Firsthand Documentation of a Legendary Endurance Test

When renowned British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton embarked upon a bold attempt to cross the continent of Antarctica via the South Pole in 1914, among the crew of 27 aboard his sailing ship Endurance was the already famous Australian filmmaker and photographer Frank Hurley, who recorded the expedition.

It was a smart move on Shackleton’s part, for Hurley was able to document an adventure that was singularly ill-fated but from which every single man survived, against odds so staggering as to defy comprehension. (Shackleton and his expedition have received renewed attention with Caroline Alexander’s recent bestseller, “Endurance.”)

Hurley released his “South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition” in 1919, and in 1998 the British Film Institute completed a painstaking four-year restoration and reconstruction of the silent film under the direction of archivist Brenda Hudson. This captivating and awe-inspiring 88-minute documentary, suitable for all ages, screens today through Thursday at the Nuart.

The Endurance had sailed but 80 miles out of Buenos Aires in October 1914 when it was trapped in an extremely heavy pack of ice that would, in 13 months’ time, crush the vessel like “a giant would crush a matchbox.” The 28 men, accompanied by 20 Canadian sled dogs, managed to survive, sleeping in pup tents, for five more months, on ice floes until the ice began to break up.

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At this point, the explorers had no choice but to board their three lifeboats, making it to the uninhabited Elephant Island, where 22 men, including Hurley, survived mainly on sea elephant meat.

Shackleton and four others rowed 850 miles “in the wildest seas in the world” in one month, reaching at last South Georgia Island. Once there, they faced glaciers and mountains ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 feet in height looming above the sea. Three men fell ill, but Shackleton and one of the men continued on, managing to traverse 32 miles in 36 hours to the whaling station on the other side of the island. Once everyone was rescued and recovered from the ordeal, Shackleton and his men, nearly two years after they set forth, sailed into Valparaiso, Chile, to receive a hero’s welcome.

While a local cameraman recorded the expedition’s gala return, and although he was not along to film the most daunting final chapters of Shackleton’s adventure, Hurley did a superb job of recording the expedition--the day-to-day life of the men, all of them square-jawed stalwarts of the British Empire. (Hurley returned to Elephant Island to photograph the wonderful animal life there, from king penguins to amazing huge sea elephants.)

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Hurley also shot the gradual but relentless breakup of the Endurance, which at one point he photographed in the dead of night with 18 giant lights, its masts and ropes taking on the spangly, gossamer-like quality of those miniature galleons made of spun glass and sold on Olvera Street.

Hurley’s inspired grasp of movement and composition retains a timeless charm and beauty, preserved on a razor-sharp print that has been meticulously tinted. Shackleton’s mind-boggling adventure, and his death only five years later at 47 on a return expedition, marked the close of the heroic era of polar exploration. Thanks to Hurley, who went on to a long and distinguished career in his native Australia, we are able to enter the harsh but magnificent world in which the explorers were able to survive miraculously for so long a time.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: suitable for all ages.

‘South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition’

A Milestone Film release of a 1919 production of the Imperial Trans-Atlantic Film Syndicate. Restored by Brenda Hudson for the British Film Institute’s National Film & Television Archive. Presented with a new piano score by Neil Brand. Film by Frank Hurley on South Georgia Island, Elephant Island and on the pack ice of the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica from December 1914 to August 1916. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.

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Exclusively at the Nuart, today through Thursday, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 478-6379.