Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, Paul Ready, Adam Nagaitis, Ian Hart, Nive Nielsen, Ciaran Hinds, Christos Lawton, Matthew McNulty, David Walmsey, Liam Garrigan, Jack Colgrave Hirst, Stephen Thompson, Ronan Raftery, Mikey Collins, Edward Ashley, Chris Corrigan, Alistair Petrie, Charlie Kelly, Kevin Guthrie, Declan Hannigan, Anthony Flanagan, Aaron Jeffcoate, Greta Scacchi, Trystan Gravelle, Charles Edwards, John Lynch, Guy Falkner, Sian Brooke, Reed Diamond, William MacDonald, Johnny Issaluk, Richard Sutton, Tom Weston-Jones.
Our definition of hero has changed over time; however, the way we condemn what we perceive as the fool hardy and the attention of glory hunters has remained almost undented, undiminished, and added to by the way we have set our standards on the notion of fame, recognition, and celebrity.
Fame today is sought by many, but those countless souls often do not have the courage to deal with the fallout of their venture, wanting exposure, but clinging to the privacy that anonymity holds out as a comfort blanket. Fame and distinction are two extremely different bedfellows, one is the notoriety of instant adulation, the other is the legend that is built up over Time, the sense of the extraordinary push of humanity which can lead to an even greater fall in the eyes of the public when the adventure is found to be of foolish intent.
What was it that pushed the crews of The Erebus and The Terror into the heart of darkness, that made myths of Francis Crozier, James Fitzjames, John Franklin and a crew of hundreds? Nobody knows the true horror of what befell the men who were forced to abandon ship, and unless we are willing to spend two years on the pack ice of The Arctic, if we are not willing to push the human body beyond all its physical being, then who are we in the 21st Century to call the crew who endured The Terror anything but men of distinction.
Based on the hugely popular book by Dan Simmons, the ten part series which re-imagines what became of the two crews under the overall command of Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin, the sense of encroaching loneliness and despair that creeps in when cut off from society for long stretches of time, and puts the expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage deep into the heart of a supernatural thriller; one that opens up to the British viewer especially, of how the Nunavut and indigenous people of north Canada were looked upon, and the release of their own mythical creature, the Tuunbaq.
What Man Proposes, God Disposes…and as the sickness in the men’s souls takes hold, as the thought of murder, cannibalism and delusions of godhood infect the crew, The Terror is seen to be man’s own hubris, of his belief in governance over all he may own.
The Terror reinforces the joy in watching Jared Harris in any production he is willing to be part of, but it is also a moment in which to rejoice in the performances of Tobias Menzies as James Fitzjames, the exceptional Paul Ready as the quiet, studious, and empathic Henry Goodsir, and Adam Nagaitis as the mutinous Cornelius Hickey, as they bring the sense of waste, fear and courage to the audience’s attention with care.
The Terror is not meant to be a boy’s own adventure like periodical serial that would have been on the shelves in the mid-19th to the mid-20th century of all who sought to allow their own imagination stirred in the undertaking of a voyage, instead it alludes to damage wrought on the mind when humanity stares the void in the eyes and sees only its destructive tendencies staring back.
Absolutely magnificent, horror of the most superb kind, that of the mystery of the human condition.
Ian D. Hall