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Four-star movie: A Night to Remember
A Night to Remember
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Year: 1958
I had been dreading this movie to a certain extent, because I don't like suspense, whether I know how it turns out or not. This movie was the movie about the Titanic's sinking until James Cameron made his. I haven't seen that one, so I can't really compare them, though I know the special effects of the modern one are supposed to be stunning. On the other hand, the attention to detail in this one is also stunning. The recreation of the first class dining room, the smoking room, even the bridge with the correct heading shown are all impressive. I wish it had been filmed in color, but perhaps the B&W filming covered some infelicities that I would have noticed. And I doubt the movie could have made use of actual historical footage as it does had it been in color.
The movie is based on the book of the same name, and is as attentive to historical detail as possible, though some of the real-life people were combined in the movie. The actual story is full of ironies and close calls: it was the captain's last voyage before he was supposed to retire; the ship's designer was aboard; the nearest ship never came to investigate; the ship had lifeboats for about half those aboard (2,200 total, lifeboats for about 1,000), but so many lifeboats were sent off unfilled that only 700 or so survived.
I'm glad I watched it, but -- as with so many of these four-star movies -- once is probably enough.
Also: new icon!
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Year: 1958
I had been dreading this movie to a certain extent, because I don't like suspense, whether I know how it turns out or not. This movie was the movie about the Titanic's sinking until James Cameron made his. I haven't seen that one, so I can't really compare them, though I know the special effects of the modern one are supposed to be stunning. On the other hand, the attention to detail in this one is also stunning. The recreation of the first class dining room, the smoking room, even the bridge with the correct heading shown are all impressive. I wish it had been filmed in color, but perhaps the B&W filming covered some infelicities that I would have noticed. And I doubt the movie could have made use of actual historical footage as it does had it been in color.
The movie is based on the book of the same name, and is as attentive to historical detail as possible, though some of the real-life people were combined in the movie. The actual story is full of ironies and close calls: it was the captain's last voyage before he was supposed to retire; the ship's designer was aboard; the nearest ship never came to investigate; the ship had lifeboats for about half those aboard (2,200 total, lifeboats for about 1,000), but so many lifeboats were sent off unfilled that only 700 or so survived.
I'm glad I watched it, but -- as with so many of these four-star movies -- once is probably enough.
Also: new icon!
no subject
1) Recount the basic facts of what happened to the ship and why it sank;
2) Humanize that disaster by showing you the people involved and what they experienced;
3) Tell a love story.
I thought did a good job of #1 and #2, and a perfectly acceptable (though not, to me, especially memorable) job of #3.
Regarding attention to detail, I'm highly amused by an anecdote that came out around the time the film was re-released with the effects cleaned up. Cameron was talking in an interview about how he resisted the urge to start actively changing stuff, even though there are things about it he would do differently today -- he didn't mention George Lucas, but the implication is there -- but there is one change he made. Neil deGrasse Tyson had apparently given him shit for the fact that near the end of the film, when Kate Winslet's character looks up at the stars, what she sees is utterly wrong for that latitude at that time of year. So Cameron said, "All right, you know-it-all bastard; tell me what the stars should have been," and replaced that single shot. <g>
no subject
Several maritime laws were changed as a result of the disaster -- 24 hour radio manning, for one thing (the main reason the nearest ship did not investigate--no one was manning the radio, nor required to). Lifeboat seat for every passenger, of course. And the standard route was changed to about 50 miles farther south. When I crossed the Atlantic on the QE2 Way Back When, we had an expert on ocean liners on board who gave a talk, and pointed out during the talk that we were just south of the spot the Titanic went down as he was speaking.
Many things contributed -- the attempt to break the transatlantic crossing time record, thus not slowing down enough when ice floes were in evidence as reported by ships ahead, for one. And the tragically wrong decision to try to stop *and* turn the ship at the same time when the iceberg was spotted, thus sideswiping it and creating the huge gash all along that took out one too many bulkheads. If they had simply stopped and not turned, and hit it head on, only the front bulkhead would have been damaged, the watertight bulkheads behind would have been fine, and the ship could have limped home. Sad.
I refuse to see Cameron's film. A Night to Remember, both book and film, are definitive in my view and never needed improving.
no subject
Most of the facts you mentioned were covered in the commentary track, which was done by two men who (as I said to Pat WINOLJ) seem to have let the Titanic take over their lives the way spinning has taken over mine. One of them is an artist who (he said) has done over 100 Titanic-related paintings.
I've also heard that the Titanic was actually sunk by the weight of all the time travelers who showed up to see the disaster, but I don't credit that one.