Amundsen - A controversial biopic about the legendary Norwegian conqueror of the South Pole

About 100 years ago, explorers and adventurers were rock stars of their time. They captivated the masses with their courage and life risk. National pride was the stimulus and the worship of fellow citizens - reward and recognition. In terms of recognition by colleagues and the profession, competitiveness and even envy of achievements have been expressed. Being the first to discover or conquer something was a matter of life and death. Sometimes literally.

The Norwegian expedition led by Amundsen conquered 1911 - South Pole!

Roald Amundsen is a hero who was a pride and role model to the young Norwegian nation at the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1910 and 1928, when he died at the age of 56, Amundsen was on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Between 1910-1912, Amundsen led a Norwegian expedition that conquered the South Pole, in front of their biggest rivals - the English and their great explorer Robert Scott. In doing so, the unfortunate Scott lost not only the race but also his life. It has remained an everlasting wound in the relationship of a strong British scientific community to the great polar explorer Roald Amundsen.

The tactic was simple-but cruel. The dogs were pulling sleighs, and at the same time were the food to the Norwegian Expedition.

The Amundsen, Roald – starring Pal Sverre Hagen, and Leon – starring Christian Rubeck- brothers have dreamed of conquering icy expanses from a young age. Primarily geographically closer to the North Pole. After Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen successfully maps Greenland, Roald Amundsen devotes his life to polar expeditions. When his mother dies, at the age of 21, he leaves college and takes his first expedition to explore the famous Northwest Passage. In his home country, after two years, he is welcomed as a hero, which he uses to get Nansen's ship Fram in the race with Scott to conquer the South Pole. Unlike Scott, Amundsen based his preparation on an Inuit strategy with tow dogs. He embarked on a journey with four sleds and 52 tow dogs. The strategy was simple and crude. As the burden diminished, so Amundsen killed dogs and fed on them. Although Scott landed 111 km closer, Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole. He humiliated the British by leaving a letter in the tent on the South Pole that Scott needed to know who came first.

Roald Amundsen dropped his own brother from his autobiography.

That letter is a paradigm of arrogance that a great researcher has shown throughout his life. The great explorer was not the great man either. He went through life with one single principle - Roald Amundsen and then the rest of the world. Espen Sandberg-the film director who shot Max Manus and Kon Tiki has decided to demythologize the legendary polar explorer. He is done this so well, that the Norwegian public was offenses by the movie Amundsen. Their national hero is portrayed as arrogant, unsophisticated, and greed for glory man. A man who did not give credit to anyone but himself. He even dropped his brother Leon Amundsen from his autobiography. Though Leon is the financier behind most of his brother's endeavors. In addition to humiliating rivals and not appreciating his collaborators, Amundsen is portrayed as a great womanizer in the film. His weakness is married women. The two great loves of his life - Kristine "Kiss" Bennett – starring Ida Ursin-Holm, and Bes Magids – starring Katherine Waterstone, were married women. And while the fatal Kiss pulled out, young Bess split up for him and moved to Canada. It was Bess who was alone with him at the moment when the legendary explorer experienced a fatal plane crash at the age of 56. Amundsen finishes he's life how he lived. He put his life at stake by attempting to locate the zeppelin, an Italian explorer Nobile, that disappeared above the North Pole during the 1928 flight.

The conquest of the South Pole is dedicated to just 20 minutes in the movie!

The film has been coldly received by critics and audiences in Amundsen's homeland of Norway. Understandably, degrade the national icon is a risky move by the director of Sandberg. We, who are not Norwegians, not so emotional with it, so we can approach the film as much as objectively. What is noticeable is that director Sandberg dedicated the film to Amundson's linear biography. If you want the details, the anguish and the suffering of conquering the icy expanses of hell on earth - Antarctica, you will be greatly deprived. Amundsen's conquest of the South Pole on film takes just 20 minutes. Everything else is an illustration of the author's basic idea, to portray Amundsen as he was. And we have already ascertained that. Great explorer but not a great man. For a movie that was supposed to be a spectacle not enough. The film is a two-hour mere enumeration of facts from Amundsen's life, so some vicious critics, of course, Norwegians, have declared it Amundsen-Wikipedia. And they weren't wrong. The film is slow-paced and does not catch the attention of viewers looking for icy adventures.

In addition to the troubles with film criticism, Sandberg's filmmaker was also in trouble with accusations of using a biography written by Bomann-Larsen. According to this biography, Stig Andersen made the documentary Frosset hertje - Frozen heart. There is no dilemma for the author of the documentary Andersen's- he accused Sandberg of unauthorized takes parts of Bomann-Larsen's book.

As for ordinary viewers, they get an insight into how great, famous people who wrote history, were sometimes not good and dear people. If you are want to watch a mediocre drama, watch the movie. Look for the spectacle elsewhere.