The Last Place on Earth
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Movie Reviews of The Last Place on Earth
Movie Review: Must-see TV? A master work about the South Pole expeditions of Scott and Amundsen
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a fan of history, the History Channel and all things exploration on earth or the moon. The story of the expeditions to both poles of the earth have fascinated me since I owned my first globe as an elementary school pupil. I used to trace the routes of Byrd, Amundsen and Scott with my finger across the paper-covered sphere and later, I read all I could on Shackleton, Scott, Cook, Perry and Amundsen.
Years ago, Masterpiece Theater aired this seven part (six part back then) mini-series on the race to the Pole. It was based on Roland Huntford's worthy but controversial book. At the time, I was totally smitten with the series which was haunting in its tragedy and in its moral lessons about management and leadership.
I obtained this copy of the series on DVD and we found, 20 years later, that it was as fresh and stunning as when originally aired.
The music is excellent except for one overly 80's bit to cover a wordless section of skiing across the polar plateau. The South Pole has its own leitmotif, something rather like a ripoff of the Holy Grail leitmotif from Wagner's Parsifal, but what a good idea! The cinematography was for television, not film, so no letterboxing or wide shots, but the shots are cleverly framed to take advantage of the scenery and the camera angles are well conceived.
The acting is top-notch: Martin Shaw is perfect as the introspective, political man Scott, driven by his feelings of inadequacy and his Valkerie hero-worshipping wife Kathleen. Amundsen is played by Sverre Ousdal, a great Norwegian actor. Ousdal uses his face and body to express a man who is short on words but long on action and deep feeling. The rest of the cast is so eerily well-chosen that if you read the books by Cherry Garrard and the accounts of the Pole and look at the photos, you will be amazed.
The pace of the series quickens when the race between Scott and Amundsen is at its peak; and the horrors start piling on. There is no way you can come away from this series and not realize what an inhospitable place Antarctica really is. The film winds down after the shocking revelations on the fate of the Scott team, and leaves one thinking about men, their deeds and how it was when the earth still had wild places for men to be the first to set foot on.
If you love history, exploration, National Geographic, and brave deeds of men, you really have to have this series. I'd recommend it for older kids doing home schooling (it's a bit shocking for the very young...use your judgment here. Frostbitten feet and scurvy are dramatically but not overly horribly depicted and the fate of dogs and horses is something you'll have to explain to the kids as well.)
No extras on the DVD--this was filmed before VHS and DVD were available or widely distributed, so the studio did not have footage included for extra features.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Movie Review: Possibly the Finest Adventure Series Ever Televised
Summary: 5 Stars
I decided to write this review after seeing the television
dramatization of Ernest Shackleton's "Endurance" expedition.
Although I have seen "Last Place" many times, seeing "Shackleton", which is not bad, made me appreciate how
good "Last Place" really is. Ultimately, "Last Place" gives
a very good presentation of the different approaches to polar
exploration that Amundsen and Scott had. Unfortunately, "Shackleton" did not do this as well. Scott, a typical product of the hidebound Royal Navy and the class-ridden society
that made up late Victorian Britain believes that technology combined with immense will-power and "natural superiority of the Englishman" will overcome all obstacles.
Amundsen, a citizen of newly independent Norway, was much more open-minded and willing to make due with less. Unlike the British who believed they were a superior civilization and had nothing to learn from "inferior natives" like the Eskimos had clothing and food that was less well adapted to life in the very harsh polar climate. This flexibility that Amundsen had led him to adopt the clothing of the Eskimos and also led him to be more concerned about the problem of scurvey which plagued previous expeditions to the polar regions. This meant that Amundsen's men were much healthier (they actually gained weight on the journey!) than Scott's. By using dogs, there was less physical strain on the Norweigians than on the British who pulled their sled by themselves for much of the trip.
Amundsen was a meticulous planner whereas Scott had a tendency to rely on the British habit of "muddling through" and hoping that things will work out. In the end, these differences meant the difference between life or death for the two expeditions.
It is true that Roland Huntford whose book of the same name is the basis of the series has a real hatred for Scott which comes out again and again and showing a negative image of Scott which is probably exaggerated in the series, but Amundsen's flaws are also brought out such as his hiding the truth about his plans to go to the South Pole instead of exploring the Arctic as he claimed he was going to do and his almost disastrous too-early start to the South Pole which brought out his conflict with the legendary Hjalmar Johansen. Thus, I believe the viewer does come out of the series with a pretty honest idea of the truth about the race to the Pole and the very different outcomes for the two expeditions.
