Mr John Mills is magnificent as Captain Robert Falcon Scott,a Victorian Gentleman Adventurer out of his time.Soon enough the world he occupies will be irrevocably changed on the killing fields of the Great War for civilisation.Expeditions such as his will no longer be redolent of the Wardroom vs the Lower Deck.What passes in the British psyche for egalitarianism will infiltrate all fields of endeavour.Mr Mills conveys courage without actually doing anything courageous,a challenge to the finest of actors."Scott of the Antarctic" was a prestigious production in 1948,in the twilight of the British Empire's last gleaming.Captain Scott was widely regarded as a worthy successor to Raleigh,Cooke,Stanley and Rhodes,adventurers whose names we hardly dare to speak in the 21st century.His brand of bloody-minded determination has been replaced by the "yeah,whatever...."culture. As expedition leader Scott was as much a victim of the hierarchical society as his humblest hewer of wood and drawer of water.Leadership was the prerogative of his class regardless of their abilities. In 1948 we watched the movie without the benefit of nearly sixty years of hindsight.It may be flawed as a historical document,but as a cinematic achievement it is worthy of a place in the top rank of British Cinema.Much of its impact is dulled on the small screen of course,you never get the sense of the futility of the small figures struggling across the ice,the insignificance of man in the face of raw nature yet at the same time his indomitability that can be conveyed in a movie theatre.If the truth about Scott does not live up to the legend perhaps,as a tribute to a brave man,we should as John Ford said in "The man who shot Liberty Vallance"....."Print the legend".
Review of Scott of the Antarctic
