Last Place on Earth

Rating:
Summary: Roald Amundsen, the consummate polar explorer, gets his due!
Review: Finally, on DVD! This fine and factual treatment of the historic race to the South Pole between Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott is the best and most complete to date. Based on the book "The Last Place on Earth" by Roland Huntford, this handsome production gives us a non-biased and realistic look at the history, politics and personalities involved in the struggle for the South Pole. Here at last Roald Amundsen, the consummate polar explorer, gets his due while Scott and the over-rated Ernest Shackleton are placed in proper perspective. This marvelous production features a fine cast, an excellent script, and a magnificent score by Trevor Jones. Not to be missed!

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the Finest Adventure Series Ever Televised
Review: I decided to write this review after seeing the television
dramatization of Ernest Shackleton's "Endurance" expedition.
Although I have seen "Last Place" many times, seeing "Shackleton", which is not bad, made me appreciate how
good "Last Place" really is. Ultimately, "Last Place" gives
a very good presentation of the different approaches to polar
exploration that Amundsen and Scott had. Unfortunately, "Shackleton" did not do this as well. Scott, a typical product of the hidebound Royal Navy and the class-ridden society
that made up late Victorian Britain believes that technology combined with immense will-power and "natural superiority of the Englishman" will overcome all obstacles.
Amundsen, a citizen of newly independent Norway, was much more open-minded and willing to make due with less. Unlike the British who believed they were a superior civilization and had nothing to learn from "inferior natives" like the Eskimos had clothing and food that was less well adapted to life in the very harsh polar climate. This flexibility that Amundsen had led him to adopt the clothing of the Eskimos and also led him to be more concerned about the problem of scurvey which plagued previous expeditions to the polar regions. This meant that Amundsen's men were much healthier (they actually gained weight on the journey!) than Scott's. By using dogs, there was less physical strain on the Norweigians than on the British who pulled their sled by themselves for much of the trip.
Amundsen was a meticulous planner whereas Scott had a tendency to rely on the British habit of "muddling through" and hoping that things will work out. In the end, these differences meant the difference between life or death for the two expeditions.
It is true that Roland Huntford whose book of the same name is the basis of the series has a real hatred for Scott which comes out again and again and showing a negative image of Scott which is probably exaggerated in the series, but Amundsen's flaws are also brought out such as his hiding the truth about his plans to go to the South Pole instead of exploring the Arctic as he claimed he was going to do and his almost disastrous too-early start to the South Pole which brought out his conflict with the legendary Hjalmar Johansen. Thus, I believe the viewer does come out of the series with a pretty honest idea of the truth about the race to the Pole and the very different outcomes for the two expeditions.
Beside the outstanding script and acting, the cinematography is absolutely breathtaking and the almost hurculean efforts to film this in the harsh environment of Greenland really paid off in making making one of the most impressive productions ever to be seen on television or the cinema. Anyone who is interested in history, exploration, or the psychology of men in extreme conditions will immensely enjoy this treasure.

Rating:
Summary: More than just history
Review: I first saw this production 15 years ago when it first aired on PBS. I've been looking for a copy ever since. Finally...

This is great history, an exciting story and a great production. But more than that, this should be mandatory viewing for every MBA canditate. The comparative managment styles and approaches of Scott and Amundsen should be "case studies" in every business school in America. CEO's should buy it by the case. (you can print my name, I'm retiring in 30 days)

Rating:
Summary: More than just history
Review: I first saw this production 15 years ago when it first aired on PBS. I've been looking for a copy ever since. Finally...

This is great history, an exciting story and a great production. But more than that, this should be mandatory viewing for every MBA canditate. The comparative managment styles and approaches of Scott and Amundsen should be "case studies" in every business school in America. CEO's should buy it by the case. (you can print my name, I'm retiring in 30 days)

Rating:
Summary: Definitely Five Stars!!!
Review: I first watched this film when it was aired on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre back in 1984. Roland Huntford's account of the big race between Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott speaks out the truth that was omitted when Scott's diary was first published, and kept from public interest so that Scott could be claimed as a hero throughout the British Empire. Though Amundsen claimed the South Pole one month ahead of Scott, the British looked upon him as an inferior and giving Scott all the glory. I've had the opportunity as a boy to meet the real Tryggve Gran, the youngest member of the South Pole Expedition more than once, who accompanied Scott to Antarctica as ski instructor. Gran, who was in his late seventies when I met him at his home in Norway, had written several books about the South Pole Expeditions of the two men. Gran knew that Scott was in trouble from the very beginning. The filming sequence was shot in the Arctic regions of northern Canada and Greenland where the actors could experience the real effects that those they portrayed had felt. Temperatures dipped down as low as -60ºF and howling winds were prevalent. This was done in order to get as close to reality as possible. I highly reccomend this video.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best historical dramas!
Review: I love historical drama and this is one of the best. I am passionate about this production which I first saw in 1986. In spite of its length, I never tire of it. I've watched it many, many times. I learn and understand new things each time I watch it. It led me to read and study the book and many other books, documentaries and material on the subject. This movie is incredibly accurate, realistic and detailed. It inspires me in many ways. It teaches much about the value of meticulous preparation, the nature of honest leadership and human will.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Iconoclasm
Review: Superb dramatization of Roland Huntford's iconoclstic book of Scott and Amundsen making for the South Pole. The acting is first-rate, with veterans (Stephen Moore, Max von Sydow) and (then) rising talent (Michael Maloney, Hugh Grant) enduring some hardships in Antarctic-like conditions. There was no stinting on this production. The only problem with the script is its determination to tarnish Scott. It not only has to make him a bungler and -- in extreme cases -- a fool, it makes him mean and dominated by his wife (perhaps he went to the pole to die just to get away from her)

One caveat: Since Huntford's book new evidence has thrown his interpretation of events into doubt. Huntford is a first-rate biographer of polar explorers (Nansen, Shakleton). He seems to be determinedly anti-Scott. But Scott's expedition was meticulously planned, employing the latest of science and technology; his use of ponies was not the failure depicted here. He was not as mercurial and indecisive as this drama depicts him. Nor was Amundsen so saintly and all-knowing as depicted here. In an effort to give Amundsen "his due" they thought it necessary to bury altogether the already fading repuation of a heroic explorer who had a run of bad luck (as Amundsen had a run of good luck -- and neither man could budget for luck).

It would be interesting to see a miniseries of this quality that shows Amundsen as a hero and Scott as a tragic hero in light of the new evidence of climatology, based on recent books by Diana Preston and Susan Solomon. There's no reason to take anything away from Amundsen by saying he benefitted from a run of luck Scott lacked. It's too bad this show, following Huntford's thesis but without the corroborating detail, becomes, in the end, not merely a cynical exercise in iconoclasm, but perhaps in character assassination.

Still, for what it is, it's first-rate. But it should be released with a companion disk showing a 2002 "Secrets of the Dead" program that tries to rectify the record on Scott. Scott made mistakes -- the worst was probably taking seaman Evans on the last leg, which was an early bit of "diversity" on his part. But he wasn't quite the monster Martin Shaw devolves into.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Real Life Adventure Also Demolishes A Legend
Review: This series succeeds in holding my attention right through to the end even on repeat viewing. Anyone interested in polar exploration should regard this as not just a good adventure, but also a good lesson both in the how-to/what-not-to-dos of exploring a hostile environment and also in the art of whitewashing the truth - that subsequently made the incompetent Scott a legend and a hero in his homeland.