Purchased this with a promising feeling after reading positive reviews. But instead, I got so frustrated when I finally had the time to watch it. Got back to some of the reviews, trying to understand if I've missed the point. A second read and most of them seems more like an attempt to promote rather than give honest feedback. So I've decided to write something more technical, without excess, pointing out what did not work out for me, as I feel cheated by "positive" reviews.
My first impression was like watching one of those pieces made to surf and profit over a hype. On this case, using James Cameron's "Titanic".
The documentary itself has a nice and beautiful proposal: to let background actors (those who generally are never remembered when it comes to a peek behind the scenes) have a moment to share their experiences while filming the blockbuster. But "Ship of dreams: Titanic movie diaries" does not present enough reasons to justify its 1h30 running time. To start: if you expect to see new or rare photos/footage/making-of from the original film, it's a visual disappointment. There are none. The use of pencil drawings in most moments (when real footage from the behind the scenes would have been a wonderful addition) gives the impression of poor resources on archival material, but a strong need to illustrate the moment. A particular moment to point out: when one of the cast members showed enthusiasm to read from her own diary, leading to a confusing moment if it was all scripted for the documentary or really written by them all these years ago.
Back to the actors themselves: you won't recognise them without a description of the exact moment where you can spot them in the original film. If you blink, you might miss them. But still, they've managed to tell so many things that sometimes you might want to go back just trying to figure the relevant connection between an airport and "Titanic", for example. And in an attempt to extend the documentary's length even more, fan base from the 1997 "Titanic" gives an insight on what the film means to them. But what should be a more to-the-point thing, turns into tedious moments through the entire documentary, going too much into personal details, like meeting for the first time in person to discuss about dolls and sewing techniques.
A particular guest, Nelson Aspen, seems to be the only one quite lost on the subject. Without a real purpose connected to "Titanic". More of an eccentric figure trying to promote himself on top of everything else (giving himself a 10/10 review, of course). Most of his moments felt totally unnecessary. But then you understand his presence better when you realise the long time friendship between him and actress/director of the documentary, Alexandra Boyd (aka "First Class woman" on the 1997 film).
With necessary cuts, sticking only to a shorter version of the actors sharing about their time on set, the overall idea would have worked great as an extra featurette on the home edition from the original film.
