Movie Review

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Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 86.3 | The History Cooperative

Alone on the Ice: The Story of Admiral Richard Byrd. Prod. and dir. by Nancy Porter. Nancy Porter Productions, 1998. 58 mins. (PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698)

Alone on the Ice, as narrated in the funereal tones of grave impending disaster, does not prove that Richard Byrd was "one of the last great explorers" or that "uncertainty lay at the heart of everything he did" or that his exploits were "true high adventure." The film does not establish that Byrd's polar expeditions made significant contributions to science. What then do his frigid wanderings mean to the rest of us? What impact on human welfare and improvement resulted from his two brief airplane flights over or near the geographic poles? Other pilots had flown longer and more dangerous trips, and others had reached the poles over land and ice. The film throws serious doubt (rightfully so) on whether Byrd even flew over the North Pole, and his pilot to the South Pole deserves the credit for getting over the mountains when the airplane was too heavily loaded. . . .

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