Shackleton: The Greatest Story of Survival does exactly what is says on the tin. The movie is a fascinating, uplifting documentary about working as a team to beat unbelievable odds. Forget Survivor, Shackleton is the ultimate story of survival.
Shackleton: The Greatest Story of Survival, is set in the most uninhabitable place on Earth – Antarctica. The movie reveals the true story of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team of 28 adventurers who fought for their lives after their ship was destroyed.
Our guide for the story is explorer Tim Jarvis, the only man ever to have repeated their incredible feat. Jarvis follows in the crew’s footsteps as we see flashbacks of real photographs.
Early into their journey their ship becomes ice locked for over 200 days and it becomes clear they must abandon ship on to the ice. But instead of losing hope Shackleton told his men that while the mission had changed, the vision of doing something together remained. Instead of crossing Antartica, the mission was to work together to save themselves. He reminded them that they could still achieve their vision of doing something memorable together and of pushing themselves against human endurance.
“A man must adjust to a new mark directly the old one goes to ground,” said Shackleton.
As the ship sank, they dragged the lifeboats across the ice and spent months camping on what was effectively floating ice. When it was time to move on again they left even more provisions behind.
Eventually they found a new camp, a floating ice base they called Patience Camp. They stayed there for three months as the base creaked, moved and eventually started melting. Finally moving back to the lifeboats, they went on to face open seas and circling killer whales.
This was only the start of the adventure, as Shackleton eventually left in a rowboat with five men looking for land. The men left behind waited four months and were down to four days of rations when they heard any news of the mission.
Watching the stunning images I pondered:
- Halfway into the movie you start to wonder how on earth Shackleton and his men could have kept on going;
- The movie touches on suffering, teamwork, loneliness, hope and ultimately trust
- It also looks at personal growth, about finding out what lives within yourself;
- Want-to-be leaders will learn many lessons, about reframing the mission and never asking anyone to do something you wouldn’t do yourself.
- It’s also an eye-opening look at the fragility of the landscape and how it has changed over 100 years.
For more information go to Luna Cinema.
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