Change Your Image
GaryPUK
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Blizzard: Race to the Pole (2006)
Recreation of the1911 race to the South Pole between Scott and Amundsen
Spoilers below...
This documentary recreates the race to the South Pole in 1911 between Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott and questions whether the success and failure was due to luck or strategy. Scott has been labelled as both an unlucky gifted explorer and an arrogant incompetent.
The two teams are kitted out in 1911 gear, carrying the same supplies as their counterparts, and employing the same strategies. The main difference between the teams being Amundsen's choice to use more dogs and to use them for more of the journey. Scott had decided that dogs were unreliable over unpredictable terrain and decided to man-haul the sledges.
Because dogs are no longer allowed in Antarctic, the race was recreated in Greenland where there's similar terrain and weather.
The modern Scott Team is lead by Bruce Parry, who has gentle leadership style which belies his military background as a Marines commando troop commander. Bruce is the youngest officer to have ever been in charge of all physical training for the Royal Marines Commandos.
The physical change in the modern Scott team is drastic. They man-haul sledges burning almost twice the calories than the original Scott diet provides and we see them shed body weight at a dramatic rate as the team lose between 16% - 25% of their body mass before their race is called off by the producers.
The modern Amundsen team, using dogs, make up so much time on their way back that they hit their previously dropped food stores early and actually put on weight.
The series mirrors the original journey remarkably closely, in both execution and weather, and there are great insights provided by explorers such as Ranulph Fiennes. It is truly great to watch the struggle, torment, let downs and achievement, and it provides a heartfelt view of the courage and struggle Scott and his team originally faced.
The result of the race is the same as the original to the point where the British team reach the Pole way behind the Norwegians and fail on the return journey.
Favourite moment in the series is when Bruce Parry is arguing with a team member about how to get the sledges up a steep section and off camera you hear... "Is that dissent amongst the men sir? Shall I shoot him sir?" Very Pythonesque.
This is truly compulsive viewing and the sort of documentary that inspires. I would recommend buying this on DVD as you will want to see this over and over.
Long Way Round (2004)
Fascinating and Addictive
Whenever I buy DVDs I always pop them in the player to make sure they work and then shelve them. I popped L.W.R. into the player and I ended up watching three hours of the series before I realised the time.
This is truly compulsive viewing as, no doubt has been said earlier, it is not the standard celebs on a cushy ride under the guise of reality TV. There are times when there is genuine fear for their safety - and lives, and shows a real insight into the genuine personalities of Charlie and Ewan. Their is also a great sense of personal effort and struggle despite the well organised support crew who are, in the main, nowhere to be seen.
The one thing I felt could have improved this was more screen time, and so a better understanding of the role and personality of Claudio, their cameraman.
This is one of the few DVDs I own which gets a regular playing and it loses none of its appeal/humour/drama whatsoever.
Fascinating and Addictive.
10/10
Mar adentro (2004)
OK, you're kidding right?
This film is awful. The acting in this film is appalling. The only way you could think this film has any quality to it is if you cannot speak Spanish, are dyslexic, and spent the whole time reading the subtitles and not looking at the rest of the screen.
The depth of exploration of the subject of assisted suicide is greatly surpassed every week by watching the likes of Casualty(BBC Drama series).
The writing beggars belief. It appears to have been written by a 16 year old studying Spanish as a fourth language. None of the characters have any depth and are entirely two dimensional.
The makers of this film owe me. They owe me big time. I gave two hours of my life for this - two hours that I can never reclaim.
This film is so bad that I feel that I have expended far more effort than it deserved in writing this let alone watching it.