It's a story that sounds fit for Hollywood, or at the very least, fodder for national myth-making: a South Australian boy from an impoverished background grows up to be a fearless adventurer; he hatches a plan, dubbed suicidal by many, to captain a cramped submarine more than 3,000 km under Arctic ice to the North Pole. He does all this purely in the pursuit of knowledge.

So why isn't Sir Hubert Wilkins' expedition in the school history curriculum, his portrait adorning currency and a museum standing in his birthplace? In a clear attempt to restore Wilkinson to his rightful place in history, filmmaker and former Age journalist Simon Nasht devoted two years to researching this documentary, and wrote a biography of Wilkins (The Last Explorer, Hodder, 2005) while he was at it.

Wilkins is the kind of subject who, in various guises (war photographer, aviator, explorer), seems to have had adventures enough for three people. Voyage of the Nautilus focuses on the last expedition that Wilkins led – one that promised to be the peak of his career, but came to ignominious end. He was already in over his head when he set off in 1931 in a refitted World War I sub, with a crew of 20 from 10 different nations.

Although American media mogul William Randolph Hearst had provided some finance, Wilkins had sunk tens of thousands of dollars of his own money into the project. It was a voyage dogged by technical mishaps, extreme living conditions and sabotage. Yet in terms of scientific gains, the mission was a success.

The documentary works best as a character profile and tale of adventure 20,000 leagues under the sea. Archival footage of Wilkins, his wife and crew, and entries from his journals, read by Sam Neill, are effective at showing the public and private sides of a remarkable man. However, the film's explanation of the scientific purpose of the expedition and its significance is frustratingly vague – we're told it's to do with research into weather and oceanography, but that's as far as it goes.