Popular reviews

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  Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★★★ 5

  1st Frank Hurley

  Had some time to kill between getting to the BFI and giving my talk last night, so I decided to buy a ticket for this in the BFI's Studio space. Fitted the bill perfectly, being only eighty-one minutes and a lively eighty-one at that. Having seen the Kenneth Branagh miniseries of Shackleton's adventures years ago, I was already aware of the events at hand but had never seen the footage taken at the time, and boy howdy was it impressive. There are a number of shots that make you wonder how they ever did it, including the footage taken from the front of the Endurance as it breaks through ice that's almost four feet thick. Someone must…

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  Review by Marcy Webb ★★★½

  "...and will be remembered as long as our Empire exists" yep I don't remember this expedition

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  Review by Margarita M ★★★★

  Shackleton: okay Frank I need you to listen very carefully to me - we are abandoning ship and whatever we are to have from now on will need to be hauled. I know you took a lot of photos and videos of this expedition but only save what is essential, understood? 

  Hurley: saves 30mins worth of puppy videos

  I had the extreme privilege to see this movie on a large screen at the Australian Silent Film Festival, with my mum. While I had my fears this might be a stale biographical film, I was genuinely surprised at Hurley’s ability to tie everything together in a well paced, interesting way. He clearly loved animals as half of the film just seem to be dogs, penguins and seals but hell who am I to complain?

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  Review by EudoraFletcher ★★★★ 2

  What makes this documentary so special, apart from it´s age of 101 years ist that there actually was a cameraman with all the equipment on board the "Endurance" in 1914 with Shakleton who searched a passage through Antarctica. This photographer Frank Hurley captured the first pictures of this region!!!!
  The documentary is a little bit hard to watch because the version I watched had no sound at all. I watched it in 3 parts and enjoyed it a lot. Afterwards I found another version with music...
  The recordings and pictures are fantastic and communicate the absolutely crazy conditions the men where in very well.
  Also, it contains some funny scenes as well.
  I very much respect this production, especially when…

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  Review by enricioni 7

  Went to see this at the local Picturehouse with K, who says the baby danced around like crazy for most of the film’s runtime (it is still too early for me to feel it when I place my hand on K’s belly). Perhaps due to Neil Brand’s rousing score? I was actually given the name I have because I reacted in a similar way, in utero, to Kenneth Brannagh’s Henry V, when my parents went to see it at the cinema some time in 1990. But we shall not name our child Shackleton.

  This was K’s first trip to the cinema in 9 months. As a history nerd and massive fan of the miniseries The Terror, they could not pass…

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  Review by ethanjame ★★★½

  a lot lovelier than i imagined: mainly because this is primarily a nature documentary of just artic animals festering around which is lovely to watch for eighty minutes! those dogs in their snow pens was the highlight! i was the youngest person in the cinema by 30 years lol

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  Review by thesamefool ★★★★

  i liked the part where 22 men were stranded for months and the rescue party just kept filming all the different birds they saw

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  Review by Alina ❁ ★★★★½

  I decided to see this on a whim after work and ran into my buddy David! I figured I should check out this restoration of South as it's supposed to be the oldest documentary ever. I found this to be so unexpectedly delightful and funny. The intertitles and the actions of the animals they filmed (including seals, penguins, and dogs) cracked me up several times throughout the film. At the same time South manages to make you feel worried for the stranded adventurers as their ships get stuck in the Antarctic ice floes and they all need to be rescued. It's just really cool to see an old adventure like this.

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  Review by Falsk ★★★★ 2

  If you're not going to watch this film (freshly remastered through BFI) while drinking Shackleton-brand whiskey the same day footage of the Shackleton wreck has surfaced, then when ARE you going to watch it?

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  Review by AScaryGhost ★★★½

  A fascinating look back in time, beautiful/terrifying footage of gigantic-ass icebergs, endless frozen death vistas, etc. excellent penguin, seal, and dog coverage. The Great White Silence is (IMO) vastly superior, but this is still a great option and i'm glad it exists in such a beautiful restored form.

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  Review by Remy ★★★★

  Me, watching South: It's amazing how cinema can connect us to past generations. I can't imagine what it would be like to see this footage of penguins, icebergs and elephant seals in 1919. It's mind-boggling that all of this was captured on film on the other side of the world a century ago and is being shown tonight to an enthusiastic crowd a few blocks away from my house.

  Also me, watching South: If anyone eats any of those dogs, I'm gonna lose my shit.

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  Review by Lizzie Mackarel ★★★

  there were 70+ dogs on this ship and they all deserve retroactive recognition as the Goodest Boys