Titanic

I have seen just about all off the Titanic movies there are. This definately isn't the best but it is worth seeing. Most Titanic movies portray the Astor's, the Straus's, Molly Brown, the wireless operators, and the captain. But this film also shows the story of the Allison's which is never told and they portrayed the story remarkably well. It also showed the third class story as well and did a good job with that one as well. It is a good movie to watch even though it is slow at times.

My Score 7.1/10

It isn't great, but I was impressed by the overall project. It is overlong, with a somewhat corny script and some of the actors don't convince. The rape scene halfway through was very brutal, and perhaps inappropriate. Some people say this is historically inaccurate, but I need to check my history. The performances are good generally with some exceptions (Catherine Zeta Jones is lovely here), the costumes are nice and the special effects for a TV mini series were close to superb. George C.Scott is a brilliant actor, and he was quite good here. Tim Curry, as a villain likewise. Though both men have been better. I wasn't entirely convinced by Ase and Jamie's romance, as it was basically a retread of the James Cameron blockbuster, which also suffers from its length. The music is also good( my music teacher hates the 1997 film's music) and this is the first adaptation when the ship breaks into two, which was nicely done. Not a bad attempt! 7/10 Bethany Cox

I had very mixed feelings about this movie. Although there were quite a few flaws, it was certainly not without its charm. The first thing that must be taken into consideration when commenting on this movie is that it was a low-budget, made-for-tv movie, so the effects and other technical aspects were less than spectacular. However, to me the story is what makes a movie good or bad. Since there were a few stories sprinkled throughout the film, it was at times good, but usually not so good. First the bad things. I think the worst thing about this movie is that there was alot of pointless and boring filler that made the movie seem to drag on, especially around the time of the sinking. The second time I watched the movie, I noticed that I fast fowarded through almost half of it. I also did not care much for the story of the Allison family and their paranoid nanny. I found their part when the ship is sailing extremely tedious and boring and the part when they're searching for their baby too obnoxious to be sad. I also almost couldn't bear the performance of the actress portraying Mrs. Allison. And the whole part about the nanny just became annoying. The Allison family actually existed, and the young Allison girl was the only first-class child to die on the Titanic. This could have been a very sad and touching part, but I just saw it as a complete flop.

Now for the ok things. I really loved Catherine Zeta-Jones and Peter Gallagher in this. Although the love affair between the two was just a little more than okay, they threw in great performances and I found their characters interesting. I enjoyed much of the happenings in first class and especially found the old superficial socialite (that woman with the dog, her name slips my mind as of now) very entertaining and humorous. As for those down in steerage, I found Jamie and Olsa to be quite charming characters and took interest in their affairs. However, my favorite part of the movie was most likely Tim Cury. If there is one thing I love in a film it is a good villian, and he is definately one. His performance was, in my opinion, the best part of the movie. Overall, I'd say that it was not great, but there were some factors that saved it and actually made it an enjoyable made-for-tv movie(how often can you say that?)

Almost everyone's initial reaction is to compare it to the 1997 version of Titanic. Don't do this! I love the '97 movie as much as everyone else did, but I've noticed that a lot of the writing and actions were taken from this mini-series. All right, so this isn't a billion dollar idea with billions of dollars put into special effects. I liked this four hour movie mostly because it DIDN'T involve all of that. James Cameron put tons of money and people into his movie, plus a substantial amount of jewelry and clothing. He went down to the littlest of detail and while this mini-series doesn't involve every little thing that happened, it still gets the main points across.

After I watched A Night to Remember (1958) and this, I too, compared it to the 1997 one. Maybe a couple of you picked up on this and it may not mean a whole lot, but it does to me. A lot of the lines right down to word-for-word were copied into Cameron's. If I really want to go into detail, I could say that the film focuses on a wealthy woman in first class, and a young boy in third class that made his way on to the ship by accident. Although they don't fall into a deep love here, the character images are about the same.

The special effects that didn't take over the entire second half were well designed and not too fake to where it didn't even look half way real. I especially like the departure of the Titanic from Southampton dock. It gives a fairly good look at the ship here and throughout the movie. A ship/model that didn't have a lot of money put into considering it was a made-for-TV movie, was still very enjoyable.

The actors did an okay job. It was good how it focused on a couple of different characters and not just one or two. Really drew a picture of what everybody else was like. Other things like writing, costume design, and music were also drawn well. The attempt to recapture the look and atmosphere of the real ship was partly good. Mainly for the attempt and not actually finding it.

This was a good mini-series with a good topic to go off on. Titanic has been one of the most popular stories and epics of all time and it is good to see a variety of movies trying to portray it. Remember to rate this as a film of itself and NOT a duplicate of James Cameron's.

A lot of other comments stated that the acting was great, especially George C. Scott. Sorry, but that's just not so. His lines are delivered dripping with melodrama, so much so that I thought I was watching an amature production. His explanation of the ship and what would happen as soon as he stepped in the wheelhouse (after the collision) was laughable. How he knew the ship was doomed before anyone sounded the hull was amazing. Further technical gaffs was the sound of creaking wood and running water, even in the first class section, within minutes of the collision. The rape scene was apparently some scriptwriter's idea of connecting with contemporary stories, but it was ugly and just not true. In fact, this film is filled with more false info than any other (except the film by the same name with Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyk (sp?)). If you want to see the most accurate tale of what occurred during that April night, see the superb "A Night to Remember". I rate this one star out of 10.