Titanic

I thought I would re-write my review for the DVD and Blu-Ray version, as it might be of some interest or knowledge to some. I recently purchased my own copy of Titanic on Blu-Ray since and thought it would be of some use to share what I discovered. The DVD version has additional deleted scenes that fill in the gaps of where they put the commercial breaks. The most predominant scenes include: 1. Thomas Andrews and Benjamin Guggenheim in the first class smoking room as the ship is foundering as both the Manton's and Lightholler pass through. 2. A conversation on the bridge between Chief Officer Wilde and First Officer Murdoch. 3. A conversation on the bridge between First officer Murdoch and Captain Smith before Titanic's bridge is submerged. Other additional scenes (although not as drastic) are included that make the story lines better developed and flow much nicer between each episode. Also because of the added scenes, the characters' conclusions are much more satisfying (the only conclusion that still left me unsatisfied was that of Mary Maloney, in the end you are almost left wondering if you were ever supposed to really care about her or her story at all. I feel as though her character never truly developed as much as the other characters, because I was still lacking understanding for some of her actions). The deleted scenes are not bonus features and are included within the film. You have the option to "play all" episodes, or watch them one by one. I highly recommend the "play all" option, it has a running time of 187 minutes which will be long for some, but I find you are more aware and drawn into the stories, and because it is a drama it is much more of an emotional experience if you watch them consecutively because you are still in that mindset. The 1080i (not 1080p) high definition quality of the picture is beautiful and crisp. I didn't pay much attention to the sound quality but it was good for my ears (on a side note I did have to put subtitles on at times to understand some muddled dialogue because of some of their accents). Titanic is a two disc collection, Disc One contains all four episodes and the Set Up options. Disc Two contains 2 hours of bonus material for those interested, including: The making-of Featurette, Titanic: Behind-the-Production, Episode One Audio Commentary, and "The Curse of the Titanic Sisters" Documentary. Do not go on the opinion of others, watch it first then make your own judgements. Julian Fellowes' Titanic felt to me more like a re-imagining than a retelling of an all too familiar story. Titanic is told in such a style both visually and narratively, that I found it to be compelling. Of course that is just a personal opinion. If you still feel uncertain about purchasing Titanic, rent it (if you can) first it is your safest and cheapest option.

9 out of 10 stars

I'm quite an avid Titanic enthusiast. Not as big a buff as I used to be, but I could probably still teach a couple of things. I wasn't expecting great things of this title (I have issues regarding things made by ITV), but as its the 100th anniversary coming up, I felt I should give this a watch, without trying to get to excited (although admittedly, I was really looking forward to watching it).

So far, I've only seen two episodes, and I have to say, while they aren't perfect, I feel that they are a good watch for a casual enthusiast of Titanic. Let me just touch on a couple of bad points.

Now, I don't know as much as a lot of people about the ship, but it does have some errors in historical accuracy, although reviewing from my perspective as somebody who knows a fair bit, but not a massive amount (or somebody, like me, who used to know, but is too stupid to remember...), I can say that you won't notice anything so bad that will ruin it for you, even though looking at the forums, some people seem to have taken great offence to this.

My main gripe with these episodes is that they are very rushed. A lot of effort has gone into the writing, but really I think there is too much going on and in such a short space of time to fit it in. While it was an interesting, if ambitious attempt at telling the story, I have to admit, I think that it would have worked better by going through in order, rather than chopping and changing the main characters every episode (although I have to say, it's nice they aren't doing a Cameron and just focusing on a couple of people). I'm hoping for the final chapter to be tighter.

Apart from the above, I really enjoyed watching the first two episodes and will be recording the final two as well. I'd really recommend this to someone like myself, it has some interesting characters and plots, and hopefully will be soon setting up to be an entertaining and engaging finale.

Given the easy potential for creating a compelling, suspenseful drama set aboard the most famous ship in history during its final hours, TITANIC is shamefully poor. It's a wasted opportunity from the get-go, a lazy class-based drama in which – unforgivably – the sinking of the ship comes second to high melodrama and character relationships. I can wholeheartedly pin the blame on the lapel of writer Julian Fellowes, an old-timer with successes in the past (most notably GOSFORD PARK) but whose recent work has been marred by stereotyped characters and a distinct lack of depth. I gave up on series two of DOWNTON ABBEY after one episode, and TITANIC follows that in a downward spiral.

The problems with the writing of this series are endless. The ridiculous decision was made to tell a four-hour miniseries in four separately placed episodes that cover much of the same ground from different perspectives. So we get numerous scenes which are repeated over the four episodes; if a conversation wasn't boring enough the first time around, rest assured they'll show it again another three times! The sinking takes place in the last half hour and almost seems incidental.

