This is an unusual specimen. Ostensibly, when James Cameron was making his blockbuster "Titanic", CBS wanted to get their foot in the door with their own take on the story. They got an all-star cast, and they got a first-rate musical score, but somehow they get almost everything else wrong. The representation of the Titanic's personnel and passengers is wrong. The layout of the ship is wrong. Great liberties are taken with the history of the Titanic. Thomas Andrews is nowhere to be seen. It feels, at times, like we're on a completely different ship - a feeling which becomes more apparent on repeated viewings. The fiction about Alice Cleaver being a murderer was taken without verification from "Titanic: An Illustrated History", which Don Lynch had to do a U-turn on.
But perhaps the crowning insult of the production is the scene in which Tim Curry as the villain violates a steerage girl in the showers. It is stunning how OFFENSIVE this sequence is, and the reason I say it's stunning is because it's clear that they would NEVER have gotten away with it in some other premise. It serves little purpose in this story but to be a shock moment for the viewers. Absolutely despicable! There is no other word for it!
I'll say this much: you can't tear your eyes away from the screen even when you want to. Some scenes, particularly near the end, are powerful in a way. George C. Scott as Captain Smith makes for interesting viewing, even if the only similarity is that he has a white beard. In the end, however, the promise this miniseries showed was ruthlessly squandered and butchered. The only redeeming value is Catherine Zeta Jones.
But perhaps the crowning insult of the production is the scene in which Tim Curry as the villain violates a steerage girl in the showers. It is stunning how OFFENSIVE this sequence is, and the reason I say it's stunning is because it's clear that they would NEVER have gotten away with it in some other premise. It serves little purpose in this story but to be a shock moment for the viewers. Absolutely despicable! There is no other word for it!
I'll say this much: you can't tear your eyes away from the screen even when you want to. Some scenes, particularly near the end, are powerful in a way. George C. Scott as Captain Smith makes for interesting viewing, even if the only similarity is that he has a white beard. In the end, however, the promise this miniseries showed was ruthlessly squandered and butchered. The only redeeming value is Catherine Zeta Jones.