Probable scenario exposed at expense of British legend
This dramatization is based on the book, Scott and Amundsen by Roland Huntford. It is a detailed study, centered around the 1910-1912 Great Race for the South Pole by two brave explorers; the Norwegian Capt. Amundsen and the British Capt. Scott. The legend of Capt. Scott had long been considered sacred. Afterall, Capt. Scott and his five-man party died on the return journey from the Pole after having reached it a month after Capt. Amundsen. Roald Amundsen, conversely, has largely been overlooked and even slandered for his achievement of safely reaching the Pole first. Mr. Huntford's research had uncovered so much information about Capt. Scott and Capt. Amundsen that it created a public scandal - a public outcry that even came to condemn the author. After all, a long-cherished British legend was being questioned to its very sanctity. So great was this outcry, that when the book was reissued in 1985 as The Last Place on Earth, it inspired this excellent PBS dramatization...
Possibly the Finest Adventure Series Ever Televised
I decided to write this review after seeing the television
dramatization of Ernest Shackleton's "Endurance" expedition.
Although I have seen "Last Place" many times, seeing "Shackleton", which is not bad, made me appreciate how
good "Last Place" really is. Ultimately, "Last Place" gives
a very good presentation of the different approaches to polar
exploration that Amundsen and Scott had. Unfortunately, "Shackleton" did not do this as well. Scott, a typical product of the hidebound Royal Navy and the class-ridden society
that made up late Victorian Britain believes that technology combined with immense will-power and "natural superiority of the Englishman" will overcome all obstacles.
Amundsen, a citizen of newly independent Norway, was much more open-minded and willing to make due with less. Unlike the British who believed they were a superior civilization and had nothing to learn from "inferior natives"...
What can I say about this series?
The first time I saw this mini series I couldn't have been more than ten. At the time it seemed like the most absurdly long movie I'd ever heard of, spanning six VHS tapes. I was dubious, to put it mildy, and the first episode concerning the set up for the expedition didn't do much to impress me.
...Then the second episode started up, and I was hooked.
As the title would suggest, it's really quite hard to think of how to describe this series. It features so many powerful moments, so many exemplary performances, that any summary I could give would feel lacking. I have never seen a more faithful or more compelling look at the race to be the first to reach the South Pole than this one. The direction and cinematography is very simple, letting the endless white landscape do most of the work in telling the story. Ample long shots which must have been amazingly difficult to film reveal a landscape unmarred by footprints or any other signs of humanity save for the small column...
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