A rather good depiction of the disaster, with the addition of with several fictional subplots. The strength of this film was in the portrayal of the real-life characters from the event. There are too many to list. To mention a few, I think George C Scott's portrayal of Captain Smith was an acceptable and welcome alternative to Bernard Hill's wimpish character in the Cameron movie. Also worthy of note was Terence Kelly's portrayal of Captain Arthur Rostron, the Captain of the rescue ship. Kavan Smith also was thoroughly convincing as 5th Officer Lowe, as was Kevin McNulty for 2nd Officer Lightoller. Scott Hylands excelled as JJ Astor, and Roger Rees did a fine job as Ismay. Nice work.
As with any film based on a true event, one is bound to compare facts with fiction, and I can say that this film is pretty straight portrayal of the disaster. They've added in some nice philosophising by the captain and crew, and they've given captain smith an attitude. In this version the captain is not the weak, ineffectual wimp that Cameron created, but a strong character who gets to make some pertinent - but quite fictional - criticism of the handling of the vessel at the time of the collision. They've also added a scene with guns where a passenger gets shot and then 1st Officer Murdoch shoots himself. Poor Murdoch. Cameron did the same with this character in his movie. This never happened. In reality, only one shot was ever fired on Titanic that night, and this was 5th Officer Lowe firing is gun into the air to silence a panic on the boat deck.
The final moments of the sinking was handled in a semi-abstract way (probably to save money) which was both moving and tasteful, and in a way more powerful than in the Cameron movie which relied on realistic visuals. Another nice touch to this film was the epilogue. We get to see what happens on the rescue ship after the survivors have been picked up, and we get to see them back in New York.
The final thing I should mention regarding this film are the special effects. Of course, they are poor compared to what we expect from films like this nowadays. The ship itself appears to be a not-too-accurate model. Close-ups of the deck areas and machinery spaces smack of musical theatre sets, where cranes, ventilators and boilers almost look like symbolical representations of the real-thing, and are in no way accurate. I mean, every time I saw the boiler room I thought of the film Metropolis. I got the impression that accuracy was never an issue, the focus instead being on designing a set that was spacious and simple enough for the actors to move around and be seen in.
I suppose it's inevitable to compare this to the Cameron movie, but perhaps unfair to do so since this was made for TV with a much much lower budget. 7/10 from me.
As with any film based on a true event, one is bound to compare facts with fiction, and I can say that this film is pretty straight portrayal of the disaster. They've added in some nice philosophising by the captain and crew, and they've given captain smith an attitude. In this version the captain is not the weak, ineffectual wimp that Cameron created, but a strong character who gets to make some pertinent - but quite fictional - criticism of the handling of the vessel at the time of the collision. They've also added a scene with guns where a passenger gets shot and then 1st Officer Murdoch shoots himself. Poor Murdoch. Cameron did the same with this character in his movie. This never happened. In reality, only one shot was ever fired on Titanic that night, and this was 5th Officer Lowe firing is gun into the air to silence a panic on the boat deck.
The final moments of the sinking was handled in a semi-abstract way (probably to save money) which was both moving and tasteful, and in a way more powerful than in the Cameron movie which relied on realistic visuals. Another nice touch to this film was the epilogue. We get to see what happens on the rescue ship after the survivors have been picked up, and we get to see them back in New York.
The final thing I should mention regarding this film are the special effects. Of course, they are poor compared to what we expect from films like this nowadays. The ship itself appears to be a not-too-accurate model. Close-ups of the deck areas and machinery spaces smack of musical theatre sets, where cranes, ventilators and boilers almost look like symbolical representations of the real-thing, and are in no way accurate. I mean, every time I saw the boiler room I thought of the film Metropolis. I got the impression that accuracy was never an issue, the focus instead being on designing a set that was spacious and simple enough for the actors to move around and be seen in.
I suppose it's inevitable to compare this to the Cameron movie, but perhaps unfair to do so since this was made for TV with a much much lower budget. 7/10 from me.