Rating: 
Summary: TO THE ENDURING HUMAN SPIRIT!
Review: SHACKLETON may not be the "greatest adventure story of all time," but it ranks high on the list of great adventure films. Kenneth Branagh (HAMLET, WILD WILD WEST) delivers a performance worthy of an Emmy. A great supporting cast, top-notch visual effects, and some riveting storytelling keep this somewhat slow-moving film in constant motion. A good one for the collection! Grade: B+
Rating:
Summary: the book is better
Review: The movie doesn't have enough time to convey the extream hardship they faced. I read the book before i saw the movie and i thought the movie made their adventure seem tame. It is interesting if you don't have the time to read The Endurance. The story is so great that it needs more time but you get the general idea of the real life heroism that makes the story so unique.
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Summary: Technical comment
Review: The series is good. I enjoyed Caroline Alexander's book more, though. ... The movie is presented on this DVD in an anamorphic widescreen (1:85.1). It's a great looking picture - clear and free of the "digitized" look on my 16:9 TV. The sound is only Dolby Surround; not Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. However, the good music score sounds great.
Good extras, too. Overall a good DVD release that's worth the price.
Rating: 
Summary: Great set of DVDs for those interested in subject
Review: The set of three DVDs provides good insight into exploration of the continent and history of exploration. I consider this as excellent addition to printed materials. If you have looked into the subject and have red about the events, this will probably will not reveal anything new but as the addition to literature it is excellent and serves as good material to make people interested in subject if they have not looked into it. This is good quality product, reccomended not only as entertainment but can serve as the additional informative material. Would like to see more of these devoted to polar exploration.
Rating:
Summary: Makes an incredible story even better
Review: When I first read of the incredible story of Shackleton's Endurance expedition--almost two years stranded in the Antarctic and yet all men lived to tell the tale--I thought it would make a wonderful film but couldn't imagine how a filmed version would live up to what was in my mind's eye. I was gratified to find "Shackleton" (the movie) to be one of the greatest adventure movies I'd ever seen. Kenneth Branagh is perfectly cast as Sir Ernest Shackleton, the slightly full-of-himself but heroic leader of the expedition. The entire thing was filmed, quite realistically, in Greenland, which looks stunning. I was particularly impressed at how closely the cinematography matches the well-known photographs taken by the actual expedition photographer, Frank Hurley. Some shots in the film are essentially identical to Hurley's photos, adding to the film's realism. (If you'd like a good look at the original photos, I recommend Caroline Alexander's "Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antartic Expedition," which contains great reproductions of them.) It's true that it takes the entire first half of the film for the expedition to get underway and then stranded, but even this lengthy non-Antarctic segment is reasonably well done. On top of the inherent drama in the story and the excellent production, the DVD carries an entire volume of worthy extras: a 2-hour history of the Antartic, a segment from A&E "biography" on Shackleton, and a "making of" video as well. Enough to keep exploration fans--or anyone interested in great adventures--happy for hours and hours!
Rating: 
Summary: A Mediocre Telling of an Amazing Story
Review: Where is David Lean when we need him? This dramatized version of the ill-fated Shackleton Expedition comes off as exactly what it is -- a high budget television movie. Here the fate of the Shackleton and his men is never in doubt, thanks to a stirring score, cardboard characters, and a script that rarely, if ever, frightens or surprises. Although it attempts to tell the story in grand fashion, and does it with an admirable attention to realism and detail, and with some grand special effects, the film itself is remarkably boring to watch. All the drama inherent in the survival of Shackleton and his crew is absent from Charles Sturridges' plodding script, which seems more intent to sketch the story's outlines than to really paint a serious psychological portrait of one of history's great leaders and create the emotion that one of the great survival stories of all time should engender. If you are interested in that type of insight, a much more satisfying film is the documentary produced a couple years back about the same topic, which is not only breathtaking and achingly dramatic, but completely rewarding. That is a lot more than I can say for this mediocre portrayal. (The one saving grace of the DVD set is that it does come with a bonus disc, which contains some interesting films about the history of exploration in Antarctica.)
P.S.: As for that David Lean adaptation of this story that we'll never get to see... Can you imagine it? It must start with the real life death of Earnest Shackleton. After surviving against all odds, he regrouped and raised money for one last expedition. But, just as he entered arctic waters, Shackleton died of a heart attack. Such a poetic and fitting end for a man whose greatest accomplishment came out of his greatest failure. Can you see it? Just like in Dr. Zhivago, as Shackleton falls to the deck of his ship we flash back to the beginnings of his amazing life... Ah, now that's a movie I'd like to see.
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