There are two crummy movies about the sinking of the Titanic and one good movie. This is the good one. (I'm not counting a German propaganda feature which was actually pretty good.)
Oh, it's oooold. And it's black and white. And the sound is monaural and nobody under the age of thirty has heard of any of the actors, but it's an unpretentious if somewhat fictionalized story of a real tragedy. The other two movies, which shall go nameless here, are soap operas wrapped around a multitude of historically accurate period details. The most recent "Titanic" used silverware manufactured by the original silverware maker of the original Titanic. The shoes of the actors were made of the same leather. The wigs were made of exact duplicates of the hair worn by Titanic's passengers. Even some of the passengers themselves, dead lo these ninety-some years were exhumed and electronically animated sufficiently to walk through their parts. Alas, speech organs being more frangible, the animatronic marvels could only gurgle instead of speak, but the Foley artists took care of that.
I made that all up, but the point is that historical accuracy is no substitute for decent film making.
Does it really matter much if the Titanic's hull broke in two before (or during) its sinking? Does it matter if the little band didn't play "Nearer My God To Thee"? Nope. Because this isn't the simple story of a ship sinking. It's a story of hubris, of man's attempt to defy luck and -- how does one character put it? -- "conquer nature"? The problem is that nature isn't an enemy to be conquered. It's completely indifferent to our fate. The sea, that rich broth we rose from, will continue to swallow our follies until we incapacitate it. When it ends, we end too.
There isn't much acting in this movie because not much is called for. Kenneth More is a suitable hero. But I also approved of the way the wireless operators were dealt with, possibly because I was one for a few years. The direction is functional without being in the least splashy. I mean splashy in the stylistic sense.
It's a decent movie, made for adults, a story of a shipwreck in which roughly 1500 people died, not the story of a dysfunctional relationship whose problems are solved by an iceberg. Well worth watching.
Oh, it's oooold. And it's black and white. And the sound is monaural and nobody under the age of thirty has heard of any of the actors, but it's an unpretentious if somewhat fictionalized story of a real tragedy. The other two movies, which shall go nameless here, are soap operas wrapped around a multitude of historically accurate period details. The most recent "Titanic" used silverware manufactured by the original silverware maker of the original Titanic. The shoes of the actors were made of the same leather. The wigs were made of exact duplicates of the hair worn by Titanic's passengers. Even some of the passengers themselves, dead lo these ninety-some years were exhumed and electronically animated sufficiently to walk through their parts. Alas, speech organs being more frangible, the animatronic marvels could only gurgle instead of speak, but the Foley artists took care of that.
I made that all up, but the point is that historical accuracy is no substitute for decent film making.
Does it really matter much if the Titanic's hull broke in two before (or during) its sinking? Does it matter if the little band didn't play "Nearer My God To Thee"? Nope. Because this isn't the simple story of a ship sinking. It's a story of hubris, of man's attempt to defy luck and -- how does one character put it? -- "conquer nature"? The problem is that nature isn't an enemy to be conquered. It's completely indifferent to our fate. The sea, that rich broth we rose from, will continue to swallow our follies until we incapacitate it. When it ends, we end too.
There isn't much acting in this movie because not much is called for. Kenneth More is a suitable hero. But I also approved of the way the wireless operators were dealt with, possibly because I was one for a few years. The direction is functional without being in the least splashy. I mean splashy in the stylistic sense.
It's a decent movie, made for adults, a story of a shipwreck in which roughly 1500 people died, not the story of a dysfunctional relationship whose problems are solved by an iceberg. Well worth watching.