The Great White Silence (Dual Format Edition)

Herbert Ponting’s official record of Captain Scott’s legendary expedition to the South Pole, restored by the BFI and featuring a score by Simon Fisher Turner, captures in breathtaking detail the alien beauty of the landscape, and ensured that the heroism involved would never be forgotten.

The BFI National Archive – custodian of the expedition negatives – created this award-winning restoration using the latest photochemical and digital techniques and reintroduced its sophisticated use of colour.

This film contains racist language. BFI does not endorse the language used in this presentation or align itself with it. BFI seeks to provide historically relevant depictions of our past and give you, as the viewer, control over what you watch by being transparent about its content.

• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
• 90° South (1933, 72 mins): Ponting’s final sound version of his legendary expedition footage
• The Great White Silence panel discussion (2011, 15 mins): a panel of experts discuss the remarkable restoration of Herbert Ponting’s extraordinary record of Captain Scott’s ill-fated race to the South Pole
• The Sound of Silence (2011, 13 mins): documentary about Simon Fisher Turner’s approach to the score
• Location field recordings (2010, 5 mins): celebrated sound recordist Chris Watson’s document of Scott’s expedition hu
• Archive newsreel items (1910-1925, 5 mins): actuality coverage of the expedition’s departure and return
• Newly created optional English subtitles for the d/Deaf and partial hearing on 90° South and The Great White Silence panel discussion
• ***FIRST PRESSING ONLY*** Fully illustrated booklet featuring a lead essay by the BFI’s Bryony Dixon, selected biographies and notes on the extras