It has been well over a century since the ill fated Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica (191-12). Since that time, expedition leader Robert Falcon Scott has gone from being labeled a tragic hero to a self-centered bungler whose poor decisions doomed his attempt to reach the South Pole first and finally to someone who was the victim of a series of numerous unfortunate circumstances. Whichever view you take, Herbert Ponting’s cinematographic capturing of this legendary undertaking remains one of the glories of early film documentaries being the first to capture the Southern Polar experience. Although Robert Flaherty’s NANOOK OF THE NORTH (1922) was released first, Ponting’s achievement was done 10 years earlier and none of it was staged.
Ponting was already an experienced photographer by the time Scott invited him to join the Terra Nova expedition. He had covered the 1905 Russo-Japanese War and published a book in 1907 that featured stereo (3-D) photographs of his travels in Asia. One photograph of the Great Wall of China has become the standard image of that landmark which has been copied countless times. Scott’s trip to the Antarctic would be the first time that Ponting would handle a movie camera which he used for several sequences although a lot of the expedition was captured on photographic glass plates. This allowed Ponting to photograph numerous scenes of the frozen Antarctic landscape which allowed the world to see Antarctica and its wildlife for the first time.
The original purpose of the prints and footage was to accompany Scott on lecture tours after what everyone assumed would be a successful outcome. When the expedition ended in disaster, Ponting used the material for lectures and screenings which he himself conducted in order to raise money for the families of the lost explorers and to pay off the expedition’s debts. 10 years after these lecture tours, Ponting assembled the footage in the documentary THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE. An earlier book of photographs, THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH, had been successful, the later movie was not. In 1933 Ponting produced a sound version of his previous film which was retitled 90 DEGREES SOUTH but this too was unsuccessful and Herbert Pontind died impoverished in 1935.
SILENCE begins with the expedition departing from New Zealand in 1911 aboard the whaling boat Terra Nova. We meet Scott and his colleagues as well as sled dogs and Siberian ponies under the care of Captain Lawrence Oates who was of the four explorers who later perished with Scott. Upon their arrival in Antarctica, Ponting began shooting his glass plates and photographing the wildlife which consisted primarily of penguins, seals, and killer whales. Many of the photographs are still breathtaking especially considering what is happening to Antarctica today because of global warming. The light hearted moments with the crew are poignant considering what happened later. The film ends with a very Victorian-like title card of a personified Posterity accepting Scot’s diary.
In 2011 (the 100th anniversary of the ill-fated mission), the British Film Institute restored THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE from archival prints in England and Holland. This included recreating the color toning and tinting of certain sequences that were in Ponting’s original release. The film was then scored by composer Simon Fisher Turner who also scored the documentary of another British disaster, THE EPIC OF EVEREST (2013) about George Mallory’s failed attempt to reach the top of Mt Everest in 1924. The soundtrack is ethereal and haunting which is appropriate for the events depicted. The BFI home video release also features Ponting’s 1933 sound version 90 DEGREES SOUTH (which is not speed corrected) as well as numerous special features.
The Capsule Critic 