Tagged: Explorer
Kenneth Branagh’s Antarctic Exploration Gear as Ernest Shackleton
Kenneth Branagh in Shackleton (2002)
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Kenneth Branagh as Sir Ernest Shackleton, prolific polar explorer
Antarctica, December 1914 to August 1916
Series: Shackleton
Air Dates: January 2-3, 2002
Director: Charles Sturridge
Costume Designer: Shirley Russell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Channel 4 series Shackleton aired in two parts during the first week of January 2002, winning Emmy Awards in two of the seven categories for which it was nominated among nods from the BAFTA Awards and Golden Globes. Kenneth Branagh stars as the titular Sir Ernest Shackleton, specifically depicting his leadership of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition toward the end of what many call the “Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”. Though the specific expedition failed in its scientific objective, his leadership and the resourceful group’s survival have become legendary as a feat of, well, endurance. Despite this, Shackleton wisely avoids hagiography as it presents the titular adventurer with virtues and flaws intact.
After securing funding and approval from the British Admiralty despite looming war across Europe, Shackleton’s crew departed from Plymouth in August 1914 aboard the Endurance. Shackleton had purchased this Norwegian-built three-masted schooner, which was originally christened Polaris before he renamed it from his family motto (“By endurance, we conquer”), thus its journey from England through the South Atlantic was its maiden voyage. Following stops in Buenos Aires and South Georgia Island, Shackleton and his crew of 28 men—and 69 dogs—finally departed for the Antarctic on December 5th.
The real Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), photographed aboard the Endurance by Frank Hurley, circa 1914-1915.
Shackleton commanded the Endurance through the Weddell Sea, while Aeneas Mackintosh helmed a supporting party aboard the Aurora through the Ross Sea. Hoping to make landfall by Christmas, the seagoing expedition stretched into January 1915 when the Endurance became beset in pack ice. To conserve fuel for a potential return to South Georgia, Shackleton cut the engines and began drifting in the ice… for nine months.
110 years ago today on October 27, 1915—one year and a day after the Endurance left Buenos Aires—Shackleton finally gave his crew the orders to abandon ship, establishing a camp on the ice after—aside from Frank Hurley’s photographs and Leonard Hussey’s banjo—each man was instructed to dump all but two pounds of personal possessions from aboard the ship. Endurance finally sank just over three weeks later on November 21, 1915, starting a new chapter as the crew realized their mission shifted from science to survival.
My job now is to make sure you all live: every single one of you. To do that, I cannot afford to be sentimental. If I am, you will die—die starving, die frozen, die mad. I’ve seen it before, I do not intend to see it again.
Bill Paxton’s Sea Exploration Style in Titanic
Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett in Titanic (1997)
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Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett, deep-sea treasure hunter
North Atlantic Ocean, Spring 1996
Film: Titanic
Release Date: December 19, 1997
Director: James Cameron
Costume Designer: Deborah Lynn Scott
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This week marks the 113th anniversary of the RMS Titanic sinking in April 1912, a tragedy that has captivated generations—and resurfaced in the public consciousness with every new discovery or disaster, including the OceanGate submersible incident that dominated headlines (and memes) in June 2023.
Forty years ago in the summer of 1985, the wreck of Titanic was discovered by Dr. Robert Ballard, reigniting global fascination and eventually inspiring James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster. For Cameron, the shipwreck was more than a cinematic setting; it was, as he described, “the Mount Everest of shipwrecks.” Despite being “almost past the point” of considering a real undersea expedition, Cameron sought Hollywood funding for what was, at its heart, a chance to dive to the wreck. “Secretly, what I wanted to do was I wanted to dive to the real wreck of Titanic. And that’s why I made the movie,” he admitted to laughter and applause during a 2010 TED Talk, earning laughter and applause. Across 12 dives, Cameron spent more time with Titanic than most of her actual passengers.
Cameron’s longtime friend and collaborator Bill Paxton embodied this pursuit of the ship in his role as Brock Lovett, the modern-day treasure hunter leading the expedition to find a priceless necklace rumored to be buried aboard the ship. Charismatic yet opportunistic, Brock could be a stand-in for Cameron himself, driven by both adventure and the promise of a big payday—be that a sunken treasure or a billion-dollar box office. Paxton’s character even mirrors history; his reaction upon discovering Jack’s drawing of Rose (“I’ll be goddamned”) echoes Dr. Ballard’s exact words upon locating the wreck in 1985. Continue reading
Oliver Reed’s Houndstooth Jacket and Turtleneck in And Then There Were None
Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer in And Then There Were None (1974)
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Oliver Reed as Hugh Lombard, adventurer and accused murderer (or is he?)
