Titanic: Birth of a Legend

Just a few years ago it wouldn't have been feasible to have made this documentary. Through the wonders of CGI we can see the Belfast skyline as it was in 1907 and even a street with tramcars running along it. The recreation of the ship does vary a bit though. Largely because of out of scale water in some scenes the ship looks like a model. But the scene where she is being towed out for her sea trial and the tugs cast off their cables is incredibly realistic. The actors bear a closer likeness to their real life counterparts than in James Cameron's film except for Captain Smith. Alan Rothwell is a bit too short but on the other hand Bernard Hill made him sound too scouse. The documentary pulls no punches about how tough life was for ordinary people in the early 20th century and also that it was long before health and safety at work. It also depicts the sectarianism that has blighted Northern Ireland almost up to the present time. It's not just a documentary about the history of Titanic, it's a social documentary.

Its a very good and very interesting documentary, but however dont be confused, its not a "Movie" it has a narrator and its only a little more than a hour long, if you want to watch a more typical "movie" telling of the construction of the Titanic, watch the mini series Blood And Steel that came out in 2012.

The subtitle, "Birth of a Legend," is to be taken literally. The "legend" was not the sinking of the Titanic but the ship itself, and this is basically the story of how she was built -- not a documentary at all, but a full television movie about some of the people involved in her design and construction. Of the fourteen thousand men who built the Titanic in Belfast, eight workers were aboard when she sailed. It took five years to build the Titanic and less than three hours to sink her.

If it were nothing more, it would be a superior study of class differences in the Ulster city of Belfast. The workers made barely enough to live on but were hungry for jobs. Those arriving even a few minutes late at the builders were locked out. Seven minutes a day were allotted to taking a leak, and the minutes were counted. They had forty-five minutes for lunch and worked six-day weeks.

The workers were subject to social stratification as well. There was labor, and then there was management. Among the laborers, the top dogs were the riveters. Protestants and the one out of eight workers who were Catholics mostly got along amiably. Family ties were strong and diffused throughout both the wealthy at the top and the poor at the bottom.

The working conditions were dangerous and demanding, and the pay was low. Seventeen workers would die. No particular dramatic points are made of this. It's not a propaganda film, although it often contrasts the worries of the poor (Paying for a doctor when you're ill) with the preoccupations of the rich (getting into political office). The movie, like the story it tells, is filled with irony.

But if Abraham Maslow were alive he might get a kick out of the different sets of needs of the two classes. At the bottom, the workers are chiefly concerned with food, survival, and the like. At the top, the owners of the White Star Line are up to Maslow's second level -- achievement, self esteem, respect from others. They're determined to build not only a ship that is bigger and more luxurious than anything in the Cunard Line -- but THREE such ships. And if the best Cunard liners, like the Lusitania, had only three funnels, they'd add a strictly ornamental fourth. That'll show them.

You should understand that this is a tale of the technological, social, and political context in which the Titanic was built. You scarcely see her on the Atlantic and nobody drowns dramaturgically. There is no self sacrifice, no romance, no screaming whistles.

The performances are adequate, the writing insightful, and the CGIs are truly amazing for a simple television movie.

This documentary portrays the development of RMS Titanic from the initial concept and design, its construction, the sea trials and finally to the preparations for its maiden voyage. But unlike other documentaries, this program makes a feature of the real people who designed and built the ill-fated liner.

Through the use of CGI, we see Harland and Wolff's shipyard as it was in 1909: the great slipways where the keels will be laid and the gantries under which the liners will rise. These sights are populated with actors who portray the actual people who made the great ships possible - from J Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie to the rank-and-file labourers who constructed the ships. We see their pride in building the legendary ships, and we see the playful rivalry between the work crews assigned to Titanic and Olympic, Titanic's sister ship.

We are treated to the scene as the great hull of Titanic glides down the slipway at her launch; a scene that must have awed those witnesses almost a hundred years ago. We watch as Titanic runs under full steam as she goes through her sea trials - a preview of her voyage across the Atlantic.

Finally, we see the specially-selected Guarantee Group - selected workers who were awarded with a free passage - say goodbye to their families and loved-ones as they prepare to leave on Titanic's maiden voyage. We feel sadness and pity for these people - fathers, sons and brothers - who made Titanic possible. We know their tragic fate that will shared with so many others.

I think that Titanic: Birth of a Legend would most appropriately be catalogued as a documentary rather than a film. It's fully narrated with actors playing the real people in the dramatized vignettes that carry most of the program.

Titanic enthusiasts of all kinds will find Birth of a Legend indispensable. It's a fine addition to the catalog of films and television programs depicting the beloved ship.

The characters are interesting and reasonably well acted. The CGI recreations of the Titanic in all stages of her construction are impressive. The presentation of real photographs taken at the time are wonderful.

Aside from the unavoidable limitations that come from television productions (even good ones like this), I can think of no significant strikes against this documentary.. The only issue I had was that it feels a little bit padded. The politics of Unionist Protestants and Republican Catholics are of course essential to the story. But I felt this documentary harped on them to a point that I felt an agenda was at play. It tries a little too hard to make Protestants look bad and predominantly responsible for the sectarian tensions and violence of the time.

But it's certainly nothing that diminishes the legitimate historical value of this documentary.