SHACKLETON'S ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE — *** 1/2 — narrated by Kevin Spacey; rated G (nothing offensive); exclusively at the Megaplex 17 at Jordan Commons.
It's possible, in our technology-steeped lives, to become blasé. Seven-story movie screens, pristine digital sound and razor-sharp images don't impress like they used to.
Then along comes "Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure," a true story about a series of catastrophes followed by a convergence of miracles. A screening of the film is akin to interplanetary travel, with its vistas of the unearthly land- and seascapes surrounding the South Pole.
This is the saga of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 635-day ordeal in Antarctica, squeezed into 40 minutes.
Shackleton and his wooden ship, the Endurance, set out from London 87 years ago this month to reach South Georgia Island, the last outpost en route to Antarctica, in November 1914. As captain and crew descended toward the pole, or as Shackleton called it, "the end of the axis on which this great round ball turns," they had no idea how awry their plans would go.
A huge jigsaw puzzle of pack ice closed in on the ship, then crushed it. The men camped on an ice floe from November until April, when Shackleton launched three lifeboats to the uninhabited Elephant Island. The crafts look like determined bugs traversing the frigid waves. Then, most of the crew waits while Shackleton sails a single lifeboat another 800 miles back up to South Georgia Island. He reaches the shore about three weeks later and then must trek across the island to the whaling station. Navigating the maze of crevasses, Shackleton has no crampons, no Goretex — just leather boots.
The "Adventure" in the film's title isn't the first word that comes to mind to describe what Shackleton and his crew survived. But as producer Scott Swofford says, "You can't call it 'Shackleton's bloody awful time.' "
Yet the film is ultimately uplifting. Swofford and director-of-photography Reed Smoot blend radiant footage they filmed on location in 1999 with still photographs taken from 1914-1916 by the Endurance's documentarian, Frank Hurley. So the viewer is given a rest from the dazzling color images, while gaining a real sense of the Endurance crew's experience.
Hurley's photographs are miracles themselves, almost too strange to believe. Most inspirational of all: This factual account didn't end in death for any of the explorers, unlike "The Perfect Storm" and "Everest."
Kevin Spacey provides the film's understated narration. He describes the chain of events gently, I am thankful, instead of using the overwrought and booming voice heard in some large-format features.
Shackleton's route, and Swofford's insistence on filming as much as possible in actual locations near the South Pole, make this movie a visual bath that rose above expectations. The icebergs, with their arches and windows, are whiter than anything I've ever seen; the sapphire ocean looked like no other sea. When we behold Antarctica's face in this film, it's a little easier to understand why Shackleton wanted to go.
But this "Adventure" isn't for small children. Scenes of the gale-churned ocean, roaring seven stories high on the SuperScreen, and the hostile stretches of ice, snow and jagged Elephant Island peaks make this a different animal from the peaceful features such as "Dolphins" and "Whales."
But for preteens, teenagers and jaded adults, the film unfurls a story of real heroism in a place that doesn't seem real.
E-mail: durbani@desnews.com