Fars, Iran, Fall 1973
Film: And Then There Were None
(also released as Ten Little Indians)
Release Date: September 24, 1974
Director: Peter Collinson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
First released in West Germany four months earlier, the third major screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery And Then There Were None arrived in the United States fifty years ago today on the last day of January 1975*. This was actually the second of three versions of the story to be produced by Harry Alan Towers, the controversial British filmmaker who was evidently quite obsessed with making his mark on Christie’s famous story each decade. (For those who may be unfamiliar, the story centers around ten strangers summoned to a secluded island house, where a mysterious recording accuses them of getting away with murder in the past before each are systematically murdered themselves.)
Towers’ first attempt was the 1965 film Ten Little Indians, which was more of a remake of the 1945 screen adaptation of And Then There Were None (with its “happy” ending) than an original take on Christie’s source novel. The ’65 version also transported the story from a remote English island to an Alpine mansion and glamorized some of the characters, such as replacing the religious spinster with a glamorous actress and converting the drunken socialite into a popular singer—allowing for pop idol Fabian to croon on screen as part of his new contract with Fox. Among its other minor changes to the ten doomed guests was star Hugh O’Brian getting “the Tony Danza treatment” as Christie’s leading man, renamed from Philip Lombard to Hugh Lombard.
This latter change was inexplicably carried over to Oliver Reed’s characterization of the roguish Mr. Lombard in the 1974 adaptation, which borrowed liberally in many other ways from the previous version, including Towers copying much dialogue verbatim from his ’65 screenplay. Other than being the first major adaptation of the story to be filmed in color, the 1974 version also distinguishes itself with yet another new setting, this time moving the action to an elegant—but inexplicably abandoned—hotel in the Iranian desert. Continue reading
National Treasure: Nic Cage’s Urban Outfitters Outfit
Nicolas Cage in National Treasure (2004)
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Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates, treasure hunter and cryptographer
Philadelphia to New York City, Fall 2004
Film: National Treasure
Release Date: November 19, 2004
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Costume Designer: Judianna Makovsky
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans!
On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously ratified the Declaration of Independence that announced the separation of the thirteen American colonies from British rule. Primarily drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration remains one of the most sacred and influential documents in global history and underwent centuries of preservation and protection until it was ultimately stolen by Nicolas Cage in 2004.
At least he warned us first.
Appropriately titled given Mr. Cage’s reputation, National Treasure was released 20 years ago this November and centers around a historically informed search for a long-buried Freemason treasure trove. A rumored map on the back of the Declaration of Independence provides guidance to Cage’s well-meaning treasure-hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates as well as his assistant Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and the lovely government archivist Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) reluctantly roped into their mission.
Unfortunately for our heroes, Ben’s rival Ian Howe (Sean Bean) is also in pursuit of the treasure… but Ian is British, so one can only imagine the disrespect he would show the Declaration if he were the one to steal it first.
What’d He Wear?
The morning after Ben and Riley successfully liberate the Declaration during a gala event at the National Archives, they follow the early-00s product placement gods to an Urban Outfitters in Philadelphia (actually Pasadena), where they can purchase clothes more appropriate for evading detection while on the run in the City of Brotherly Love than their formal fits. Continue reading
Brendan Fraser in The Mummy
Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell in The Mummy (1999)
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Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell, American adventurer and former Legionnaire
Egypt, Summer 1926
Film: The Mummy
Release Date: May 7, 1999
Director: Stephen Sommers
Costume Designer: John Bloomfield
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
A quarter-century after its release, The Mummy is finding renewed love among audiences, no doubt due to star Brendan Fraser who has been enjoying a own career renaissance following his Oscar-nominated turn in The Whale that has already won the actor more than two dozen awards.
