L'Éternel Silence, carnet de route du capitaine Scott

I often say I end up enjoying obscure films from long ago that don't feature any big name actors more than well known films that are praised incessantly, and this is another good instance of this. This century old documentary is about the Scott Expedition to Antarctica, and how a group of brave explorers tried to go where no human had gone until then. The film, recorded by Herbert Ponting, follows the members of the adventure as they set off from New Zealand and try to claim the South Pole for the British Empire. The expedition is led by Robert Falcon Scott, a naval officer who is in command of a ship named the Terra Nova. On their way into the ocean surrounding antarctica, he and his crew encounter an enormous formation of ice dozens of feet tall. This is the Ross Ice Shelf, and is essentially an iceberg the size of France. It is here that all other icebergs originate apparently. After making it to antarctica, they unload food, supplies, dogs and Siberian ponies from the Terra Nova, as these things would be invaluable during the difficulties to come. The film shows footage of a parent seal with its child, and how someone on the ship fires a harpoon gun at a group of orcas in order to protect the seals. Also filmed are penguins and the odd behavior the female ones demonstrate when their husbands don't come back on time: they stand upright and continuously flap their small wings. Scott and the others participate in the southernmost game of football on Earth, and then get on the Terra Nova (which had returned to new zealand for a time) in order to travel to Evans Cove, where they were essentially marooned for months because heavy ice blocked the Terra Nova from picking them up. Late in 1911, Scott and the others set out for the final march towards the south pole, but first, they had to traverse Beardmore Glacier. At about 125 miles in length, it's one of the largest in the world. After ascending it, they continue towards the pole on the 9th of January. Around a week later, Scott and his men finally reached the south pole, only to discover a flag left by rival Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who had beat them by over a month. Scott and the others plant their own flag, then turn south towards home. Although he and others made progress during the first few days, many members of the party were severely frostbitten and several died. Scott and the survivors continued to walk as far south as they were able to, but the horrible weather obscured visibility for miles around, and Scott had to pitch a tent for the last time. Eventually, a search party is sent after them and found the tent containing the frozen corpses of Scott and two others. A cairn was built over the tent (with the bodies still inside) and a cross placed on the summit. Scott is no more, but his fearlessness and determination to explore one of the most hostile and unforgiving places on earth will never be forgotten. This is a great film. The remastered edition that I saw contains a lot of footage that is dyed different colors for some reason, but the real highlight is the soundtrack which consists of a lot of creepy, ambient music. It really does go with the ominous footage of men walking into the unknown landscapes. For miles in every direction, all you can see is frigid nothingness. Although I knew Amundsen's team would ultimately reach the south pole first, I can't imagine the feeling of disappointment Scott and the others must have felt. Imagine travelling in this frozen hell for months on end only to discover you weren't the first to reach your goal. Even though Scott lost his life due to his ambitions, he contributed much to mapping out a place previously thought impassable.

This film is a true inspiration. The level of patience and care that has gone into capturing these stunning images in the frozen wastes of the Antarctic, way back in the early days of cinematography - 1912, is amazing.

It's beautifully shot and edited, (recently cleaned up for the BFI), with a suitable score which gives the film a playful tone- especially as Ponting spends time following the penguins, which was comical.

Towards the end the film becomes much more emotional and by this point you truly realise the scale of the expedition, the sacrifices made and how brave Captain Scott, the explorers and Ponting with his camera were to undertake such a daring journey.

Though devoid of innate sound or narration, one can almost hear the exaggerated "old timey" radio voice that might read the intertitles during a theatrical presentation of the film, a feeling amplified by some of the language used therein. Strictly speaking the very earliest motion pictures consisted of many short non-fiction pieces as the medium began to develop, it's safe to say that 'The great white silence' is surely among the earliest examples of a long-form feature constructed with such sensibilities resembling what modern viewers would recognize as a documentary. Indeed, this film occupies a rather singular place in cinema history, and not just because filmmaker Herbert Ponting is remarked as having been the first to take such equipment to Antarctica. The restoration and especially the colorization give a sense that the feature is more recent in origin than the 1910s (when it was filmed) or the 1920s (when it was released). The interspersing of intertitles with brief clips of footage almost evokes a work of fiction, an adventure flick perhaps not unlike those of G. W. Pabst or Arnold Fanck. And still, the occasional insertion of still photographs and rudimentary animations (e.g. Tracing a path on a map), and the substantial portion devoted to fauna, concretely emphasizes the nature of the movie. With all this said, one thing is unmistakably true: though 'The great white silence' belongs squarely to the silent era, it nonetheless bears terrific value and is deeply engrossing on its own merits.

Ponting's daring for venturing thusly to the southernmost continent cannot be understated, and some of the methods he used to capture video were rather inventive so early after the advent of cinema. To that point, he illustrates a fine eye for shot composition, and some of the footage is quite brilliant, such as when he shows us how the Terra Nova burst through ice floes. This is to say nothing of the gorgeous if desolate scenery of which we're given awe-inspiring eyefuls, fantastic looks at diverse wildlife and the animals that also set sail on the ship, and documentation of the hard work of the expeditionary crew around him. And here I must emphasize again: Ponting was the first filmmaker to take moving pictures at these furthest reaches of the globe. Excepting drawings and early still photographs, the visions to greet us were like nothing else before them. That alone makes this an essential viewing experience.

