South

This record of Shackleton's 1914-17 Antarctic expedition concedes that the venture was a cock-up from the start. His ship, Endurance, got itself frozen in pack-ice without making landfall. Even the penguins were unsociable, and when the ship began to break up, the men had to leg it across the floes. They were rescued, ignominiously, by a Chilean tugboat, with nothing achieved but pain and suffering. Hurley, with time on his hands, seems to have explored all possible ways to photograph a barren waste, while big, bluff Shackleton demonstrates the first requirement of leadership: looking the part. The BFI has done a handsome restoring and re-tinting job, adding a discreet piano accompaniment.