Endurance, The: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-George Butler (Director) Isolated Musical Score Featurette-The Tale Of The Endurance: Insights from the author Featurette-Making Of-In The Wake Of Shackleton Featurette-Iconic Images: Frank Hurley Remembered Featurette-Past and Present Theatrical Trailer Trailer-The Age of Innocence, Sense and Sensibility
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	93:51
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (47:52)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	George Butler
Studio Distributor	White Mountain Films Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Liam Neeson
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Michael Small

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Isolated Music Score Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Hindi	Smoking	Yes, Some of the historical footage
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Journey has one major advantage over many other historical documentaries - actual historical footage. In order to help finance his expedition, Shackleton sold the film rights of the journey, and so took along Australian film maker Frank Hurley to document the ship's progress. Taking a camera along, which would not be considered out of the ordinary these days, lends us a fascinating view of what happened almost 90 years ago on the frozen Antarctic waters. It is even more astounding to see how clear this old footage is. For film that old, shot in Antarctic conditions, to have survived at all is amazing - for it to be easy to watch is simply beyond belief.

    With a running time of just over 90 minutes, the one real downside to this documentary is its pacing. There is certainly plenty of information to impart, and the film never falls into the trap of presenting irrelevant information just for something else to tell the audience, but its languid pacing ensures those who are not overly enamoured with the story will likely find themselves on the express train to dreamland. With some tightening (for a start - less dialogue-free shots of angry waters or Antarctic scenery to set "think" music), this could provide a far more engaging and demanding experience. As it is however, The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Journey seems destined for a classroom audience.

    Despite the pacing issues, this is an extremely interesting documentary, and well worth checking out for those with an interest in modern history, and as a testament to what Man can survive if necessary.

Video

    Presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, this transfer is 16x9 enhanced. There is no information available as to whether this is the correct ratio, but from the framing, it would appear to be.

    As mentioned above, this film consists mainly of four image sources - photographs and drawings from the expedition, film footage from the original expedition, location footage filmed especially for this documentary, and interview footage with descendants of the expedition members and experts on the subject. With so many ranges of source footage it is not particularly surprising that the image quality fluctuates wildly. Sharpness is very good for (most) of the interview footage, and when looking at the photographs and drawings. Somewhat surprisingly, it is also quite good for the original expedition footage. Given these images were shot almost 90 years ago on very primitive equipment in some of the most extreme conditions on the face of the planet, the fact that they are as watchable as they are is simply incredible. The problem footage, however, is the modern location footage. For the most part it is quite soft, and does not present anywhere near enough detail of the landscape. An even bigger problem for the modern location footage, however, is grain. Many of these images are almost obscured by the extreme levels of grain present. The entire screen comes to life and seems to dance - it is a hideous effect, and one which really detracts from the film. Maybe it was caused by the extreme conditions - pervasive cold and damp - but if the footage from 90 years ago actually manages to look a little clearer, then there is a problem.

    Colours are a strange aspect of this film. Frank Hurley, responsible for shooting all the original expedition footage, was very much in the habit of tinting his film, and no colour was too far-fetched. There are blues, greens, bronzes, and even golden yellows used to tint the black and white footage. Keeping with this habit, the modern footage is often tinted to match. When more natural colours are allowed, they are usually somewhat washed out, although this does appear to be due in the most part to poor lighting, as when the sun comes out (for location shooting at least), the colours become more vibrant.

    The only compression artefacts visible are a number of instances of pixelization, often severe, that appear during the heaviest grain periods. The worst of these is from 2:22 to 3:30 where the image almost breaks up as the camera pans over the white mountain, at the time of some extreme grain. Film artefacts are non existent apart from in the historical footage shot during the original expedition. This is really to be expected for the conditions and age of the footage, and in fact it is quite impressive how clear most of that footage is, with only some horizontal banding that occurs from time to time, such as from 15:40 to 15:45, being truly distracting.

    The subtitles are almost word-for-word accurate, are well paced and easy to read.

    This is an RSDL formatted disc with the layer change taking place at 47:52 between Chapters 15 and 16. It is placed at a silent fade-to-black, and is impossible to spot without technical assistance.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three audio tracks present on this disc. The soundtracks are the original English dialogue, an audio commentary track, and an isolated score track, all presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround (at 192 Kbps).

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all time. Audio sync does go slightly out on occasion, but as the only time it can be realised as being out is during the on-camera interviews (which make up only a small portion of the film), it never really causes any issues.

    The original score was composed by Michael Small, the man responsible for the scores to a number of well-known movies from the late '70s and early '80s (although he only worked on six film and television projects in the '90s). It is quite haunting and well suited to the subject of this documentary, but can become somewhat oppressive at times (although again, this does at least suit the subject).

    Surround presence is only minimal - some of the score and some of the wind effects will circle around to the rear speaker, but for the most part it is bound to the front speakers.

    The subwoofer hasn't much to do here - which is not really all that surprising given the nature of this film. It adds resonance to the score from time to time, but other than that stays mostly dormant.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Audio Commentary - George Butler (Director)

Isolated Score

Featurette - The Tale Of The Endurance (16:31)

Featurette - In The Wake of Shackleton: Making Of (17:14)

Featurette - Iconic Images: Frank Hurley Remembered (11:49)

Featurette - Past And Present (10:02)

Trailers

• Trailers for: Anne Frank Remembered and Vertical Limit

• Trailers for: The Age Of Innocence and Sense and Sensibility

    The video quality is quite variable as the film slips between historical footage and modern footage on a regular basis. Sadly, the modern footage often looks worse than the historical.

    The audio quality is sufficient for the needs of this documentary, with all dialogue easily discernible.

    The extensive extras package is somewhat unexpected, but quite pleasing to see. It provides a lot of interesting information that is well worth investigating.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall