By: PBS Home Video (VHS)

Video Length: 60 mins.

Tragedy at the Pole tells the tragic story of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his British team who, in November 1911, began a trek across the ice of Antarctica, striving to be the first to reach the South Pole. After marching and skiing more than 900 miles, the men reached the Pole in January 1912, only to discover that a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had beaten them by a month. On their return journey, Scott and his four companions perished, and their legacy has been debated ever since.

Were they fallen heroes, or were they incompetent? This film brings a new, contemporary angle to our understanding of the men and their expedition, their staggering struggle and the reasons for their deaths.

Drawing on extensive meteorological data, personal diaries and accounts from those who survived, the program recreates, in vivid detail, the sights, sounds, legends and ferocious weather of their journey and draws the startling conclusion that Scott was a careful and meticulous planner who was struck down by a freak cold spell that blew apart his careful weather forecasts and shattered his predictions of what to expect on the trek.

NTSC Format (US)
CC
Color and B&W
60 mins.