Directed and written by Stephen Sommers, The Mummy updated Karl Freund’s 1932 thriller of the same name, released among a wave of Universal’s now-iconic horror films including Dracula and Frankenstein. Sommers’ adaptation retained the supernatural elements while playing down the horror in favor of a more lighthearted adventure story inspired by Errol Flynn’s screen swashbucklers and the classic serials that influenced the character of Indiana Jones, to whom Fraser’s roguish Rick O’Connell has been likened. Continue reading
Steve Zissou
Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
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Bill Murray as Steve Zissou, vengeful oceanographer and documentarian
Mediterranean Sea, Fall 2003
Film: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Release Date: December 25, 2004
Director: Wes Anderson
Costume Designer: Milena Canonero
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Much as action movies through the ’90s were often pitched as “Die Hard on a…”, the plot for Wes Anderson’s cult classic The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou could be overly simplified as “what if Moby-Dick was about Jacques Cousteau?” though fans know there’s so much more to it than that!
With Bill Murray’s characterization weaving between homage and affectionate parody, Zissou was clearly Anderson’s ode to the iconic oceanographer and diving pioneer, right down to the red ribbed beanies worn by the crew of Zissou’s research ship Belafonte. Continue reading
Clint Eastwood’s Climbing Outfit in The Eiger Sanction
Clint Eastwood as Dr. Jonathan Hemlock in The Eiger Sanction (1975) (Source: MovieStillsDB.com)
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Clint Eastwood as Dr. Jonathan Hemlock, college art professor and former assassin
Swiss Alps, Summer 1974
Film: The Eiger Sanction
Release Date: May 21, 1975
Director: Clint Eastwood
Costume Supervisor: Glenn Wright
Background
December 11 is International Mountain Day, an observance established by the United Nations in 2003 to encourage sustainable development of mountains and recognize the importance of protecting the resources they provide and the populations that depend on them.
One of the most famous movies about mountain climbing is The Eiger Sanction, directed by Clint Eastwood who also stars as former assassin and expert climber Jonathan Hemlock. Continue reading
Jurassic Park: Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant
Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park (1993)
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Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, top paleontologist
“Isla Nublar”, 120 miles west of Costa Rica, Summer 1993
Film: Jurassic Park
Release Date: June 11, 1993
Director: Steven Spielburg
Costumes: Mitchell Ray Kenney, Sue Moore, Kelly Porter, and Eric H. Sandberg
Background
Happy birthday, Sam Neill! The actor—born 72 years ago today on September 14, 1947—racked up plenty of BAMF Style points early in his career for his depiction of real-life spy Sidney Reilly in Reilly: Ace of Spies, a stylish mini-series that established Neill as a strong contender to succeed Roger Moore as James Bond. Neill’s greatest commercial success as a star was arguably his role of esteemed paleontologist Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, the 1993 blockbuster that needs no introduction.
Clint Eastwood’s Derby Jacket in The Eiger Sanction
Clint Eastwood as Dr. Jonathan Hemlock in The Eiger Sanction (1975)
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Clint Eastwood as Dr. Jonathan Hemlock, college art professor and former assassin
Switzerland, Summer 1974
Film: The Eiger Sanction
Release Date: May 21, 1975
Director: Clint Eastwood
Costume Supervisor: Glenn Wright
Background
Happy birthday to Clint Eastwood, the actor and director who combined his talents in dozens of films, beginning with Play Misty for Me in 1971. Based on Trevanian’s 1972 novel, The Eiger Sanction was Eastwood’s third directorial effort. While criticized for his story, the thrilling climbing scenes and stunning mountain cinematography—namely, Monument Valley and Zion National Park—remain standouts of the espionage thriller.
Mogambo: Clark Gable on Safari
Clark Gable with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly in Mogambo (1953)
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Clark Gable as Victor Marswell, big game hunter
Kenya, Summer 1952
Film: Mogambo
Release Date: October 9, 1953
Director: John Ford
Costume Designer: Helen Rose
Tailor: H. Huntsman & Sons, London
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
In my home state of Pennsylvania, the Monday after Thanksgiving is considered an unofficial holiday among hunters as the opening day of the state’s firearms deer season, a day when hunters are expected to bag approximately 25% of the season’s harvest, according to the Tribune-Review.
The 1953 adventure Mogambo stars Clark Gable as a hunter on safari in Africa with his eyes on even bigger game than deer: the hearts of Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.