The best Titanic film?

[Amasov]

With the 96th anniversary of the sinking of the great liner only a few days away, I was wondering what you all thought was the best of the Titanic movies. There have been a lot of them over the years, but out of the ones that depict the actual disaster, which one would you think is done the best as far as historical accuracy and even just as a film in general?

My vote goes for the 1958 movie A Night to Remember. Based off the book by the same name by Walter Lord, this one focuses more on the sinking than anything else. It's only a few minutes into the film when Titanic strikes the iceberg and starts to go down. Also, because it was made about 46 years after the disaster, many survivors and even officers were still very much alive and were brought on the film as advisers.

I'll write a snippet about the other Titanic films. Here's my ranking of them in order after A Night to Remember.

Titanic (1997)
Despite the love story, you actually feel like you're there. The film really brings the disaster to life and really shows the horror of that night as well as the aftermath. When the great dome shattered and water began pouring into the beautiful grand staircase, I almost wanted to cry. You really saw Titanic die that night.

Titanic (1953)
This film which starred Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck uses the disaster as background while it focuses on the two stars. The acting for this movie is so well done; very intelligent. In terms of the disaster itself, there are some minor inaccuracies:
- Second officer Lightoller did not go down with the ship.
- Bruce Ismay didn't disembark in France.
- The ship never exploded (I don't think).
- Those left on board never sang "Nearer My God to Thee", although it was a touching moment.

S.O.S. Titanic (ABC-TV 1979)
This one isn't bad. It's very powerful, conveyed mostly by the music. You really got a sense of how stunned and shocked the survivors were after the disaster. Although, I didn't care for Ismay nearly going mad afterward. LOVE the moments when the Carpathia gets word Titanic is going down and races toward her position - especially when she arrives and you see the lifeboats creep out from behind the giant icebergs nearby. Very chilling.

Titanic (CBS-TV 1996)
The word is, someone at CBS got hold of Cameron's script and made some alterations to avoid a lawsuit. I don't care what they did. A ripoff is a ripoff and that's what this one was. Probably the poorest of the movies.

Did I leave any out?

 

[jkladis]

I think just A Night to Remember. I saw that before Cameron's boat movie and have some interesting commonalities. Most obvious being such large productions of the time.

 

[Amasov]

I think just A Night to Remember. I saw that before Cameron's boat movie and have some interesting commonalities. Most obvious being such large productions of the time.

I saw A Night to Remember before Cameron's also. In fact, you'd be surprised how much Cameron lifts from previous Titanic movies. He takes lines from many of them.

For instance, Kathy Bates (who plays Molly Brown) has a line, "Why do they always announce dinner like a damn calvary charge?"

Clifton Webb says the exact same line in his Titanic film.

A Night to Remember is the definitive Titanic movie, hands down.

 

[CaptainCanada]

My favourite would Titanic; the disaster is primarily an historical backdrop, but the sinking is brilliantly captured.

 

[amdmiami]

Cameron's. The best made with the best story and with the best sinking.

 

[Sagart]

'A Night to Remember' is the best. Cameron's is awful. All that money and they still couldn't come up with a decent script. It was bad when 2 hours in I was begging for the ship to sink.

 

[Tom Servo]

I think Cameron's is the best. They missed some things, but overall, the attention to detail was excellent.

 

[TGTheodore]

A Night to Remember is the definitive Titanic movie, hands down.

Agreed.

--Ted

 

[Worf2DS9]

I'll have to go with Cameron's Titanic, as that's the only one I've seen in its entirety, and it's a super movie. Saw it 3 times at the theater.

 

[Roshi]

Voyage of the Damned...

 

[Trekker4747]

Cameron's Titanic. If from the spectacle and effects and recreation of the ship alone.

 

[Bloodwhiner]

Did I leave any out?

Just two that were directly about the sinking...

Titanic (1943) -- strangest of the bunch as it was a Nazi propaganda film thought up by Joseph Goebbels to show British incompetence. Even the German public avoided it. It can be found on some movie compilation DVD's.

Saved From the Titanic (1912) -- a survivor cashes in only a month after the sinking. Dorthy Gibson plays herself in this 10-minute silent short in which she reenacts her survival in ways that stretch the truth beyond anything close to reality.

There was a sinking sequence in 1980's Raise the Titanic as well.

 

[Trekker4747]

I can't believe I forgot this one.

I change my answer to "Raise the Titanic!"

 

[Amasov]

The one thing I feel Cameron's Titanic has over A Night to Remember is that you seem to feel more connected to the characters in the movie. Not just Jack and Rose, but the supporting characters. Not long after the ship goes down, I always wonder about the fates of certain people that we only saw briefly.

In A Night to Remember, that movie focuses more on the ship itself and not really one character. It jumps all over the place, introducing you to several different groups of people, which I think is was really good and all, but I just didn't really have much of an emotional attachment to any of them.

One of the moments in Titanic that really does it for me is seeing Thomas Andrews standing in the lounge at the fireplace mantle as Titanic goes down. He was so proud of his creation and chose to die with her.

The Andrews in A Night to Remember doesn't do that much for me when it comes to that moment. We last see him sitting calmly at a table just looking at his watch, but there's no sympathy for him I don't think. You just don't really have much of an attachment to him in that movie as you do in Cameron's.

