7/10
Gorgeous and attractive film about the epic feat of the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his long-suffering expedition
9 March 2020
The story of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott'CVO (6 June 1868 - c. 29 March 1912) , masterfully played by John Mills , and his 1912 expedition and his quest to be the first to reach the South Pole . It is magnificently adapted by means of a splendid cinematography, adequate make up , impressive exteriors and formidable effects . Dealing with his worried wife (Diana Churchil) and how Robert Scott enlists a motley and highy-prepared group (James Robertson Justice , Christopher Lee ,Kenneth More , John Gregson , Derek Bond , Clive Morton ,among others) to carry out the risked travel . But a rival team of Norwegian explorers led by Amundsen conspire against him.

The true story of how a hero attempts to be the first man to discover the South Pole, only to find that the murderously cold weather and far North Pole spoil their ill-fated expedition . To add to the authenticity of this near-documentary/drama movie , it had a lot of the Antarctic scenes that were filmed in Graham Land, Antarctica, , furthermore : Norway, Jungfrau, Kanton Bern, Switzerland , Falmouth Docks, Falmouth, Cornwall, England. Although there was about various weeks to get worthwhile filming locations , the vast majority of this picture was actually shot on studio , in Ealing Studios, Ealing, London. Breathtaking and overwhelming cinematography by three best cameramen of the British cinema : Osmond Borradaile , Jack Cardiff and Geoffrey Unsworth . Adding an impressive and rousing musical score by Vaughan Williams . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Charles Frend . Charles made his directorial debut in 1942 and turned out several low-budget dramas and documentaries. After the war he directed several critically acclaimed dramas, including Cruel Sea (1953) and Scott of the Antarctic (1948) at his best . His final film as director was The Sky-Bike (1967) and the film on which he ended his career was Ryan's daughter (1970), on which he worked as a second-unit .

Adding more biographic remarks , the deeds happened in the following way : Robert Falcon Scott was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901-1904 and the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition of 1910-1913. On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Antarctic Plateau, on which the South Pole is located. On the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, less than five weeks after Amundsen's South Pole expedition. The temperatures recorded by Scott and his team on remain to this day some of the lowest ever recorded. A planned meeting with supporting dog teams from the base camp failed, despite Scott's written instructions, and at a distance of 162 miles (261 km) from their base camp at Hut Point and approximately 20 km from the next depot, Scott and his companions died. When Scott and his party's bodies were discovered, they had in their possession the first Antarctic fossils ever discovered. The fossils were determined to be from the Glossopteris tree and proved that Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents. Before his appointment to lead the Discovery expedition, Scott had followed the career of a naval officer in the Royal Navy. In 1899, he had a chance encounter with Sir Clements Markham, the president of the Royal Geographical Society, and thus learned of a planned Antarctic expedition, which he soon volunteered to lead . Having taken this step, his name became inseparably associated with the Antarctic, the field of work to which he remained committed during the final 12 years of his life. Following the news of his death, Scott became a celebrated hero, a status reflected by memorials erected across the UK. However, in the last decades of the 20th century, questions were raised about his competence and character. Commentators in the 21st century have regarded Scott more positively after assessing the temperature drop below , 40 °C in March 1912, and after re-discovering Scott's written orders of October 1911, in which he had instructed the dog teams to meet and assist him on the return trip that was flop . Scott is presumed to have died on 29 March 1912, or possibly one day later. The positions of the bodies in the tent when it was discovered eight months later suggested that Scott was the last of the three to die. The bodies of Scott and his companions were discovered by a search party on 12 November 1912 and their records retrieved. Tryggve Gran, who was part of the search party, described the scene as, "snowcovered til up above the door, with Scott in the middle, half out of his bagg ... the frost had made the skin yellow & transparent & I've never seen anything worse in my life". Their final camp became their tomb; the tent roof was lowered over the bodies and a high cairn of snow was erected over it, topped by a roughly fashioned cross, erected using Gran's skis . As an Observation Hill memorial cross, was erected in 1913 and Captain Scott's log and many of the personal effects of the explorers were loaned by The British Museum . Rating 7.5/10 . Better than average .
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