Shackleton's Captain (2012) Reviews

• Excellent movie

  vturnbull2012-06-06

  This film is very well done! We watched this in NZ while visiting there, and thought it was brilliant. History not many of us hear about!! Being a true story added even more to the feeling of the plot line and the tension as Shakelton was attempting to save the crew. The acting was extremely good, and the sets very realistic. I especially liked the attention to detail of the period costumes during the lecture. As a Canadian, who has experienced it, the cold was portrayed brilliantly. Frank Worsely himself is an unknown hero to most of us for his saving of the crew, and the crew's ability to maintain relative calm while stranded for 2 months while awaiting word as to what Worsely and Shakelton had or had not accomplished in their attempt to save them is a major storyline unto itself. Everyone we were with, as Canadians, felt the same way as we did. We hope the feature films in Canada for two reasons. 1. To allow people to learn about this adventure. 2. Be proud of a Canadian born filmmaker who is doing so well in NZ.

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• Amazing Adventure Documentary Drama

  Turnbull0632012-05-16

  I was in Germany and caught this on television. Even though my German is pretty average I really enjoyed it. I hope it ends up on television in Canada so I can watch it again in English. It was everything a great adventure story should be; exciting, frightening, moving and inspirational. The balance of documentary alongside drama was perfect. I'd known a little bit about Shackleton himself but nothing about his Captain. Typical that we never hear about the people who were behind the front-man. This story really made you think about what a hero is and what it takes to keep going when all seems lost. If it wasn't a true story there is no way I would have believed it. I enjoyed the way the programme was put together as well, with the Captain telling the story himself. I thought this was an interesting way to make a documentary seem more personal. All and all it was a ripper of a yarn and anyone who is interested in sailing will really love it.

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• Inspiring!

  grapes-389-6698612012-06-05

  I saw this movie on TV in New Zealand. It is the most incredible story. I didn't really know anything about it and now I don't know why everyone in NZ isn't aware of this incredible Kiwi. This movie explains that while the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was a great leader, without Frank Worsley he may have been just another dead English explorer. I love to sail and I was in awe of what Worsley achieved. The journey on the lifeboat must be one of the great sailing journeys of all time. Anyone who is into yachting should see this film. Aside from anything else it is incredible to see what these men endure. Just inspiring that they could keep going. The movie itself is really great it mixes old footage, with interviews and scenes with actors. I was pulled into the story and by the end I was actually cold. I thought Craig Parker who played Frank Worsley was wonderful.

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• They don't make them like this anymore...

  archcarlospereira2017-06-13

  ...the people, portrayed in the movie. It is certainly an interesting viewpoint from someone supporting the project sponsor. Same as any other business, if you wish to succeed, you need to surround yourself with people who can help you do this. The sponsor failed in his project, which we all learned about in school, but all the men who took part in it, were not losers, far from it. It was sad to see the closure information before the end credits, where some of these hardy Antarctic survivors didn't make it past the end of the war, that had started and overtaken them, while they were struggling for their lives in the icy desert.

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• Worsley and his ball-and-chain, Shackleton

  lindasue-501332019-03-21

  (I dunno, I've indicated they are spoilers, but can you have spoilers for historical events?) Excellent movie! A well-balanced story using a bit of documentary information, good reenactment, and wonderful archival film footage. I know only the most basic information about Shackleton, I'm not interested in sailing, I'm not interested in explorers (mainly because they screw up anything that they find), and I'm not any more interested in Antarctica then I am in any other part of the world, and I'm passionate about the world...and somehow this is the second movie about Antarctica in as many weeks that I've seen! The other one being the Korean fiction movie, Antarctic Journal. However, I love history, I do like biographies, and I always enjoy archival footage. I despise mega-egos (Shackleton), so I knew that would be my biggest hurdle in being able to stick with this. The great lesson here is that we see that nothing changes in the workplace: "the boss" will do it their way regardless of what experts tell them, even if they have selected those experts themselves! Folly then, as it is now. Excellent case in point: when they leave Elephant Island, Shackleton determines to go with them. I question the morality of that decision, but then his colossal ego is spotlighted when he says he has no knowledge whatsoever of small boats. A dead weight, in other words. I'm sure he had no interest in staying on the island (who would??) and no doubt he would want to look like the golden boy if and when he came back with the rescue party. In this entire story, Worsley is the hero, Shackleton is his ball and chain. I'm not sure if the exemplary behaviour from this team is something we would see nowadays, with a typical lack of manners (here in North America, anyway) and the age of self-entitlement. That exemplary behaviour alone probably went an extraordinarily long way to saving them. I'm cutting the shipbuilder some slack... Shackleton really deserved to have a mutiny. He was lucky it didn't pan out. Excellent movie, so many things to commend it... just try to ignore ES's gigantic head.

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