Scott of the Antarctic (1948)

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dombrewer
It's a shame that this classic British film has no comments and is on no official lists to date because it certainly deserves to be more widely seen. It's a little clunky to start with; the build up to Scott's ill-fated expedition isn't well paced, but once the Terra Nova departs for the Pole it's as gripping as you'd expect. John Mills makes a sympathetic, driven Captain Scott, well supported by a cast including Kenneth More, James Robertson Justice and Derek Bond. Jack Cardiff's cinematography is as brilliant as expected, as is Vaughan Williams score.
Scott's reputation took a dive in the 1970s as criticisms arose regarding his competence, but this film remains strongly in the tragic heroic vein. More recently the tide had swung back in his favour, even though we now know One Ton camp was originally planned to be based much further south and would have saved all their lives - a tragic fact not mentioned in this film.
Finally I greatly admired the restraint shown in the screenplay, the final scenes are simple and powerful. If this film was made today there would be shots of the dead explorers frozen in their tent and inevitable epilogue of Kathleen Scott screaming and wailing at the news. It was a different era, and in the film world too. 11 years 3 months ago