Titanic: La rinascita digitale

Of course I had to watch the 2025 documentary "Titanic: The Digital Resurrection", as I had the opportunity to do so.

I was rather impressed with the replica that they were capable of making from the data that the two submersibles, named Romeo and Juliet, gathered. It was really impressive and just put a lot of things into perspective. I have to say that it was awe-inspiring.

The documentary does also shed some light on some aspects of the sinking that I had never heard about before.

All in all, this 2025 documentary is definitely well-worth checking out, provided you have an interest in the Titanic or the tragic events of April 14th, 1912.

My rating of director Fergus Colville's 2025 documentary "Titanic: The Digital Resurrection" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Watched> Monday, 19th May, 2025 @ Edge Water Studios, Singleton, Lancashire, England. Rated 4 * * * * Very Good < Cert. Would be a U > This was yet another documentary of the worlds most famous ship wreck laying at the bottom of the Atlantic. One of many thousands of documentaries made, and books written. This first time 'digital' creation in such a large scale was of big interest, and fascination on how it looks from the outside in such detail, having taken thousands of photos of it, and put together in modern day digital form, which will be able to be kept forever, for all to see when we are dead and gone. Still their are questions to be asked, and are unanswered, and will never be answered, as they are taken to the ships grave. A few interesting facts that I have come across over the years, and my deep interest in the subject matter of the Titanic, similar to the history of Jack The Ripper, another part of British history, which is unanswered, back in 1888 - 137 years ago, WHO WAS HE? Fact One > The financial owner of the Titanic, White Star Line was J. P. Morgan, who was going to be on board the maiden voyage of the Titanic, until the very last minute, when he withdrew his luggage and didn't go on this fatal voyage to New York. WHY? Fact two > During the voyage, the ship was troubled with fires breaking out in the engine room, from the 29 large boilers, as big as a large two story house, as the stokers working 24 hours firing up the ships boilers with coal to keep the ship going, especially at full speed ahead. So big an operation this was, and the immense amount of coal having to be used, meant that all ships sailing at the time, had to be cancelled, so they could give their coal to the Titanic, so it could sail. The passengers travelling first class on these cancelled ships, were offered tickets for third class on the Titanic, which majority took up the offer, as they didn't want to give up a chance of a lifetime to sail on this most famous and spectacular ship of its time, though Titanic did have a sister ship called the Olympic, which was like a 'twin' in size and decoration inside. The theory of these boilers, is that when water poured in through the sliced open part of the ship, that the iceberg caused, creating explosions of the boilers, with the freezing water and the extreme heat of the boilers. It was found that some parts of the ripped open ship, the metal was bending out, rather than bent in. Fact 3 > More of a theory, than anything else, that circulated over the years, was it the Titanic that sunk that day, or was it the Olympic, in case something did happen, they didn't want it to be their pride and joy of the Titanic. I very much doubt this theory, myself. Finally Fact 4 > In hindsight, if the ship would have gone head on into the iceberg, the ship would not have sunk, as it would have just caused a massive jolt, possibly throwing some passengers out of their beds as they slept, and possibly only filling one baulk head with water, if that. The pointed bow of the ship would have just took the damage, which would have been far less than slicing open the side of the ship. At the time though, you just wouldn't think to do that, as instinct would tell you to turn the ship away, as best you can, as they did, but unfortunately it does take up to a mile in distance for a ship that size to turn in time, as is what happened, sadly. (ps).

This is a decent little 70 minute run-down of the sinking of the Titanic, but it is almost completely repeated information from any other Titanic documentary, meanwhile three people stand in front of huge screens showing the digital twin. This special focuses on the emotional experience of the passengers and crew and details some information about who was on board. That's fine, but I was not expecting that; based on the title and synopsis, I expected this to be a documentary about the process of the Titanic's digital resurrection. I. E., how she was scanned, how the 3D model was constructed and processed, and everything that went into creating the digital twin. There is almost nothing detailed about the digital resurrection itself.

I also think this special was made too soon, because it talks about how the scan opens up the possibilities of future investigation, but doesn't go into that yet due to how recent this was scanned.

Ultimately, if you have seen one or two Titanic documentaries AND you've already seen pictures and/or models of the new digital scan, you've essentially already seen this documentary.

The headline says it all. While the technology is incredible, and I thoroughly enjoyed the visuals of the scans of a ship wreck we all know is destined to disappear, the remainder of this special was hollow with no clear agenda and dialogue that read like a teen attempting to hit the minimum word limit in a school paper. The messages were redundant, no real information was gleaned from the scans and while I appreciate their focus on the acts of heroism on board the ship that night, that focus was temporary as the dialogue shifted to pure speculation in a poorly executed attempt to humanize a ship wreck that is already inherently human in nature.

Most of what's here has been done before and better. The scans are impressive but most are a bit dark so it's hard to discern a lot of detail. Overall it's a great effort to show the entire wreck but it's nothing that hasn't been done already in other better done documentaries.

The biggest problem I had with it was the leaps they take with the facts. They present a simulation of the ship hitting the iceberg and the exact damage it did to the hull as if it's a forgone conclusion when in fact it's anything but. They are making educated guesses but in truth there's no way they can know exactly what the damage is because that part of the hull is buried in the ocean floor. They present their theory as fact when it's really just supposition. Struck me as very disingenuous.

They so this numerous times throughout the documentary and after a while it gets old. In truth they have no way of actually knowing what actually happened and are making some very large assumptions based on what's left of the ship. That's what I found most disappointing here. To the point that I almost stopped watching several times.

If you're even just an armchair expert regarding the Titanic sinking this documentary isn't going to show you anything new and the opining of the three hosts will probably begin to sound hollow to you very quickly. Still, the digital reconstruction is impressive if also very grim when you see how far the wreck has deteriorated since it was first discovered back in the 1980's. I suppose it's worth watching for that at least.