Captain Robert Falcon Scott of the Royal Navy became the second man by days to reach the South Pole. But it was the attempted return trip that made him a legend. That and the diary he kept of the journey.
When Scott and his four companions were found his diary among other effects were returned to his widow Kathleen. She carefully edited it and had it published. It became a popular literary classic, embodying all the best virtues the British like to see in themselves.
Kathleen Scott in her widowhood became a lot like Libby Bacon Custer, widow of George Armstrong Custer who survived him and the massacre at the Little Big Horn in 1876 all the way until 1932. She also jealously guarded the reputation of her husband. Kathleen Scott had the easier job, her husband's reputation even today despite some revisionist opinion has stood a lot better than General Custer.
Diaries are in and of themselves self serving, edited as Scott's was it made him out to be almost a saint. In fact even the film shows that Scott made several decisions that doomed his fate.
Whether he admitted it or not, he was in fact in a race with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen to see who would be first to the South Pole. Scott insisted on preserving a certain fiction that this was in fact a scientific expedition right to the end, his men carried rock samples back from the pole to their deaths. I'm still trying to figure out why he didn't just leave them and mark the spot and go back for them.
He insisted on some motorized transport that broke down in the bitter cold. We have machines that operate in extreme cold now, we couldn't explore space if we didn't. Also anti-freeze had not been invented yet. Scott also brought some Shetland ponies who also broke down had to be killed. Amundsen brought only sled dogs and used valuable knowledge he gathered from the Inuit about polar travel.
Amundsen is kind of an unseen villain here and he certainly didn't help his historic reputation by leaving an in your face type of letter to be found by Scott on his arrival only days later. Still the plain fact is that he knew his job better than Scott which is why he made it and did survive.
John Mills both plays Scott and supplies the narrative from his diary. It was one of Mills's most popular roles and it's almost like he was playing two different parts. Both as husband and father and leader of the expedition he's in one character and the man narrating Scott's diary is another. He did both very well indeed.
Diana Churchill, daughter of another UK legend, is Kathleen Scott and Mills's companions on the final dash to the pole are Harold Warrender, Derek Bond, James Robertson Justice, and Reginald Beckwith.
Despite his flaws as a leader, Robert Falcon Scott was a courageous explorer into the unknown and this film does his historic reputation well. Despite revisionist opinion it too has stood the test of time.
When Scott and his four companions were found his diary among other effects were returned to his widow Kathleen. She carefully edited it and had it published. It became a popular literary classic, embodying all the best virtues the British like to see in themselves.
Kathleen Scott in her widowhood became a lot like Libby Bacon Custer, widow of George Armstrong Custer who survived him and the massacre at the Little Big Horn in 1876 all the way until 1932. She also jealously guarded the reputation of her husband. Kathleen Scott had the easier job, her husband's reputation even today despite some revisionist opinion has stood a lot better than General Custer.
Diaries are in and of themselves self serving, edited as Scott's was it made him out to be almost a saint. In fact even the film shows that Scott made several decisions that doomed his fate.
Whether he admitted it or not, he was in fact in a race with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen to see who would be first to the South Pole. Scott insisted on preserving a certain fiction that this was in fact a scientific expedition right to the end, his men carried rock samples back from the pole to their deaths. I'm still trying to figure out why he didn't just leave them and mark the spot and go back for them.
He insisted on some motorized transport that broke down in the bitter cold. We have machines that operate in extreme cold now, we couldn't explore space if we didn't. Also anti-freeze had not been invented yet. Scott also brought some Shetland ponies who also broke down had to be killed. Amundsen brought only sled dogs and used valuable knowledge he gathered from the Inuit about polar travel.
Amundsen is kind of an unseen villain here and he certainly didn't help his historic reputation by leaving an in your face type of letter to be found by Scott on his arrival only days later. Still the plain fact is that he knew his job better than Scott which is why he made it and did survive.
John Mills both plays Scott and supplies the narrative from his diary. It was one of Mills's most popular roles and it's almost like he was playing two different parts. Both as husband and father and leader of the expedition he's in one character and the man narrating Scott's diary is another. He did both very well indeed.
Diana Churchill, daughter of another UK legend, is Kathleen Scott and Mills's companions on the final dash to the pole are Harold Warrender, Derek Bond, James Robertson Justice, and Reginald Beckwith.
Despite his flaws as a leader, Robert Falcon Scott was a courageous explorer into the unknown and this film does his historic reputation well. Despite revisionist opinion it too has stood the test of time.