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With astonishing clarity, these legendary century-old images of Antarctic exploration take you to the heart of Captain Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole.
Herbert Ponting’s amazing footage of the actual expedition was used to create two stand-alone feature-length documentaries, The Great White Silence (1924) and 90º South (1933). Both are included on this release, though it’s the earlier film that deserves the most attention, as it’s the end product of an extensive and award-winning restoration that was unveiled at last year’s London Film Festival to the live accompaniment of a new score by Simon Fisher Turner (featured here).
The quality of these legendary century-old images of exploration and adventure is absolutely astonishing, thanks to the original 35mm negatives not only surviving but being donated to the BFI shortly after Ponting’s death, ensuring their proper preservation for future generations.
Ponting’s footage begins in 1910 with the departure of the Terra Nova from New Zealand’s south island, for the Antarctic – a perilous journey during which animals and stores were lost overboard in a gale and the ship had to break through unusual amounts of pack ice for 400 miles to reach the Great Ice Barrier. Ponting took some of his most impressive footage – showing the ship breaking through the ice – from a makeshift platform over the side of the ship. Once arrived on Ross Island, Ponting filmed almost every aspect of the expedition: the scientific work, life in camp and the local wildlife – including killer whales, seals, Antarctic skuas and the characterful Adelie penguins. What he was unable to film, he boldly recreated back home. Most importantly, Ponting recorded the preparations for the assault on the Pole – from the trials of the caterpillar-track sledges to clothing and cooking equipment – giving us a real sense of the challenges faced by the expedition.
This set contains both DVD and Blu-ray discs which contain The Great White Silence, 90º South plus new documentaries and featurettes.
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