Endurance // Film Report
“I have often marvelled at the thin line which separates success from failure.”
- Sir Ernest Shackleton
Shackleton team members were delighted to be invited to the film premiere of ENDURANCE at the Royal Festival Hall in London this weekend and to take part in the various events surrounding it.
The mission to locate the sunken Endurance was global front-page news in 2022 and the Shackleton legend has once again surfaced into the public conversation around the world. A triumph of technology and creativity, the film recounts two expeditions over a century apart - each beset with tribulations, each ultimately attaining a positive outcome. The original Endurance expedition is brought alive through Frank Hurley's imagery, beautifully re-coloured to make it seem we’re watching the events as they occur.
Equally striking is how the crew’s diary entries are audibly remastered from clips of voice recordings. It is at once uncanny and incredibly moving to hear Sir Ernest’s cultured tones recount the moment when he accepted the ship was lost. As for the more recent expedition, both Director of Exploration Mensun Bound and historian Dan Snow were fully equipped by Shackleton with expedition-grade apparel, and are seen sporting our nine-pointed star emblem throughout the footage of the search.
As always with Shackleton, it’s much more than an extraordinary cinematic achievement. What comes across most vividly is the emotional toll taken on everyone, and the palpable relief at the seemingly impossible rescue of all hands.
In conversation on the BBC R4 Today programme yesterday morning, co-director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi said that such experiences remind us that, while we may not all be able to pit ourselves against the savage might of the Antarctic, “we all have the opportunity to live with intention”. We couldn’t put it better.
The film will be streamed by NatGeo but we urge you to see Endurance on as large as screen as you can
Martin, Ian and the Shackleton team.
