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In 1910, Captain Robert Falcon Scott led what he hoped would be the first
successful team to reach the South Pole. But the expedition also had a complex
(and completely genuine) scientific brief. Scott's decision to include a
cameraman in his expedition team was a remarkable one for its time, and it is
thanks to his vision - and to Herbert Ponting's superb eye - that, a century
later, we have an astonishing visual account of his tragic quest.
The media rights to the photographs and footage contributed very
substantially to the expedition's funding. Scott and Ponting had sold footage
rights to Gaumont, who in November 1911 released the first set of films sent
back by Ponting (before the assault on the Pole) under the title With Captain
Scott to the South Pole. This was followed by two further instalments in 1912.
After the news of Scott's death reached England on 11 February 1913, a
respectful period was allowed to elapse before Gaumont's re-release of the
material as The Undying Story of Captain Scott.
Ponting made the best of the disastrous situation by buying back the rights
from Gaumont and embarking on a gruelling lecture tour, which included
Buckingham Palace and troops during the Great War. The silent feature The Great White Silence, released in 1924, served as a eulogy to Scott and freed Ponting
from having to accompany and commentate on the footage personally. A later
version, with sound, was subsequently released as 90 Degrees South
(1933).
The Great White Silence built on Ponting's lecture, introducing intertitles,
as well as his own stills, maps, portraits and paintings, to create a narrative
of the tragic events. He even filmed some novel sequences using models and
stop-motion photography to show the various journeys of the polar teams.
The final film was tinted and toned to express lighting effects. Ponting had
the foresight to film Scott, Edward Wilson, 'Taff' Evans and Henry Bowers
(interestingly, the same men, with Lawrence Oates, were to form the - as yet
unselected - polar team) manhauling the sledge and cooking and sleeping in their
tent, just as they were to do for real on the way to and from the Pole. He could
not have predicted the tragic denouement - the team's discovery that Amundsen
had beaten them to the Pole, and their terrible end in unseasonably cold weather
just 11 miles short of the food and fuel depot.
Bryony Dixon
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1. October 1910 (5:49)
