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South was first exhibited by Ernest Shackleton in 1919 to accompany his
lectures, and it has some of the quality of a lecture. Excerpts of the journey
are interspersed with scientific and biological observations and, towards the
end, just when the dramatic tension reaches its height, there are almost 20
inexplicable minutes of nature footage, showing sea lions gambolling, penguins
and other birds. Photographer Frank Hurley did not accompany Shackleton on the
800-mile rescue mission, so this material could not have been shot. All the
same, it is a strange hiatus and obviously inserted as a crowd-pleaser.
Hurley was a genius of cinematography. As well as inventive camerawork,
mixing close-ups, point-of-view shots and ingenious positioning of the camera,
the film is shot through with colour, using the novel Paget colour process. In
the Paget system, two glass plates were used, a colour screen on which was laid a
matrix of red, green and blue filters, and a standard black and white negative
plate. The result is highly effective. In a vast landscape of various shades of
white, colour - purple sunsets, ethereal green seas, ink blue silhouettes -
invests the film with drama, beauty and tension. By contrast, the black and
white, untreated sequences, particularly the long shots of the crew in
Antarctica, look flat and time-bound.
But the most famous shots are the stills Hurley took of the Endurance. In an
age when night photography was rare, he surrounded the ship with magnesium
flares and used a slow exposure to create the ghostly images of the Endurance
suspended in darkness. It is fair to say that the success of the film has more
to do with the dramatic photography than the detail of what was filmed, although
the sequence of the disintegration of the Endurance is incredible and, of
course, the story itself could hardly be more spectacular.
There is little actual footage of Shackleton in the film; he is often a
shadowy figure at a distance, separated from the men. This expedition was his
second attempt at the South Pole. The first, in 1909 - for which he was knighted
- came within 97 miles of the target. A third unsuccessful attempt followed in
1921. However, failure is relative, and his efforts undoubtedly spurred
the success of Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott in 1911 and 1912. Shackleton's
greatest achievement in 1916 was to return with all his men
alive.
Ann Ogidi
*This film is available on BFI DVD.
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1. Shackleton at the binnacle (0:35)
