You need to suspend your knowledge of technology, CGI, and the loud, bright, violent movies of today to appreciate this. With no score and few dramatic frills but excellent technical detail for what was known at the time, it tells the story of the sinking of the Titanic, remembered because of how many people died, and at the time how so many extremely wealthy people died, and how many things went wrong. This is a mid 20th century British made film in spartan black and white. And yet it ties the important pieces of the story of the sinking together with a well crafted delivery. It is moving without being emotionally manipulative via fictional characters in contrived dilemmas.
You can see where Cameron's 1997 film and this film intersect in certain details that were known at the time. In 1958 they didn't know that the Titanic broke in pieces, so they get that wrong. In 1997 nobody knew that the Titanic broke into three pieces, so Cameron got that wrong.
Cameron's later film probably has the advantage in capturing just how crazy things got when people knew that the ship was going down and fast. No matter how stiff an upper lip you've been taught to have, there is going to be chaos in such a situation.
It's an odd film in that there is not really a lead that the film follows around. If it is anybody it is Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, the highest ranking member of the crew to survive. The guy's real life story reads like a piece of adventure fiction, and he was even involved in the Dunkirk evacuation at age 66.
You can see where Cameron's 1997 film and this film intersect in certain details that were known at the time. In 1958 they didn't know that the Titanic broke in pieces, so they get that wrong. In 1997 nobody knew that the Titanic broke into three pieces, so Cameron got that wrong.
Cameron's later film probably has the advantage in capturing just how crazy things got when people knew that the ship was going down and fast. No matter how stiff an upper lip you've been taught to have, there is going to be chaos in such a situation.
It's an odd film in that there is not really a lead that the film follows around. If it is anybody it is Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, the highest ranking member of the crew to survive. The guy's real life story reads like a piece of adventure fiction, and he was even involved in the Dunkirk evacuation at age 66.