The Endurance

In August 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men and 69 sled dogs sailed from South Georgia Island headed for the Antarctic continent; they intended to become the first to traverse its 1500 miles. They never got started. Six weeks later and only 100 miles from their starting point their ship ground to a halt in the endless pack ice. Eventually the ice crushed, splintered and sank The Endurance. Their saga over the next two years has proved to be one of the most remarkable and best documented stories of human survival, bravery, and leadership ever. After drifting clockwise for 10 months and 1300 miles on the massive, melting ice sheet towards open sea, the crew abandoned their doomed vessel, boarded their life boats, then took six months to find its way to Elephant Island. Shackleton and six of his crew then navigated a 22-foot lifeboat 800 miles in 17 days back to South Georgia Island. After several failed attempts, he finally returned to Elephant Island and rescued his stranded crew. Not one crew member was lost. Using ship logs, crew diaries, original photography (including stills and motion pictures by the ship photographer), interviews with descendants of the crew, and assorted historical archives, this film documents "the most successful failure" ever. There are many books on this drama; Alfred Lansing's The Endurance is one of our family's all-time favorite books, bar none. So is this incredible film.