Product description

The Last Place On Earth

Price: £11.97
RRP: £19.99 This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery
You save: £8.02 (40 %)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5027626255343
Label : Network
Manufacturer : Network
Publisher : Network
Release date : 2006-11-20
Title : The Last Place On Earth
Audience rating : Parental Guidance
Format : PAL
Languages : Array
Number of items : 2
Region code : 2
Running time : 380
Studio : Network

Customer reviews

review by: Author - The Virtual Trilogy date: 2008-06-27 rating:

As entertaining today as it was twenty years ago
I watched the original series when it first came out and was even more entranced by the book on which it was based. Having purchased the series from amazon, I'm amazed at how little it has dated and how entertaining it still is for the modern audience.

While it lacks the drive and the sheer acting talent of the more recent "Shackleton" film, the insights it gives into Scott's character and motivations - as well as the legend that was built up around his "heroic failure" to save the British Empire embarressment in the face of Amnundsen's coldly efficient success - were fascinating.

While the ad breaks still remain on the DVD from the original television version (my only quibble) this is a great value for money set.

review by: darrenlangley date: 2008-01-17 rating:

Very good drama considering the shaky foundations of the book it was based upon
Having watched this series 20 years ago, I tracked it down via Amazon and was delighted when I found it, and, in comparison with 2001's 'Shackleton,' it has aged quite well, apart from the soundtrack, which does sound dated.
I dare say that anyone buying this DVD will already know a fair bit of Antarctic Exploration History, and will thus be able overlook some of the inventions of the script. There are some excellent performances here, from the lead characters of Martin Shaw as Scott and Sverre Anker Ousdal as Amundsen, to Richard Morant as Captain Oates and a splendidly embittered performance from Bill Nighy as Cecil Meares. There's also an appearance from a youthful Hugh Grant as Apsley Cherry-Garrard.

The scenery is magnificent, and the cast convey at least something of an idea of how hard life was for early polar explorers. However, like 'Shackleton,' there is a little too much build up and more important events hardly touched on - Lashly, Crean and Evans' hazardous return to base, (with Crean's heroic 30 mile solo trek to Hut Point) is probably worth a film of its own

It is a pity that this otherwise excellent drama, and the final episode in particular, was based upon Roland Huntford's biased 'Scott and Amundsen,' now largely discredited (by Ranulph Fiennes' 'Captain Scott' and Susan Solomon's 'The Coldest March'). As such, the conclusion reflects the inaccurate and scurvy-obsessed theories of a journalist (Huntford) who has never been in such a situation. In fact, neither Scott or Amundsen are portrayed sympathetically here, and one is left feeling that the casual viewer would have gone away with an unfairly negative view of both these heroic men.

I do wish other reviewers would read further than Huntford's biased accounts before forming their opinions of Scott.

This DVD set is well packaged but there are no extras. My supposed Region 1 copy played perfectly well on a Region 2 only player for some reason!

review by: date: 2007-12-16 rating:

Gripping re-enactment of the epic race to the South Pole
This excellent DVD, comprising 7 episodes totaling 6 & half hours of viewing time, will most probably forever remain the definitive video of this tragic endeavour.

Knowing the inevitable tragic result does nothing to detract from an engrossing story. With plenty of time at their disposal, the producers can adequately reveal the true natures of the dramatis personae viz Robert Falcon Scott, nicknamed oddly enough Con, presumably from Falcon, Roald Amundsen, his professional but bland adversary, & finally Scott's overbearing girl fiend, later wife, Kathleen.

Not being au fait with the details of the story apart from reading South with Scott about 40 years ago, I am unable to judge the accuracy of the character portrayals. However what becomes abundantly clear is that Scott, unlike his contemporary fellow British explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, did not possess the rudiments of an understanding of human nature & leadership. Rather he was beguiled by his need to assert his authority even when there was clearly no need to do so or even in the manner that he did so. If truth be told, he represented a particularly British trait of that era, worshipping the "inherent British right" to success which permeated the upper classes.

This wishful thinking was buttressed by another unfortunate trait; that of amateurism. Many of Scott's ultimately disastrous decisions were driven by this underlying belief. A poignant exemplar is his decision to send, against the assignee's advice, the "dog man" to Siberia in order to purchase the ponies rather than the recognised expert in the field.

Although it is not explicitly stated, a driving force behind Scott's expedition was his wife. Certainly this unflattering portrayal reveals a woman who, by her own admission, should have been born a man & was a "bra burning feminist type" ahead of her time. Like many of her ilk, instead of subtly advancing her chosen course, she often evoked revulsion with her pompous over confident manner.

Unlike Scott, Amundsen's attempt was based upon pragmatism & the acquisition of the best skills & tools available. What a contrast! Amundsen appreciated the fact that dogs were the preferred mode of transport whereas Scott dabbled with all the alternatives - dogs, ponies & tractors. Apart from the diversity of skills required, the different speeds, "fuels" et cetera, the operating parameters made this decision an unfortunate & ultimately lethal one.

