Great White Silence, The

Synopsis

Henry Ponting’s extraordinary official record of Captain Scott’s legendary final expedition to the South Pole, fully restored by the BFI National Archive, with a new musical score by Simon Fisher Turner, released on dual format DVD/Blu-ray. After the Antarctic expedition’s tragic outcome, Ponting devoted the rest of his life to ensuring that the grandeur of the Antarctic and of the expedition’s heroism would not be forgotten. The images that he captured have fired imaginations ever since.

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 Adélie 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.

DVD extras include: 90º SOUTH (1933), Herbert Ponting’s final sound version of the legendary footage he shot in 1910-11, THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE: HOW DID THEY DO IT? - a new documentary about the restoration; THE SOUND OF SILENCE a new documentary about Simon Fisher Turner’s score; location field recordings of the interior of Scott’s polar expedition hut.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of production

1924

Subjects

Film studies; Geography; Sports science

Keywords

Antarctic; archive films; exploration; Scott, Walter

Credits

Director

Herbert G Ponting

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 0 PAL

Price

£19.99

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

110 minutes

Year

2011

Distributor

Name

BFI Video

Email

video.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://www.bfi.org.uk External site opens in new window

Phone

020 7957 8957

Fax

020 7957 8968

Address

21 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1LN

 

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