Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure
Of the many films that have chronicled Ernest Shackleton's team's legendary trans-Antarctic expedition and their struggle for survival,Shackleton's Antarctic Adventureis the only documentary that traces the actual steps of the explorers' blessed journey. While providing a concise summary of the Shackleton team's 1914-16 expedition, this breathtaking IMAX feature employs exacting re-creations and flyover footage (from 1999 and 2000) of the same harsh landscapes that Shackleton and his men traversed, by land and sea, during their ill-fated voyage. As with most IMAX films, climactic moments are driven by a bombastic score (how many swollen crescendos can one movie handle?), and the harshest facts of the Shackleton journey (e.g., sacrificing beloved dogs for food and euthanasia) are omitted for family viewing. That's a condescending compromise, and the gravitas of Kevin Spacey's narration is a bit overstated. What matters here are the visuals (both vintage and contemporary), and they're absolutely magnificent, conveying the sheer horror--and divine beauty--of the greatest survival story of all time.--Jeff ShannonAttention:The initial shipment of the DVD release of Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure had a defective Dolby Digital track, which was corrected for all subsequent manufacturing.  The DTS track was always properly synched.Some used copies with the defect may be circulating, but all of Amazon.com's new inventory is of the corrected edition.  You can distinguish the corrected edition from the defective because the corrected edition has a blue dot under the "Image Entertainment" logo on the lower left corner of the back cover.  If you have a defective edition, please return it to the retailer where it was purchased for replacement with a corrected version.The VHS edition never had any synching issues, so none of the above applies to the VHS edition.