The Great White Silence

The Great White Silence (1924) : Brief Review -

In one word, THRILLING! One of the greatest Storytelling I've ever seen for a documentary and One of those Documentaries you Must Watch before you die. When i saw Robert Flaherty's 'Nanook Of The North' (1922), i thought i am done watching great documentaries of old time. I had already heard about 'The Great White Silence' even then but i kept skipping it for some reasons and Today when i am done watching it, I feel ashamed of myself. Nanook Of The North wasn't the end, here is great next chapter in the documentaries world. So, it contains brief cinematograph sequences taken during the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910-1913. The principal filmmaker was photographer Herbert Ponting. The Terra Nova Expedition was an effort, by governments and concerned citizens of what was then the British Empire, to plant the Union Jack on the South Pole by means of men, ponies, dogs, and primitive snowmobiles hauling sledges from a base located on the Antarctic coastline. The documentary portrays expedition leader Robert Falcon Scott and his ship, the Terra Nova, and men as they leave Lyttelton, New Zealand, to sail into the Southern Ocean and its ice floes. This restored version (2011) was in so good quality and the background score was so thrilling that it looked better than many thriller genre classics of 40s and 50s decades. I was hooked to it, i didn't move for a second and i was so immersed into it that i forget i am watching a documentary that released 97 years ago. What a beautiful storytelling it was. The intertitles are so well written and has that narrative values to make a Normal footage as interesting as any feature film. This is a Must See stuff, no matter how old it is and what some duffers have to say in review. You better experience it yourself than making a choice after somebody's review (including mine).

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest.

This film, shot from 1910-1912, is a documentary about Captain Robert Scott's journey to the South Pole. The Great White Silence (1924), is an incredible documentary, that carries the audience across the expanse of Antarctica to the South Pole. Title cards tell the story, as images of cold, treacherous landscapes glide past the screen. This is a great film to watch in January. The cold January days help emphasize the brutal conditions seen in the film. The film begins with the men loading their ship and setting across the southern hemisphere into the iceberg leaden waters of Antarctica.

I can take Antarctica off of my bucket list, because The Great White Silence (1924), showed me everything I'll ever need to know about Antarctica. The film is that good. It covers every aspect of the expedition from the route they took, the animals they brought along and a story, about the Penquins they saw, that started to get a little too lengthy. Think, March of the Penquins (2005), 1910 style. I can't imagine people doing this today, let alone 115 years ago. The fact that this film was even shot, recovered, edited together and released, is remarkable itself.

PMTM Grade: 8.7 (B+) = 8 IMDB.

"The Great White South" can be an entertaining account of the Terra Nova Expedition, from Lyttelton, NZ to Antarctica. Watch with a mind's eye that can help you step backward in time, to the thinking of 1910.

When watching how the story is pieced together, at first I was a little bothered by the light slap-stick splashed between the scenes that were shown. One bit of information about a certain cat was truly void of political-correctness, which made me bristle. But after a few viewings of the movie I came to actually appreciate the humor, partly by understanding the reason for its use. The cinematography and story-telling shared by Herbert Ponting was based on turn-of-the-19th-century knowledge and thinking - a far cry from where society is today. Keeping this in mind helps one enjoy this piece of cinematic achievement more.

I was fooled upon first glance that Mr. Ponting might have joined the actual South Pole expedition as they actually set out in November, 1911, to undertake the quest for the frozen goal. There were still images taken at the Pole, not by Mr. Ponting, but by Lt. Henry Bowers, one of the four men selected.

The quips actually became comic relief as the story turns quite chilly, with some plot revelations as the four explorers trudge hundreds of miles, over a two-month period. Allow yourself to step out of your own comfortable shoes and into those of these comrades, and you'll appreciate the story much better. It's a slice of significant world history, in which Mr. Ponting was able to capture, during the journey.

It's amazing to learn the back stories of the major characters and how events converged with the trek for the South Pole, and why it also took more than a decade for this film to be completed. Cast out what would be today's poor choice of mingling with wildlife (and otherwise meddling with it) and revel in some enjoyable photography, story-telling and cinematography of its time.

One footnote: I watched the BFI-restored film, complete with restored colorizing and tinting (first done by Mr. Ponting himself). Oranges, blues, and odd shades of red seem meant to add a sense of time of day in some scenes, or the color of sea water. It didn't disturb me to see this when realizing that the color was as the filmmaker intended. The soundtrack by Simon Fisher Turner (Soleilmoon Recordings - 2011) was a welcome and haunting treat, which rejected the customary organ music one expects with silent films while adding depth to the visuals.

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.

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.