With all of the adventure films -- good and bad and in between -- that land in America's movie theaters, one would expect that we've got a taste for the spirit of discovery. When "The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition" docks at cinemas this week, we'll find out.

Produced and directed by George Butler and based on the book by Caroline Alexander, this film is a bit of a rarity: a feature-length documentary getting a wide cinematic release.

Narrated by Liam Neeson for some star power, one assumes since, accent aside, he often sounds like he's noshing on cookies during his narration, "The Endurance" is an interesting and visually-attractive look at British adventurer Ernest Shackleton and his doomed 1914-'16 expedition to Antarctica.

The expedition, Shackleton's third, was ill advised and, to many, little more than folly, since the South Pole had already been discovered. But Shackleton wanted to be the first to cross the Antarctic on foot and claim the land for a still-insatiable British Empire.

But the Great War erupted as The Endurance, a three-masted wooden sailing ship, left England with Shackleton, his crew of 28 men and a few dozen Canadian sled dogs. Not a good omen.

The Endurance makes it to the Weddell Sea and becomes trapped in the ice, where ultimately she is crushed. Meanwhile, the 29 men live atop ice floes through the brutal Antarctic winter. When spring arrives they take to their lifeboats to search for land and end up on desolate Elephant Island.

From there Shackleton and a few hands head to South Georgia Island to fetch help. At each step of the way, these men overcome astonishing odds to survive. What they endure could be the fodder for an unbelievable adventure film, but instead fuels this film.

Especially interesting is the section of the film that explores how British society viewed the returning crew in the face of the monumental loss of life in World War I. The sailors were not welcomed home as heroes but were expected to immediately join the war effort, which they did.

Well-written, beautifully photographed and interesting, "The Endurance" is a good documentary. But are audiences flocking to the theater for this sort of film or have they come to expect to see it only on PBS or the History Channel?

(Note: "The Endurance," at approximately 90 minutes long, is about double the length of a recent IMAX film on the same subject, which was made later, but received an earlier screening here in Milwaukee).

"The Endurance" opens in Milwaukee at Landmark's Oriental Theatre on Fri., Dec. 21. Click here for showtimes.