Squrpleboy This is the most unbelievable TRUE story I have ever seen! Thank God I walked into it not knowing anything about Shackleton or the cataclysmic expedition he and his men endured for almost two years of their lives; I was mesmerized by the tale and STUNNED by the conclusion! Without a doubt, Sir Ernest Shackleton is one of the bravest, loyal, and awe-inspiring men I have ever heard of. This documentary does everything right in trying to tell his (and his crew's) story without sensationalizing or mythifying his character. Use of actual still and motion picture photography from the doomed expedition, letters from the crew, interviews and stories with grandchildren of the ship-men, new footage of the original Antarctic sites, and a beautifully written and delivered narration (by Liam Nieson) are blended together seemlessly to transport the viewer back in time, and into the terror that was the voyage of The Endurance. Although Kenneth Branagh's SHACKLETON (2002) was a good effort and a fine telling, it truly could not capture the real tension, anticipation, expectation and real-life drama in the way this documentary did throughout (I found Branagh's version often played on obvious audience manipulators, ie., heavy-handed dialogue, hammered musical scoring, camera indulgence, etc.). 9/10. ENDURANCE is the greatest example of TRUTH being stranger than fiction, and so much more compelling!

Joe Stemme Let me say first, that I think the story of the Shakleton expedition is a fascinating one. One so strange, that it has to be fact to be believed (no fiction would pass this test). Still, I must say that ENDURANCE stretches the definition of a "movie" a bit much. Basically, it's a big-budget double episode of NOVA. The filmmaking is rather perfunctory. Adding to my disappointment was the fact that although they went to the enormous logistical and financial difficulty of shooting new FILM footage at the South Pole - they now show the alleged "movie" in theaters as a film-to-tape-and-back-to-film transfer! Huh? If you are going to charge people $9 to see this in a cinema, couldn't they have at least done a direct FILM transfer?

yrral-3 An exciting, amazing and deeply moving story of a heroic escape from an icy trap in Antarctica. In all, it takes Shackleton and his crew about two years to make it back to civilization. What they overcame to get there is beyond belief. This film should not be missed.

occupant-1 At any point in this expedition, many would have given up or run out of ideas, but Ernest Shackleton's attitude reminds one of the Apollo 13 support crews in that failure was not an option. Everything great about the human species is seen in the efforts to discover an escape route from the pack ice, to find food in an almost lunar landscape and to send at least a few sailors to an island near the shipping lanes hundreds of miles from camp, the last chance for anyone to discover that Endurance's crew was still alive. Shackleton's refusal to give up, as well as resourcefulness in making unwasteful decisions, was the main reason for the rescue of the entire crew. Other than sled dogs, the antarctic didn't claim a single life - from this crew, anyway.