Here is a film that can be rightly called a family film.  There is something worthwhile for all members of the family – although critical teenagers might think it is all a bit too nice!

In 1958, a Japanese expedition to Antarctica had to withdraw because of the excessive bad weather.  The members of the team had to leave behind the sled dogs when they hurriedly evacuated.  The dogs, using their canine wits and drive to live, survived the winter and were recovered at the beginning of spring. A heroic story and a tale for dog-lovers.  The Japanese made an epic film of these events in 1983, filming in Canada.  It was called, simply, Antarctica.

Producer, Frank Marshall, who had worked with Spielberg on several of his epics and who had himself directed several films, including Arachnophobia and Congo, was also the director of Alive, the story of the Uruguayan football team whose plane crashed in the Andes and who showed heroism in staying alive and finding rescuers.  Marshall is obviously at home in the snow.  He was attracted to do a remake of  Antarctica.  However, the adaptation makes the story an American one and the setting has been changed to 1993, the last year that sled dogs were allowed to be used.

Eight below is something of a mild title for this film.  For a lot of the time, the temperature is well below eight.  The film introduces us to two young men working at McMurdo Sound, hotting up in the sauna and then racing into the snow.  We feel the cold at once!  They are part of a scientific team which works there during the Antarctic summer.  Jason Biggs is Chris, a cartographer, tracing amongst other jobs, the treks of penguins.  Biggs provides some of the comic touches.  The other is Jerry, an athlete who works as a guide and who trains the dogs.  He is played as serious hero by Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious, Timeline, Into the Blue).

When a scientist (Bruce Greenwood) wants to explore a site to find traces of a meteorite, he and Jerry and the dogs  risk the thin ice to travel to Mt Melbourne.  However, a huge snowstorm  moves in and they have to rush to base, especially after the scientist breaks his leg, and evacuate the base at once.  The dogs, chained together, have to be left behind.

The dogs are impressive specimens – even to those who are not dog-lovers.  We get to know them by name.  They are also heroic, pulling the scientist out of an ice-hole and dragging him to safety with his broken leg through blinding blizzards.

The film indicates the passing of the winter, signalling the number of days that the dogs are alone.  Most of them are able to break out of their chains.  They band together and help each other. They hunt random birds for food, find the remains of a beached whale and are pursued by a scavenging leopard seal.  This is Discovery channel material plus dramatics.

Meanwhile, of course, Jerry makes many attempts to get back to Antarctica to save the dogs – to little avail, until…  And, the film mixes the action and the sentiment well enough even for hardened cynics to be moved by the survival power of the dogs and the joyous reunion.

The film-makers went to Canada for some rather breathtaking snowscapes.  A sequence with an icebreaker ship was filmed in Norway.  The technical qualities are fine and the performances of the dogs and their screen presence are convincing.  Eight Below is suitable for all audiences, although classification indicates that for very young audiences, there is some ‘mild peril’.

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