 

[Trekker4747]

One of the moments in Titanic that really does it for me is seeing Thomas Andrews standing in the lounge at the fireplace mantle as Titanic goes down. He was so proud of his creation and chose to die with her.

Indeed. I love when he adjusts the clock on the mantle. That "Nearer My God to Thee" sequence is a beautiful made one. From the Strouds cuddling in there bed, the 3rd Class woman reading a bedtime story to her children, water swelling in parts of the ship, the chaos on the deck. Beautiful scene.

The Jack and Rose stuff is schmaltzy and too much sometimes, but once the ship hits the iceberg not only have the human characters been established but the ship as a character herself has been. As we've seen her rooms and suites and the glamour and ritz she was and it's as big a tragedy to see the SHIP die as it is to see the human characters (and "red shirts") to go down too. Once the ship hits the iceberg Titanic goes from being a good and tolerable love story-movie to being one hell of tense action movie about one tragic and helish night that is very well done and no Titanic sinking has ever been so perfectly, accurately and realisticly performed. (Granted, the accuracy is more to do with the knowledge we gained fromt he wreck since the earlier movies done on the sinking.)

Titanic is worth watching for the second half alone.

 

[Amasov]

One of the moments in Titanic that really does it for me is seeing Thomas Andrews standing in the lounge at the fireplace mantle as Titanic goes down. He was so proud of his creation and chose to die with her.

Indeed. I love when he adjusts the clock on the mantle. That "Nearer My God to Thee" sequence is a beautiful made one. From the Strouds cuddling in there bed, the 3rd Class woman reading a bedtime story to her children, water swelling in parts of the ship, the chaos on the deck. Beautiful scene.

The Jack and Rose stuff is schmaltzy and too much sometimes, but once the ship hits the iceberg not only have the human characters been established but the ship as a character herself has been. As we've seen her rooms and suites and the glamour and ritz she was and it's as big a tragedy to see the SHIP die as it is to see the human characters (and "red shirts") to go down too. Once the ship hits the iceberg Titanic goes from being a good and tolerable love story-movie to being one hell of tense action movie about one tragic and helish night that is very well done and no Titanic sinking has ever been so perfectly, accurately and realisticly performed. (Granted, the accuracy is more to do with the knowledge we gained fromt he wreck since the earlier movies done on the sinking.)

Titanic is worth watching for the second half alone.

You know what line really makes me sad?

Andrews is looking at the beautiful grand staircase and says, "In an hour, or so.. all this will be at the bottom of the Atlantic."

And Ismay's line in S.O.S. Titanic, "So much beauty... all that strength.. power and grace..."

It's also very hard to watch in Cameron's film, the water rushing through the beautiful first class hallways, tearing through the walls. The ship is so well-established as a beautiful lady and we see her die so tragically.

I liken the RMS Titanic to the original Enterprise. They were such lovely ladies in their own right and really established as beautiful ships then to see them die is so terribly hard to watch.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I will choose A night to Remember. It is the only Titanic movie I own.

Once it hits the iceberg Cameron's Titanic is great but I loathe the rest of the movie.

 

[Trekker4747]

You know what line really makes me sad?

Andrews is looking at the beautiful grand staircase and says, "In an hour, or so.. all this will be at the bottom of the Atlantic."

Indeed. I think this comes after the "Neare My God to Thee" montage, but there's a great score montage just after that as the destruction from the sinking builds up. (That's another thing about Cameron's Titanic. FANTASTIC score.) Including a part that always chokes me up a bit as the water crashes through the ceiling over the Grand Staircase and the angelic/harmonic singing intensifies as people struggle in the rising swell of water pouring in. Water crashes through the corridors of the ship, the stern and propellors rise, the music intesifies again as the camera pulls back along the boat deck as hundreds of people (now stranded on the ship) run towards the stern. Father Byles gives mass/lass rights at the back of the poop deck, Fantastic and powerful series of scenes, then the lights flicker and go off and the keel splits. Great series of scenes.

Again, the love story is mostly schmaltz but Cameron really hit a Grand Slam with the sinking scenes. And, for me when I first saw it, I was really engrossed in the characters and wanted to see Jack and Rose survive and was greatly upset when Jack died -and I'm not afraid to admit I cried when Jack died... well, wept.

Just thinking about it, gets me passionate about that movie. Really a masterpiece of film making. I wish the dialogue was a bit better (something Cameron isn't really great at) and it was a little less shmaltzy and the love story a little less cliche, but all and all. Fantastic movie that deserves every cent it earned.

 

[RandyS]

A Night to Remember is the definitive Titanic movie, hands down.

Agreed.

--Ted

Seconded. But, for me, I found something good stuff in all of them.

 

[CaptainCanada]

The Jack/Rose story is definitely a bit schmaltzy/stereotyped/whatever, but I think it's really well-done schmaltz/stereotype; it's an example of taking archtypes that can seem artificial, playing them without irony/self-awareness, and doing it right. Not that I don't like self-aware, but it's better to mix it up; eventually everyone got tired of every horror movie imitating Scream, for example.

Plus, as everyone who owns the special edition DVD knows (which, by the way, has absolutely gorgeous packaging), they really dodged a bullet by going with the ending they did.

Oh, and Kate Winslet got naked.