Saturday 14 April 2012

Titanic Movies

The Titanic has been the inspiration for many movies over the years.
In this post I will tell you something about three of these movies.

Saved From the Titanic
This movie is the first Titanic movie.
It opened only 29 days after the sinking and stars Dorothy Gibson, an actual survivor, and in the movie she even wore the same dress she wore on the night of the sinking. Sadly enough this movie is no longer in existence as the only known prints were destroyed in a studio fire in March 1914.


Titanic (1943)
The film was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels during World War II. It was meant to act as propaganda to discredit American and British capitalism and to glorify the bravery and selflessness of German men. The story goes that the movie was so depressing that it was never shown in Germany itself (and it was finally even banned by Goebbels himself) , only in some of the occupied territories.

I have seen this movie and can say it's an interesting piece of propaganda. If you can get hold of a DVD of this movie it's certainly worth watching, or you can search youtube for it.


Titanic (1997 & 3D)
I'm guessing most people will know this movie.
I myself love this movie I will confess. Not because of the love story (in fact I do not care about Rose and Jack), but because of the rich detail of everything around that love story. Sure, there are some minor mistakes, but over all Cameron has done a great job in showing what the sinking of the Titanic was about: the bravery, the sacrifice, the unfair treatment of those in steerage, love. It shows us what happens when we are put to the test and what man is capable of when his life is threatened.

This week I went to see Titanic 3D, to see if the 3D element could improve on what already is a very powerful movie.
It can't.
The 3D was merely a gimmick that worked best at the start of the movie when we're shown the wreck of the Titanic. After that it lost its power to me, turning into a novelty that made me feel like I was looking at some kind of diorama at best and making me wonder why everyone was looking over the shoulder of the person they were talking to at worst. I will rewatch this movie in the near future, but without the 3D effects that distract from the actual story.


Some other movies of note:
- A Night To Remember (1958)
The Titanic disaster is depicted in straightforward fashion without the addition of fictional subplots.

- Titanic (1996)
It's got Tim Curry playing a shady character, that alone is worth watching this tv movie about the Titanic.

- Titanic (2012 miniseries)
This miniseries is being aired at the moment and having seen the first two episodes I can't wait to see the other two. It's very accurate and captures the mood of the time very well.



1 comment:

Beanie Mouse said...

I've heard about the German version - apparently by the time it got to release, WW2 was starting to go against the Germans, and the ending/sinking was seen as almost prophetic for them (sink ship, sink Germany) which is why it got banned.