“Endurance” Film Review: Fails to Ignite the Passion Required To Become a Truly Compelling Work

After dipping their toes into untested waters (or at least for them) that is fiction with Nyad in 2023, directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi return to documentary-style storytelling with Endurance. In their latest work, which they co-directed with Natalie Hewit (The Met: Policing London, Horizon) they continue to explore the boundaries of the human body and the mind. This is while sharing one of the most notorious and history-changing Antarctic explorations, Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton’s expedition in the early 20^th century. While the visuals certainly are as impressive and creative as the Academy Award winners’ previous work, Free Solo, the documentary can’t become truly compelling due to the fragmented storylines and back-and-forth editing.

Throughout this documentary, you’ll follow two stories in tandem. One is about Shackleton’s expedition and the sinking of his ship, the Endurance, and the second one is the quest (Endurance22) in 2022 to locate the ship’s wreckage. While both stories couldn’t be further apart from each other timewise, the similarities between the two are undeniably strong. A lot of that stems from both the stories being about dangerous and possibly life-threatening expeditions, leadership, survival, extreme strength (mentally and physically) and endurance (in more than one way).  

Sadly, the film’s tone and atmosphere don’t match that strength, resilience and determination. That’s mainly because the back and forth between the two stories undermines both expeditions’ importance and magnitude. Via the many contemporary videos and pictures and the authentic voice recordings from the Endurance crew, you, for example, witness how the ship is caught up in ice, how the men have to find shelter on a deserted island and an improbable rescue attempt. The crew has been away for years, all while their families have to deal with them being away and the raging World War. There are many more gripping moments like this, as Shackleton’s life certainly is worth discovering, and there’s definitely also a sense of tension hanging over this documentary.

However, the intensity and excitement level of those scenes don’t reach their intended impact due to editors Bob Eisenhardt (Free Solo, Soldiers of Music) and Simona Ferrari (Free Solo, The Rescue) frequently introducing footage of the expedition from the Endurance22. Instead of weaving both stories into each other from the beginning, the movie and both captivating stories would have benefited much more from linear editing, starting the telling of Shackleton’s story and ending with the 2022 expedition. You would get a much deeper insight into the rogue man, Shackleton, and his multiple bad choices, instinct, and immense endurance. The reasons behind the contemporary explorers wanting to find the shipwreck of the Endurance and their passion and admiration for Shackleton would also feel much more powerful.

Not that the scientific curiosity of the Endurance22 doesn’t come through at all whatsoever. You certainly want to go on the expedition to discover if there’s indeed a shipwreck beneath the water’s surface. They use up-to-date technology, diary entries, Shackleton’s failures, the Endurance’s last coordinates, and their own personal story to fulfil their impossibly sounding mission. The energy, expertise and love for the subject from specialists such as expedition leader John Shears, director of exploration Mensun Bound, and world-renowned British historian Dan Snow, to just name a few, are certainly unmatched. That passion and energy don’t feel as tangible as it should and could have been due to the maze of editing cuts.

While the documentary needs to deliver the story in the most powerful and in-depth way possible, it does excel in using the different kinds of footage available. The filmmakers decided to give the archival footage by Frank Hurley (Shackleton’s team member) a colourful and vivid make-over, making those scenes stand out. You truly get a first-hand insight into the gruesome circumstances Shackleton and his twenty-seven men had to deal with after abandoning their ship in the frozen Weddell Sea.

There might have been many heated discourses about the usage of AI in film throughout the years, and this feature beautifully shows how to utilize that tool in a much more positive and enriching way. The filmmakers took the voices of Shackleton and six of his crew members, and, via AI, they used them as voice-overs that would read the many different diary entries found on board. This works incredibly well, and if you didn’t know it was done in this way, you would never have guessed it. The voices genuinely sound like the real-life ones, further enhancing the work’s authenticity. That AI doesn’t distract from the overall story or the filmmakers’ immensely creative work.

Endurance indeed centres on a contemporary, inspiring, and engaging story (or, better said, stories). However, it lacks the passion, strength, and intensity both the 1917 explorers and the crew of the Endurance22 had. Despite the captivating visuals and the innovative AI voice recreation technology, the movie can’t excel due to the absence of that extra powerful spark.  

Endurance will debut on National Geographic on the 1^st of November and will be available on Disney+ a day later courtesy of National Geographic.

Read our interview with producer Ruth Johnson, director of exploration Mensun Bound historian and Dan Snow here. Check out our interview with co-director/co-producer Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi here.