Endurance, a new documentary from National Geographic, looks at two parallel expeditions occurring a century apart. Sir Ernest Shackleton sent a majority of his life trying to explore regions untouched by humans. After many failed attempts at reaching the South Pole, Shackleton worked to traverse the entire continent of Antarctica in the hopes to make a proper name for himself. Yet, during the planned mission the ice took over their vessel, named the Endurance, and left the crew of 27 men in complete ruin for over a year in the harsh Antarctic climate.
Meanwhile, in the present day, a team of explorers utilizing the wonders of modern technology set out to find the Endurance, which has remained a major mysterious artifact of a bygone era. Throughout the documentary, the film jumps back and forth between the two groups of explorers as one tries to stay alive and the other tries to find their own holy grail.
Directed by Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, and Natalie Hewit, the film utilizes remarkable (and colorized) footage from that fateful Antarctic journey from the beginning of the 20th century. The wherewithal in 1914 to bring along various cameras to record the expedition was not only smart, but a huge benefit for those of us learning about the attempted trek across the continent. It’s the definition of “you gotta see this!” filmmaking. A few reenactments are dropped throughout the film’s hour and forty minute runtime, but none of them are remotely as enrapturing as the film from the 1910s.
The tale is astounding as Shackleton’s expedition is told mostly through diary entries from the exploration team on board. To hear it in their words the treachery, and yet, the rather profound positivity throughout the harrowing experience adds to the film’s power. (Side note: People in the early 20th century really used to write their journals like they knew they were going to be published. Everything would be so much easier if they did the least. “This blows. Wanna die. Hungry.”)
Unfortunately, the present day tale is nowhere near as engaging. How could it be? You have individuals working to survive close to 800 days in Antarctica with the bare necessities and placing that side-by-side with some people rocking thick North Face jackets as they use millions of dollars to avoid getting cold themselves. Of course, resourceful and respectful exploration is such an incredible gift for anyone to be passionate about, but when you pair both sets of stakes next to each other, the men writing about rationing seal blubber is always going to come out on top. (SPOILER ALERT: The team ends up finding the sunken Endurance vessel…and that’s it. They don’t really do much with the discovery after the fact. So…why did we spend so much time with the crew?)
So, that leaves us with half of a really interesting documentary and half of a decent television special stitched together. Then: the credits hit. Throughout the film, as mentioned above, the stories from the explorers are spoken in their own words. However, this film utilized AI to recreate their voices. Immediately I was left with a sour taste in my mouth. What does this accomplish? It added nothing to the story. Actors, frankly, would’ve done a much better job reading these stories with proper gusto and emphasis when needed. Instead, viewers are provided with monotone, uncanny valley readings of centuries old journals.
In a way, the use of the AI complicates the intentions of the filmmakers. The story of Shackleton (and to a lesser degree, the modern day team) is one of resilience, perseverance and, of course, endurance. Using AI in this way takes the lazy way out, frankly. “Yeah, just throw it into a computer and we’ll be fine.” It takes away the human component that makes these stories so enriching. It was a dismaying choice for an otherwise decently engaging film. At this point, I’ll take the eventual film adaptation with human actors.
Endurance airs November 1st on National Geographic and will stream on Disney+ and Hulu the next day.