further south than anyone had been before. On the return journey, along with the deaths of all the dogs and ponies, Shackleton falls ill. He has to be dragged back to the Discovery on a sled by Scott (this account was disputed by Shackleton) and the third member of the team, Edward Wilson (‘Uncle Bill’, later to perish alongside Scott in 1912).
So as not to jeopardise the expedition further, Shackleton is humiliatingly sent home to England. The rivalry with Scott begins – fuelled by the disparaging attitude of Royal Navy men towards their Merchant Navy colleagues: Shackleton’s duties on the Discovery included managing catering and entertainments. Given to quoting poetry, he is a convivial companion and proves to be a more amenable leader than Scott the martinet.
Back in London, Shackleton marries his fiancée Emily (Victoria Fairbrother), hereafter seen concentrating placidly on
her needlepoint, while bearing three children off-screen. Meanwhile, Shackleton stands unsuccessfully for the Liberals in the 1906 general election, and embarks on various money-losing schemes while itching to return to the South Pole. Enlisting the help of the Royal Geographical Society, he raises enough money and sponsorship to finance another expedition aboard Nimrod, setting sail from New Zealand on New Year’s Day 1908.
Again the expedition is thwarted by impenetrable ice, though this time Shackleton and his team come within just over a hundred miles of the Pole before having to turn back. He earns Scott’s wrath by taking a route Shackleton and Scott had agreed Scott would use in his catastrophic, final Terra Nova expedition. But, still, Shackleton puts the lives of his men first, returns to a hero’s welcome, is knighted for his exploits and concludes that ‘a live donkey is better than a dead lion’.
Spurred on by Shackleton’s ‘success’, Scott again heads south, only to be beaten to the Pole by Roald Amundsen (Benjamin Whitrow). Shackleton warmly introduces the Norwegian to Britain at a public meeting – a generous gesture. With Scott now dead, Shackleton starts recruiting for The Imperial TransAntarctic Expedition, due to leave on the eve of the First World War.
This is to prove Shackleton’s greatest achievement, again born of disaster. Frank Hurley – the Australian photographer, whose work appears in and influences the overall look of Shackleton – captured the aptly named Endurance, trapped in the ice. This leaves the team of fifty men stranded on uninhabited Elephant Island, more than 700 miles from the whaling station on South Georgia.
Shackleton sailed with a small crew in a lifeboat to South Georgia before trekking thirty miles across the mountains to the whaling station. And then he returned to rescue his men without a single loss of life – an almost unbelievable triumph against the odds.
The four-part series ends here. A caption explains that Shackleton died from a heart attack during his fourth Antarctic expedition. He was a month shy of 48.
David Schofield brings out the humour and the determination of the man. Both Christopher Ralling’s script and Martyn Friend’s direction – not to mention the cast and crew, filming in gruelling conditions – put in sterling work.
That said, aside from Shackleton’s restlessness, there isn’t much psychological examination of this obsession with Antarctica. ‘Because it’s there’ would seem to cover it. To order the DVD for £14.99 including UK p&p, call 0844 848 2000, quoting The Oldie and offer code 167514.