This is a straightforward, competent telling of the story of Scott's ill-fated 1910-1912 expedition to be the first to reach the South Pole. We know what happened to the final five because they kept detailed diaries, which were recovered after their deaths.
The movie feels almost like a documentary, but one whose goal is to overtly emphasise the heroic virtues of the men involved. Once the movie gets to the scenes showing Scott's party in extremis, it becomes a gripping story of tough men -- without sufficient supplies -- dealing with unexpectedly brutal weather and an unimaginable physical effort.
It all seems so incredible now: walking and skiing with dogs, ponies and supply-laden toboggans for hundreds of kilometres in the freezing cold. And to do it for the glory of the British Empire? Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole, but how many of us know that factoid or even remotely care?
Yes, the cruel irony is that a Norwegian team commanded by Amundsen had already done the feat a month earlier, without loss of human life. I know some will disagree with me, but Scott's expedition turned out to be a pointless folly and a failure.
I wouldn't call this movie timeless. If this had been a modern movie or documentary, we would have wanted to know more about why things went wrong for the Scott expedition. We would also would have wanted to know more about the tension between the party members. In this movie we just see stalwart men and stiff upper lips. We would have insisted on being shown the killing of the dogs and ponies. The movie was made in 1948, so the story presented here is heavy on the heroism and light on the actual details of what went wrong.
Still, this 60-year-old movie was very well made and has a modern feel. It is still interesting to modern movie watchers. It's a good historical movie.
In the beginning of the film, the scenes in Edwardian England show with some detail and accuracy what this long lost, romantic and idealistic world was like. The scene that sticks in my mind is that of the crowd of well wishers at the dock as the Terra Nova sails off. Such a different world, yet only a century ago. The anguish on Scott's wife's face was moving.
The movie feels almost like a documentary, but one whose goal is to overtly emphasise the heroic virtues of the men involved. Once the movie gets to the scenes showing Scott's party in extremis, it becomes a gripping story of tough men -- without sufficient supplies -- dealing with unexpectedly brutal weather and an unimaginable physical effort.
It all seems so incredible now: walking and skiing with dogs, ponies and supply-laden toboggans for hundreds of kilometres in the freezing cold. And to do it for the glory of the British Empire? Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole, but how many of us know that factoid or even remotely care?
Yes, the cruel irony is that a Norwegian team commanded by Amundsen had already done the feat a month earlier, without loss of human life. I know some will disagree with me, but Scott's expedition turned out to be a pointless folly and a failure.
I wouldn't call this movie timeless. If this had been a modern movie or documentary, we would have wanted to know more about why things went wrong for the Scott expedition. We would also would have wanted to know more about the tension between the party members. In this movie we just see stalwart men and stiff upper lips. We would have insisted on being shown the killing of the dogs and ponies. The movie was made in 1948, so the story presented here is heavy on the heroism and light on the actual details of what went wrong.
Still, this 60-year-old movie was very well made and has a modern feel. It is still interesting to modern movie watchers. It's a good historical movie.
In the beginning of the film, the scenes in Edwardian England show with some detail and accuracy what this long lost, romantic and idealistic world was like. The scene that sticks in my mind is that of the crowd of well wishers at the dock as the Terra Nova sails off. Such a different world, yet only a century ago. The anguish on Scott's wife's face was moving.