The characters are dull and featureless, each occupying a clichéd niche in society: there are the haughty aristocrats, the tradespeople, the servants, the Irish working classes, the stubborn captain, the decent officers, the good-looking Italian waiter. There's a reason why critics dubbed this Drownton Abbey – it's as if the ideas and ethos behind that series were simply transplanted onboard the Titanic with no effort to make them believable whatsoever. Even worse, Fellowes ignores dozens of untold dramas which have been written about but not filmed over the years in favour of his pat, seen-it-all-before character interactions.

It hurts that the characters are so vapid, formless and devoid of features. The aristocrats are invariably repulsive, their servants hard-working and good natured, the Irish shrill and argumentative. If it wasn't silly enough, a murderer is thrown into the mix for no good reason! Decent actors like Maria Doyle Kennedy and Toby Jones are lost amid the sea of faces – if there ever was a series with just too many extraneous characters, then this is it. Half of them are simply forgotten about come the ending (with dozens of loose ends), and none of them feature enough for us to care about them a jot.

Aside from the script, the production has genuinely bad values – it seems all the money was spent on the (wasted) ensemble cast members, and nothing was left for anything else. The Titanic is a cheesy CGI creation that wouldn't be out of place in a bad B-movie, there's no indication at any point that the sea was freezing cold (that's what killed the majority of the people, after all), and disaster scenes are limited to some water sloshing about on the deck – I thought the toilets had backed up for a second, I didn't realise that was supposed to be the ship going down! Add in tons of goofs and you have a production that's almost as much of a disaster as the sinking of the ship itself.

I've read several reviews of Julian Fellowes' Titanic, and I agree with comments about the choppy, confusing editing (I'm sure there was a point to it, but I kept thinking I had started with the wrong episode, or in the middel of one...) I also agree with those that found the cast to be lacking in chemistry or real emotion. But what bothered me most about this version was that there was absolutely no sense of the arctic, icy cold. Nobody breathed vapor. Nobody froze to death -- EVRYBODY that went into the water drowned? Really? That sounds like (yet another) glaring historical inaccuracy. There was no mention of the cold throughout the "sinking scenes" except for one character mentioned she'd rather freeze than deal with "those people." There was no ice anywhere except the CGI iceberg. This version could have been set in a lukewarm summer lake, for all the impression of cold it produced. (And okay, maybe James Cameron put a little TOO much emphasis on clouds of vapor and frozen hair, but at least you FELT how cold it was!) If the point of this version was to make us feel the total experience of this tragedy, it missed by an artic ocean. Pun intended.

I wanted to like this mini-series, really I did. I love Downton Abbey and Gosford Park is great fun, so it isn't as if I am not a fan of Julian Fellowes. And this had a great cast on paper. Unfortunately, apart from some beautiful photography, gorgeous costumes and a wonderfully-rendered ship as well as some decent turns from Glen Blackhall and Geraldine Somerville, this soggy ITV drama sadly never seems to leave the deck. A main problem of mine was the pace. Most of the drama had a very rushed feel to it, consequently characters came and went, story lines(and rather derivative ones at that) were introduced but never satisfactorily elaborated upon or resolved(especially Mary Maloney's) and the main characters lack depth or even any sort of genuine personality and it doesn't help that here they are all underdeveloped stereotypes.

Some scenes particularly at the start take a while to get going, maybe in an attempt to give the characters depth but seeing as they failed with that aspect the first episode was dull, and the sinking scenes which had potential to be riveting lacked any true tension. The dialogue lacks the control and wit also of Downton Abbey and Gosford Park, it is all very stilted and soap-opera-ish with some parts like with the younger actors cringe-worthy and there are a couple of heavy accents too making some of the dialogue muddled. The rest of the acting considering the cast pedigree was disappointing, and the fact that a lot don't have much to do has a lot to do with it.

Toby Jones for example is a good actor, but is one of these, and for me he also had a character that was all too derivative of some of his other roles(such as a less-evil version of Quilp from The Old Curiosity Shop). The rest of the cast that aren't the main focus of the drama are so little used and so scatter-shot in their appearances that their acting is downright forgettable. All in all, a big soggy and largely unmoving disappointment, better than the animated versions, which are the "what-the-devil-did-I-just-watch?" sort of quality, but for a better version try the sumptuous James Cameron version which had an absolutely riveting last hour and especially the brilliant A Night to Remember. 4/10 Bethany Cox