Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure

Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure
DVD release poster
Directed by	George Butler
Written by	Mose Richards Crystal Spijer
Produced by	George Butler Scott Swofford
Starring	Michael Gambon Conrad Anker Iain Fraser
Narrated by	Kevin Spacey
Cinematography	Reed Smoot
Music by	Sam Cardon
Production companies	WGBH Boston White Mountain Films
Distributed by	WGBH Giant-Screen Films
Release date	10 February 2001 (2001-02-10)
Running time	40 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$15,553,324

Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure is an IMAX film about the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton between 1914 and 1917. Directed by George Butler, the film was released in February 2001 and was narrated by Kevin Spacey. It documents Shackleton's journey aboard the Endurance and was the follow-up to Butler's previous film, The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition.

Plot

In 1914, Shackleton set out to walk across the whole of Antarctica. While the South Pole had already been discovered, people had yet to make the cross-continent trek on foot. Before making landfall, however, his ship became trapped in the ice floe of the Weddell Sea where he and his crew stayed for over 400 days.

Cast

• Kevin Spacey - Narrator (voice)
• Michael Gambon - Sir Ernest Shackleton (voice)
• Conrad Anker - Himself
• Reinhold Messner - Himself
• Stephen Venables - Himself

Production

The film was shot on location in Antarctica and also utilizes footage taken by the original expedition photographer, Frank Hurley.

Critical reception

• The film received "Two Thumbs Up" from Ebert and Roeper.
• Rotten Tomatoes suggests it is "a gorgeously made film tracking the explorer's legendary 1914 expedition to the icey, uninhabited continent."
• Joe Leydon, in Variety, wrote, "Despite its brevity, 'Adventure' vividly conveys the character and courage of Shackleton, one of the last great champions of the Heroic Age of Adventure. Butler glosses over a few unpleasant details in this telling of the story—for the sake of school-aged sensibilities, he was requested to refrain from showing how crewmen were forced to kill sled dogs for food—but the story remains gripping nonetheless."

External links

• The film's official page
• White Mountain Films
• Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure at IMDb