Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Updates:

Conquest of the South Pole (1988)

Director: Gillies MacKinnon

Average user rating

No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

From the opening credits, featuring archive footage of Amundsen's historic expedition, it's clear that MacKinnon's first feature - a low budget adaptation of Manfred Karge's play - is going to be quite special. Led by the seductive and sinister Sloopianek (Rimkus), a group of unemployed Scottish youngsters decide to fill their time - and fend off fears of failure - by recreating the first successful trip to the Antarctic in their home town. Almost inevitably, the task takes on epic proportions - glaciers, equipment, huskies and penguins must be found - and the group steadily splinters over strategy and purpose. Shot among the ice-houses, docksides and tenement blocks of Leith, the film is at once faithful to Karge and a visually stimulating piece of cinema. Though endowed with a bleak conclusion, it never lacks wit or tenderness, since MacKinnon celebrates the crucial role played by imagination in the youth's fantastic voyage of self-discovery. With strong performances from a young, largely unknown cast, he explores a broad emotional landscape, never slipping into facile pathos or liberal tub-thumping, so that one is finally left invigorated by what might otherwise have seemed a futile, ludicrous odyssey.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide