It’s curious Roald Amundsen was a supporting character in the main event of his life (he was the first man to reach the South Pole, but was overshadowed by Robert Scott’s doomed journey) and his biggest achievement was an afterthought (his original goal was to get to the North Pole).
The Norwegian production Amundsen: The Greatest Expedition attempts to mend this anomaly, but is torn between focusing on the explorer’s prickly personality and his life of adventure. Predictably, it doesn’t satisfy as character piece or plot-driven vehicle.
This is not to say it’s not entertaining: Roald Amundsen was single-minded about exploring places mankind had never set foot on. But while initially his main focus was science, soon enough the Norwegian’s focus turned to be the first on everything. No bigger proof of this than upon finding out Frederick Cook had reached the North Pole, he redirected his whole expedition to Antarctica.
The film is framed by a very hokey device: Amundsen’s estranged brother (Christian Rubeck) and the explorer’s American girlfriend (Katherine Waterston) tell each other secrets about Roald Amundsen they knew. The script by Ravn Lanesskog is often disjointed and fails to provide more insight than Amundsen’s Wikipedia page.
Thankfully, director Espen Sandberg (Kon Tiki, Pirates of the Caribbean 5) has a sense of spectacle that at times makes up for the unwieldly script. The scenes in the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are gorgeous, same as the aerial takes. There are a couple of crash-landings “shot” from inside Amundsen’s aeroplane that are a technical marvel.
While the film’s narrative shortcomings become evident early on, there are some savory nuggets of information to be found. As you may have learned from nearly every movie to feature them, the Explorers Club was a group of jerks who resented Amundsen for beating Scott to the South Pole and questioned his strategy (Amundsen was actually a better planner and applied lessons learned from the Inuits).
The movie briefly questions the adventurer’s squeaky clean image (Roald had a type: married women; collaborators died in his many quests; he adopted two Inuit girls, but sent them back after a while) and hints that the explorer may have been neurodivergent, but the outcome feels stately nonetheless. Two and a half prairie dogs (out of five).
Amundsen: The Greatest Expedition is now available in VOD.