Scott also had a penchant for modifying plans in mid stride with equally disastrous consequences. The decision to lay the One Ton base 30 miles short of its initially agreed location would, as one of the men who bore the brunt of that decision laconically stated, could have been their salvation. Undoubtedly it could have been.

Worse still, another inane decision was the last minute change of plans about having a fifth person as part of the final polar team, instead of the initial 4. Everything was predicated upon having a four man team including the ration arrangement & the number of skis. Again disastrous!

The pathos of Scott's team gradual demise is well portrayed. First to succumb was Evans who slowly became unstable & ultimately wanders off & dies. Finally Oates famously "commits suicide" by leaving the cozy tent in blizzard conditions without adequate protection. A selfless act!

Finally like all great incompetents in history when the inevitable end draws near, Scott confides in his diary the reasons for the expedition's demise attributing it to the weather amongst other thing. Not a hint of contrition instead a litany of woes; anything & everything but his series of supercilious, fatuous decisions, the cumulative effect of which was the unnecessary deaths of 5 people including the amiable obsequious Birdie & the respectable but ineffectual Bill.

A criticism, if I may venture one, is that the video does not really bring across the enormity of the task of going to the pole. It does at one point mention that distance as being 2000 miles but nowhere is this translated into days or more tellingly months. One is left with the impression that the journey is relatively easy. Nowhere is the full extent of the monumental effort required adequately portrayed. This does the participants a grave disservice & beguiles the viewer into the naïve notion that if they had tried harder they might have survived. The extreme gravity of the situation is never adequately felt.

On the other hand, Amundsen's performance is slick & polished. No sentimentality & misplaced judgments here! Just professionalism of the highest order! Whereas the British ultimately died from the paucity of food which reduced their work capacity, it has been alleged that the Norwegian party actually gained weight!! Apocryphal perhaps but telling! Again it was not stated, but one can surmise that the duration of their journey was all of a month shorter than Scott's.

An excellent video contrasting different personalities - bumbling amateurism versus slick professionalism. Not that all the British participants were incompetent, it is just that Scott never valued their judgments & views. But is that not what history is all about: human follies & foibles, human ambition & frailties, human ego & mean spiritedness, human kindness & generosity of spirit. This story has them all - like any good "soapie". The producers could not have wished for better ingredients & hopefully they did not "do a Hollywood" & embellish the facts too much.

Upon reflection a story of only the successful party, Amundsen's, would be a rather bland & insipid affair! It is just a pity that Scott's party had to die due to his ineptitude & brazen disregard for the experts' advice instead relying upon his own flawed counsel.

review by: date: 2006-09-24 rating:

"Scott killed himself. That's what the British do best."

The Last Place On Earth is a now forgotten British mini-series that's worth remembering. Based on Roland Huntford's still controversial myth-shattering biography of Scott and Amundsen's race to the South Pole, it's the kind of thing which would be done in a rushed 2-3 hours at most today, but in 1985 got more than twice that running time over seven episodes. The benefits are amazing. It may take three episodes for the rivals to hit Antarctic waters, but Trevor Griffiths' excellent script, despite a few liberties with history, chronology and supporting characters (particularly Frederick Cook, himself prone to dramatic license), has enough room for its characters' flaws and virtues to be fully explored and quietly builds up real involvement. Martin Shaw's Scott gets most of the flaws, though the show doesn't go quite so overboard with them as Huntford's book (to be fair, Scott's pomposity and ability to repeat disastrous mistakes gave him lots of ammo). But despite being played rather superbly with a charismatic twinkle in his eye by Sverre Anker Ousdal, Amundsen isn't perfect either, as his disastrously mismanaged false start and his jealousy and antagonism toward a more famous member of his expedition demonstrate. Although the story doesn't allow it to be explored, the final episode contains plenty of hints of the bitter man he would eventually become as his victory was increasingly overshadowed by the `glory' of Scott's failure.

Ferdinand Fairfax's direction is impressively cinematic, one episode boasting a complex uninterrupted travelling take that's almost up there with Touch of Evil if only on a technical level. There's a lot of familiar British actors when they were still little-knowns among the supporting cast - Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, Michael Maloney, Pat Roach, Richard Wilson and one of the lesser Dr Whos, Sylvester McCoy (excellent here) among them - as well as the one-time star of guilty pleasure Song of Norway, Toralv Maurstead, looking considerably older than his years as an ill-starred member of Amundsen's expedition (for once, with the exception of Max Von's Sydow's Nansen, the Norwegians are played by real Norwegians). Per Theodor Haugen also makes his mark as Amundsen's brother, constantly left to deal with the details and itinery of the everyday life the explorer cannot deal with. There are a couple of moments that don't really work - Scott glimpsing what he thinks is a cross at Cape Evans where his own memorial would later stand is shot far too literally and the very 80s rock scoring of Amundsen crossing the mountains to the plateau is horribly sub-Chariots of Fire - but they're minor flaws. This has a 9.4 rating on the IMDB. It earned it.

Similar products

Scott Of The Antarctic [1948]
Blizzard: Race to the Pole
South [1919]
Shackleton [2002]
The Endurance [2001]

Similar categories