I read about Shackleton's expedition many years ago. Having spent 30 years going to sea, and having experienced some pretty terrible conditions, I am still in awe of these individuals. Worsley's feats of navigation in getting the expedition to Elephant Island, as well as the subsequent voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia stand among the greatest achievements in the history of navigation. As if that weren't enough, the men followed that up by crossing the island of South Georgia on foot, something which no one had ever done before, with nothing but a length of rope and a carpenter's adze. I don't know how they made it, except that they simply knew that failure was not an option. Although the movie centers on Captain Frank Worsley, these were all truly iron men, of a sort whose like we shall never see again. For example, First Mate Frank Wilde deserves a tremendous amount of credit for keeping the shipwrecked survivors on Elephant Island alive for over four months, during which they had no idea whether rescue was ever going to come. And, of course, although the film plays down Shackleton's contributions in favor of Worsley's, it was Shackleton who was the supreme leader, "The Boss", who held everyone together throughout the entire ordeal.
This is one of the most incredible true stories you will ever see. If anyone ever wrote this story as a work of fiction, no publisher would ever accept it because they would consider it too far removed from realm of possibility. However, this all actually happened just the way it is depicted here. They even brought back the pictures to prove it, thanks to the expedition's photographer, Frank Hurley. This film will make Hollywood action-adventure movies seem tame by comparison.
