MovieChat Forums > Shackleton (2002) Discussion > A Shackleton Trilogy?

A Shackleton Trilogy?

posted 17 years ago by Aviaprk
1 reply | jump to latest

If a Movie Shackleton was ever to be made on the Big Screen it should be called the "Endurance" with a subtitle "By Endurance we conquer." And yes, it should be divided up in three parts as well as this was a story ranging a long time.

First Part: I liked how the A&E version talked briefly about Scott's failed attempt and Amundsen's. This big screen version should have part of Shackleton's attempt on the South Pole as well and his success in being the expedition "farthest South" and how Shackleton's reputation as a leader is built from there.
From there he decides to be the first one to cross the pole and the film doesn't spend too much time on the fund raising part and his personal life too much but more on him dealing with his men up to the part where the ship gets stuck.

Second Part: Ship is encased in ice. Men try to desperately get her free. Breaks ship. Ocean Camp and Patience Camp and the desperation of the men in leaving her. Builds in the audience a sense of timelessness and how the men spend their time such as the soccer game and the hunting for animals TILL THE SHIP BREAKS.

Third Part: Elephant Island UP TO THE RESCUE. This part was incredibly rushed on the A&E movie and should have been the most emotional such as when the three men rush down a glacier at night without knowing what is beyond the darkness and they say to each other that a fourth person was with them at the moment (giving a sense of divine providence)

[–] turtletommy 17 years ago

The A&E movie you refer to was the Channel 4 England/A&E 2-part production (4 hrs) starring Kenneth Branagh as Shackleton. I much preferred the two documentary films made about The Endurance expedition (1914-16) - one by PBS and the other by filmmaker George Butler (husband of Caroline Alexander whose excellent book The Endurance in the late 1990s revived interest in Shackleton).

http://main.wgbh.org/imax/shackleton/

http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarctic-Expedition/dp/B0000A7W16/ref=pd_sim_d_1/102-2262094-6641734

The British/A&E film was serviceable and workmanlike and Branagh I thought was well-cast as Shack (he looked remarkably like him) but like you said they spent too much time on things not really pertinent to the real story (such as Shack drumming up funds for the expedition- zzzzzz who cares!). Also too little time spent on fleshing out the events and crewman in the many many months they were on the ship, the ice, the boats, stranded on desolate Elephant Island and finally the epic 800 mile voyage to S. Georgia Is. in winter and the first-time crossing of the mountainous spine of that island to seek help at the whaling station.

The real story needs a longer mini-series approach like Band of Brothers. I doubt whether the story will ever get its proper due on film other than in documentary form, and I think Shackletonmania is waning once again after the brief resurgence a few years back. What it all comes down to is like most great stories truth is better than fiction (or novelization and Hollywood-like interpretations) and just reading the several excellent books about the expedition and Shackleton himself, along with viewing the very good documentaries including the profound "South" film made by the expedition's photographer and cinematographer Frank Hurley (outstanding images and footage from the actual expedition) would give anyone interested in the subject plenty to enjoy. I can't imagine anyone who is interested in adventure subjects wouldn't go ga-ga over Shackleton and the other polar explorations.