As the ultimate fate of Robert F. Scott's expedition is well known in history, 'The great white silence' becomes even more important as extant testimony to what they experienced. However, Ponting's feature isn't exclusively a record of disaster, but a joyful remembrance of how the crew lived, and what they saw (only turning more direct and somber toward the end). The intertitles and sequencing are generally characterized by light humor no matter what is being spotlighted at any given moment, and on that note, what we really have is a portrait of Antarctica so the "folks at home" could get a good idea of not just the British explorers' time on the ice, but also of how the continent truly looks and feels. One might reasonably say that the movie kind of comes across as a full-length equivalent of a one- or two-reel educational short, or at times a precursor to the nature films of National Geographic, as much as a slice of history.

As with any old movie, there are parts of this that haven't aged well as a reflection of antiquated attitudes or values. Please note, for example, the shocking name given to one of the expedition's companion animals; the "game" the men play with some of the diminutive wildlife doesn't look so innocent now as it presumably had more than 100 years ago. It's also fair to argue that the picture is imbalanced, seemingly spending more time photographing penguins and seals than the expedition. Still, one must take at face value what we are given; after all, everything about 'The great white silence' very emphatically speaks to a bygone era, and the relative simplicity of its technology and techniques - what Scott and his crew were working with, and what Ponting was working with or pioneered. When all is said and done this won't appeal to all comers, least of all those who don't generally care for silent films. Yet there's much to enjoy here, and whether one is a student of history, a cinephile, a lover of nature and animals, or just especially curious about the Terra Nova expedition, 'The great white silence' remains a worthy, engaging, well-made documentary, standing surprisingly tall decades later and still deserving of recognition.

Explorer Robert Scott harbored high hopes of becoming the first person to reach Antartica's South Pole. Seeking private and public funding for the Terra Nova Expedition, Scott came up short of the monies to fully finance the exploration. He turned to photographer Herbert Ponting to bring still and moving cameras to record part of what later was called the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The intention was to collate and present the trove of film once Scott accomplished his goal for the explorer to use during his fundraising lectures. Ponting recorded every highlight of the journey beginning with the expedition's departure from England in the summer of 1910.

The cameraman seemed to take pictures of everything that moved, from the Terra Nova ship slicing through the thick Antarctic ice to animals living on the icepack. He also recorded setting up the base camp as well as showing the transport of supplies throughout the route Scott and his team were going to take on their journey to the South Pole. After 14 months at Cape Evans, Ponting with eight others left in February 1912 just before Scott began his trip to the pole. He returned to England to get a jump start on the visuals when the explorer came back from his triumphant return.

Trouble was Scott was beaten to the South Pole by Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his team by 34 days. Disheartened, Scott and his men trudged back before they were caught in a blizzard and perished. Ponting's photographs and snippets of his movies were made available to the public once the tragedy was known as a financial appeal to pay the bills for the expedition. The photographer then assembled his moving images and produced a dramatic documentary of the ill-fated trip. Since no camera crew accompanied Scott to the South Pole, Ponting filled in the blanks with reenacted painted images. He released "The Great White Silence" in 1924 to a curious English audience. Personally giving his recollections, Ponting continued his lecture circuit in 1933 when he inserted sound. Despite a North American series of lectures, the documentarian died in 1935 at his home in poverty.

The British Film Institute worked along with The Scott Polar Research Institute to restore the stunning "The Great White Silence," which has since gained critical praise, including its inclusion in '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die' reference book.

The Great White Silence is a very interesting silent documentary about an expedition to the Antarctic back in the early 1910s, and the age of the footage and the documentary itself makes it all weirdly eerie and a bit sad. Maybe part of the sadness came from listening to Sigur Ros while watching this - I was trying to think of wintery music without lyrics, or with minimal vocals, and that band came to mind first. Their 2002 album simply known as "( )" paired well with the visuals on offer.

It's a pretty straightforward historical document, with many title cards being used throughout for context, and little by way of story. It almost didn't need any narrative - much of the documentary is just spent on wildlife and simply how human beings are to live in freezing cold conditions, and so eventually, I forgot about the whole expedition thing, until the film seemed to remember that was the point all of a sudden and then got back to covering it.

Some might find it all a bit boring, but I think for its time, this was pretty amazing, and for capturing so much footage on Antarctica from this long ago, I'd say The Great White Silence certainly has merit. It's a shame it falls into the Dambusters and H. P. Lovecraft camp of giving a pet a very racist name (that whole segment was more than a bit awkward), and I feel like they're also kind of mean to the animals (scaring a mother away from her newly-hatched chicks every hour to document their process of growing, and a "game" played with young penguins really just involves chasing/frightening them all over the place), but that's the 1910s for you, I guess. Speaking of the 1910s, it's crazy to think all this footage was shot before the Titanic disaster, and the director filmed plenty of icebergs.

Anyway, documentary fans should check this out. I feel like it's a classic/definitive title within the canon of documentary cinema.