The Endurance

In this first-rate documentary, director George Butler and writer Carolyn Alexander (adapting her own book) chronicle Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 expedition to Antarctica, when his ship became ice-locked for 10 months and Shackleton and his men had to hike across the frozen wilderness and sail hundreds of miles to safety. It’s one of those amazing stories you can never get tired of; Butler vividly combines new footage of the desolate landscape, interviews with descendants of the crew, old radio interviews with the men themselves, and one simply priceless resource: the still and moving pictures of Frank Hurley, the expedition’s photographer. Hurley’s images give dimension and immediacy to a tale that might otherwise seem as remote and fabulous as a film about Lewis and Clark or Sir Francis Drake.