Beside the outstanding script and acting, the cinematography is absolutely breathtaking and the almost hurculean efforts to film this in the harsh environment of Greenland really paid off in making making one of the most impressive productions ever to be seen on television or the cinema. Anyone who is interested in history, exploration, or the psychology of men in extreme conditions will immensely enjoy this treasure.
Movie Review: 'Am Turning South'
Summary: 5 Stars
Amundsen uttered these words (or similar) once his first goal, conquest of the North Pole, was achieved before he could get there. One final goal remained: the South Pole. The harshest, most inhospitable place on earth. Nothing lives there, few return from the vast white highlands at the pole.
The last continent on Earth. The final unexplored vast white space. A trip with a doubtful return. A race to the pole that wasn't really meant to be.
This was a miniseries on PBS some years ago. When the DVD came out, I bought it instantly.
The acting is superb, the scenery is devastatingly beautiful, and boringly deadly.
The race to the pole is chronicled in this fascinating dramatization of the race between Amundsen and Scott in 1911. I was glued to my chair during the entire miniseries. The story may be well-known, but to have the tragedy of the English expedition played out lets us all in on the heartbreak. Scott and remaining crew were only a few miles from their stocked food drop at 'One Ton Depot'.
Amundsen comes across as better prepared (and certainly more successful), but cold and dispassionate.
Highly recommended.
A follow-up: I just rewatched this miniseries and can say it holds up very well for a production which is now 22 years old. Knowing the story better, I could concentrate more on the acting and how Amundsen and Scott come across. The series is based on the book 'Scott and Amundsen' by Roland Huntford. It is plain that Huntford disliked Scott, and the miniseries bears out this bias. Scott comes across as a bit of a unplanned bumbler who makes very obvious mistakes (sending a man who pleads he knows nothing about horses to buy Siberian ponies), and manages to get pretty much of his entire crew set against him.
I would have liked a bit more balance in the miniseries, but they're never going to make one as exhaustive as this again, and this is plenty good enough.
Highly recommended upon re-viewing.
Movie Review: stunning history, acting and film
Summary: 5 Stars
I have seen reviews of this 3 DVD set whose writers suffered the old film and format of a 1985 production. I was far more interested in the message than the medium AND this is a riveting story, crisply acted and beautifully filmed. It is a dramatization of Roland Huntford's 1979 book (originally called Scott and Amundsen) and the cast and crew faithfully followed that script. Huntford sliced the cherished legend of Scott to ribbons. I am regretably old enough to remember the hagiographic Britsh film "Scott of the Anatarctic" with John Mills playing their shining hero of the South Pole. Their dead lion and his perished polar party. All of it hogwash said Huntford who reveals Scott as a self-conscious martinet, a poor planner and a seasoned Antarctic expedition leader who never learned from his grievous errors ... in transport, in clothing, in adequate nutrition, in navigation, in provisioning along the trail for the long trudge home.
The film focuses on not one but two very complex men but, like the book, carries the author's prejudice about Scott's stupidity from first scene to last. Amundsen is portraited as a man equally as ambitious for glory as Scott but one who used his experience with polar travel to make his team's trip to the South Pole and back seem like, well, fun. The results are telling. Amundsen's team returned from their triumph having actually GAINED weight. Scott's whole team perished from starvation. Hard to recommend the book (which is thorough but tedious for anyone not fascinated by all the circumstances) but easy to recommend this fantastic film on DVD.
Movie Review: I could not have enjoyed this more!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is simply the PERFECT movie/series for anyone who is interested in polar exploration. It's beautifully filmed, interesting throughout, and really makes you feel you are there. True, Scott is, on the whole, shown in a less than favorable light, but given many of the decisions he made, it would be hard for that not to be the case. To the film's credit it goes to great lengths to give the context/history behind the mindset that led to those poor decisions. Likewise with Amundsen, you see his greatness mixed with his flaws. I wouldn't change a thing about the movie itself. As to the quality of the film transfer and the sound, it seemed perfectly fine to me - though I'm hardly an expert on such things. As for the packaging, I admit I was a little disappointed there was absolutely no booklet of any kind, nor are there any "extras" on the discs themselves. You strictly get the 7 episodes on 3 discs in a double-wide hard case. But given that exploration is rarely the subject of any movie, let alone one of this length, I consider this set a real find, worth every penny, and I will treasure it. One side note: The DVD case says "Featuring Hugh Grant & Max VonSydow", but a very young Hugh Grant has just a tiny little part in this 1985 film, so don't buy this hoping to see him or you'll be disappointed!