The Secret Land

Telling the story of Byrd's 1946 expedition to Antarctica, this is narrated by Robert Montgomery, who himself had been in the service; this one has a whole buncha hollywood bigshots who had served in the military. Van Heflin, Robert Taylor. We were done with WW II, so now we could move on to exploring more places. We had all those war ships with nothing to do, so thirteen ships took the admiral down to Antarctica. We watch as some of the ships get stuck in the ice; they kidnap various types of seals to bring back to the U.S, set up tent-town on the ice shelf, and send out planes to map the area. Directed by Orville (Bunny !) Dull. last thing he did in hollywood. Pretty interesting for history buffs. Certainly gave the military something to do after being so necessary during WW II. won an oscar.

This is the story of a massive trip to Antarctica. If you thought your spouse brings too much on vacation, it ain't nothing compared to what the military brought to the bottom of the world after the second world war ended. This was a huge operation and this is its story. Never mind that this is educational and award winning, its simply a great story told expertly.

I had run across this film by accident years ago on one of the Turner stations and was captivated. I fell into its tale of men over coming nature and its become a favorite of mine ever since.

Granted its "America can do" attitude can make you a bit crazy, but it was that sort of attitude that allowed us to think we could do it in the first place.

See it, not because you'll learn something, see it because you will be entertained better than most dramatic films entertain you.

10 out of 10.

Back in the day when documentary film making was more than some obnoxious twit sticking a video camera in front of celebrities and then editing the content for a political agenda, MGM contributed this classic about Admiral Byrd's post World War II expedition to Antarctica. The film was narrated by three WWII veterans with MGM, Robert Montgomery, Van Heflin, and Robert Taylor.

The men here are assigned some of the most hazardous peace time duty the United States Navy ever had to perform. The polar regions are some of the most forbidding area on our globe. The film captures some real dangers the Navy faced. We see a submarine caught in a frozen ice flow, a rescue of a man being transferred from ship to ship via breecher's buoy when the line snaps and he's tossed into the frozen sea, a crash of one of the planes. This film captures all the hazards of the expedition and the forbidding beauty of Antarctica.

From his transatlantic flights and his early polar expeditions Admiral Richard E. Byrd was a genuine American hero. We probably know more about the geography of the polar regions due to his work than any other individual. After this expedition, Byrd in fact did return to the South Pole as late as two years before he died in 1957.

When TCM broadcasts this, catch it by all means. This is what reality TV is all about.

Robert Montgomery, Robert Taylor and Van Heflin all narrate this documentary from MGM. It chronicles the US Navy's Antarctic expedition commanded by Admiral Byrd from 1946 to 1947. This was an enormous undertaking--involving 4000 men and many ships (including an aircraft carrier)! Unfortunately, the print I found of this film on archive.org is in terrible shape--which is really a shame since this film would be spectacular otherwise.

As I sat and watched this film, I couldn't help but admire the men and marvel at the insane conditions in which they worked. For example, the Navy flew very large C-47 (DC-3) from a carrier deck--using jet packs to force the lumbering planes into the air. There also is a portion where you learn about a plane crash and the crew was forced to spend two weeks waiting for help! I was also amazed to see that there is some relatively warm water in a snow-less region of Antarctic--all due to volcanic activity in the area. Overall, this is a very captivating and exciting film. You wonder at the naval cinematographers who recorded all this footage under horrific conditions!

If you do see this film, I also recommend you watch Werner Herzog's recent documentary "Encounters at the End of the World"--where he visits many of the same places you see in "The Secret Land". Two amazing films.

This documentary quite rightly won an Oscar for its efforts at showing the large scale exploration of Antartica undertaken by the United States military. The weather conditions were rather extreme, to put it mildly. I'd be curious to learn just how many cameras froze up during the expedition! The narration is capably handled by three prominent actors who also seved in the military during World War II and everything is very well-executed. Turner Classic Movies has been airing this fairly often in the last two or three years. Highly recommended.