90° South

The original film of Captain R F Scott's expedition to Antarctica and the South Pole in 1910 and 1911, with commentary and music added for the new release in 1933. The first half of the film describes the voyage there in the "Terra Nova", the establishment of the camp, the living conditions, the work of the scientists and the first winter. The second summer and Scott's awful expedition to the Pole with a man-hauled sledge and a diet that must itself have meant death. After the disappointment of finding that Amundsen had reached the Pole some weeks before, the terrible return journey in appalling conditions, the five men frozen, snow-blinded, diseased and exhausted. Petty Officer Evans's death and Captain Oates's walk into the blizzard to die for his comrades, and the death of the last three, just eleven miles from a depot of stores.

The journey to the Pole was recorded by Scott with his own still camera, otherwise the movie camera recorded only a rehearsal and the first stage, but the extensive description of life on the frozen sea is more than impressive. The long scenes of Antarctic scenery, the strange and beautiful landscape of ice and rock, linger in the memory, their images clear and silvery, their shapes and textures mysterious. This film impresses with its subject and its immediacy, and for the conditions in which it was produced. Yet it deserves the highest praise for the quality of its cinematography, its ability to convey the harshness of reality in a landscape that had also the quality of a dream. The introduction and commentary, notwithstanding their stilted manner and outmoded patriotism, yet have a sincerity that only those who were there, were part of that experience, affected by it for ever, can have. And that impresses, too.

The "first incarnation" of this film did not appear in 1933, it appeared in 1924 and was entitled The Great White Silence,a very wonderful. This was simply a "sound" remake with a commentary added and new music, neither of which frankly greatly improve the film. There is apparently one shot and one shot only that does not appear in the original (a wall being buttressed) but Ponting did make additional use of his collection of "stills". This includes, according to the BFI a shot of the polar party when they stopped for a day to collect rock samples at the head of the Beardmore Glacier. "This was significant not only because they were a day's march from the food depot when they died, but also because the rocks and fossils that they collected have, ironically, been their most enduring scientific legacy, and have contributed to our understanding of plate tectonics" (Bryony Dixon for BFI).

I can imagine that this film would have been quite remarkable in 1933 when the first incarnation appeared. It still serves as a fantastic tale of humanities quest for the unknown and his perseverance in the face of the worst conditions that the earth can produce. Yet, as a viewer of the film in the 21st century, I found the film to be somewhat dull. The development of the characters, even the stalwart Captain, are not very well explained. The amount of drive and obsession that the people that would be willing to take such a journey is simply explained away as British Nationalism,and to a calloused modern viewer such as myself, this simply was not sufficient explanation. Yet, as a historical document, this film is well worth the hour and ten minutes of viewing time, and some of the early footage of the Antartic is truly amazing.

Herbert Ponting accompanied Captain Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole. Although he remained behind in the base camp as the rest of them went for the final push.

His photographs and film footage was used in the documentary film called The Great White Silence in 1924.

90° South is essentially the same film with sound narration.

It does provide a fascinating glimpse of the expedition and is also an early example of documentary films.

This is not only a chronicle of the expedition but an insight of the wildlife they saw such as penguins.

However there is a suspicion that this documentary paints Scott as more heroic than he actually was. The expedition was marred with poor leadership and bad organisation. Hence why Adumsen got their first, ate his dogs on the way back and came back alive.

When you listen to the day they spent getting rock samples, it also meant they lost that time getting to their food depot which was apparently a day away.

The rock samples did end up being their scientific legacy of the expedition.

This compelling footage from the Antarctic explorations of the British in 1911 is a must see if: You are a fan of early documentaries. Period. Just watch it, you won't be disappointed.

You love penguins... the footage of the Adelie penguins had me rolling on the floor. There are scenes when the dauntless explorers try to 'herd' the penguins, with absolutely hilarious results.

You love beauty ... when the documentarian describes and shows the beauty and starkness of the ice mountains, Mt. Erebus, and icebergs, you really see it, and the footage is, even in black and white, simply gorgeous.

You like Irish step dancing or Russian folk dancing. There's about 2 minutes of footage that will amaze you. (The crew entertaining themselves on the voyage). I have a horrible urge to grab that footage and put it on youtube with a really inappropriate soundtrack. Like rap, or C&W or Bollywood.

You are a fan of polar or any kind of extreme exploration.

You wish to get some notion of just how hard the British had it on the return trek from the pole. Classic, and tragic, until you realize that if Scott hadn't been such a self-righteous wackdoodle they might have all survived.

You like seals. The mommy and baby seal footage is really cute, and shows something of seal behavior which I hadn't known before.

You just love jingoistic nonsense about how great the Brits are. Hate to break it to ya folks, but Amundsen got there first! Anyway, I watched this while halfway through "The Last Place on Earth", the 1985 BBC mini-series, and it really added to my understanding of the expedition.

Parts of this documentary are extremely offensive to modern tastes. The expedition cat was black, and so gets named the N word. Try to take it in context; in a hundred years a lot of the crap we do currently is going to look mighty strange - and offensive - to our descendants.