Alien Continent: Antarctica’s Representation in Film

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.558.9580; http://www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz/documents/2008-09 Reviews GCAS/Holland.pdf

Most people never get to visit Antarctica to be able to experience the continent for themselves. Their view on the continent is instead shaped by how Antarctica is presented to them. Therefore, to understand how the world views Antarctica, it should be studied how Antarctica is presented to the world. There are numerous ways in which representations of Antarctica can be transmitted such as personal accounts, books, news media and television programmes. The medium that this literature review shall focus on is film. This essay shall take a thematic approach to reviewing the literature instead of focusing in the individual movies, choosing five topics and seeing how they are presented from one film to another. Those themes are the environment and landscape, ecology, science, non-scientific human activity and international politics and cooperation. While many of these films contain within them gross factual inaccuracies, this review shall rarely point them out as the aim is to looking at what is presented, rather than the difference between the presentation and reality. The Films While there are numerous films that are set in Antarctica (see Leane), this review shall focus on fictional representations of the continent, so documentaries have not been included. The review shall also focus on recent cinematic releases instead of 'classic' 2 06903221