arctic clime do not do sean connery initially trouble post bond career any favour and although his top billing in the red tent be highly misleading and since his support role be not much more than a cameo . instead and forth bill ( after claudia cardinale and hardy kruger ) peter finch take the lead a general nobile and whose ill fat 1928 airship expedition to the north pole and intend to boost fascist italy international prestige and instead end ingloriously with the survivor strand on melt ice pack for week while inertia and lack of initiative and the poor chain of command result in buck passing and recrimination and destroyed reputation rather than rescue attempt . the real life disaster be the inspiration for frank capra dirigible ( capra and studio bos harry cohn be both huge admirer of mussolini in the early day ) and but this ambitious russian italian co production be best remembered and if at all and for either it catastrophic box office failure or it unusual framing structure . although unusual may be an understatement represent in a move more akin to theatre of the 60 rather than epic cinema and it begin with the age nobile and torment by another sleepless night and summon up the ghost of those involve in the disaster and the rescue to put his command on trial . a a dramatic device and it too theatrical to entirely work and especially in the clumsy opening reel and but it impinge little on the main drama once the film get go and ultimately pays dividend and both in the stark poetry and terrible beauty of a scene where connery roald amundsen recount his own death and in the final moment which come to some kind of peace with the issue of responsibility and human fallibility and forgiveness . but it the survival story that work best and with director mickail k. kalatozov often eschew the spectacle ( airship and plane crash and icebreaker and vast landscape of ice ) with a preference for medium shot that keep the film surprisingly intimate ( unusually for such an expensive picture and it be also shoot in the more confined 1 . 78 represent1 ratio rather than scope ) . i can not answer for it historical accuracy beyond connery philosophical amundsen be nothing like the ruthless egomaniac of reality that he have become by this time ( indeed and amundsen death in this rescue do much to salvage his heroic reputation after the public backlash to his bitter score settle memoir ) . however and far from have to be persuade to join the rescue attempt and amundsen have immediately volunteer only for mussolini to specifically insist he be exclude because of his early public dispute with nobile in the aftermath of their previous expedition and leave amundsen to finance his rescue attempt privately . nor be amundsen reluctant to return to the arctic represent shortly before the opportunity arose and he say that he want to go back and die there in the fulfilment of a high mission and quickly and without suffer . ( the fact that he be undergo painful radium treatment at the time may have color his word . ) poetic license aside and it be surprising that the political fallout be not dealt with more overtly it be a huge national embarrassment that il duce hero have to be rescue by russian communist . indeed and the film be almost totally apolitical and with il duce mention only once in pass in the opening newsreel footage . however and a a drama it unsensationally compel and and ennio morricone score be one of his best . paramount widescreen r1 dvd transfer be pretty good but sadly lack in any extra .