The Great White Silence

1924 Documentary 108 minutes Directed by Herbert G. Ponting

Open in new tab

About The Great White Silence

Herbert Ponting's film follows Robert Falcon Scott and the Terra Nova from Lyttelton, New Zealand, through the pack ice to a camp on Ross Island. The men put up tents, ski, and ready the southern journey. Ponting, who stayed at the base, also films killer whales, Adélie penguins, skuas, and Weddell seals. Title cards close on the fact that Scott and his four companions did not come back from the Pole.

Cast & crew

More about The Great White Silence

Ponting shot the material on the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910–1913 and stayed at the base rather than going to the Pole. He had already shown the pictures in 1912 as With Captain Scott in the Antarctic. He re-edited them as The Great White Silence, released on May 1, 1924. The British Film Institute restored the film and re-released it in 2011 with a score by Simon Fisher Turner.

Themes

  • The Terra Nova leaving New Zealand
  • A camp on the ice
  • A polar party that does not return
  • Robert Falcon Scott
  • Terra Nova
  • Antarctica
  • Herbert Ponting
  • penguins
  • Ross Island

Background

The Terra Nova Expedition was a British attempt to reach the South Pole. Scott's party arrived in January 1912 to find Roald Amundsen had already been there, and died on the return.

Making

Ponting was the expedition photographer. The polar party left him at the Ross Island base with the camera.

Reviews

Writing in The Daily Telegraph on the 2011 re-release, Marc Lee called the film deeply moving and startlingly powerful.

Audiences

The 1924 release and the later 90° South did not make money.

Look

Ponting filmed the ship, the ice, the camp, and the animals himself. He was not with the party that went to the Pole, so that part of the story is told in titles.

Music

Silent on its 1924 release. Simon Fisher Turner wrote the score for the British Film Institute's 2011 restoration.

Preservation

The British Film Institute restored the film and re-released it in 2011. Copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • Scott did not take Ponting on the polar party. Ponting brought the negative home.
  • Ponies, dogs, and motor sledges appear in the preparations.
  • Ponting later recut some of the same shots, with a soundtrack, as 90° South.
  • The 1924 film and 90° South were not commercial successes. Ponting died in poverty.

Scenes

  • The Terra Nova pushes through pack ice after leaving Lyttelton.
  • Adélie penguins and killer whales are filmed at the edge of the ice.
  • The polar party sets off from the base, and the titles record that they do not return.

Influenced

  • 90° South

Also available

  • Internet Archive (the-great-white-silence-1924)
  • Wikimedia Commons (The Great White Silence (1924) by Herbert Ponting.webm)