Did you people see the same film I saw?

Boring

Absolutely the worst movie.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This film is incredible it makes you feel as if you are truly on the Titanic as she goes down. Aside from obvious stuff like the ship not snapping in two (this wasn't found out until 1986 I believe) this is possibly the most historically accurate Titanic film. Kenneth More, while I've not seen him in any film before, steals the role as Second Officer Lighttoller. He is fantastic. This film also hits hard, it's implied (spoiler alert but the film has been out for 58 years) that a child, possibly an orphan, is helped by, who I believe is a steward, do correct me on that though if I'm wrong, dies when the ship goes down along with the kindly old man who saved him. As someone who doesn't feel too emotional about movies, that actually made me kinda sad. The couple who Mr Thomas Andrews (who also goes down with the ship) speaks to, I wanted them to survive, more than could be said for Rose in the other film, or Jack for that matter. I'm not sure if they did survive but I hope they did I'll have to rewatch it. Again, it's not often I want characters to live. But the character Development here is incredible and makes you hope these characters will make it, alas, as we all know, 1500 odd people died on Titanic, and this film does nothing to sugar coat that. This is one of the best films I have ever seen. Definitely recommend if you're interested in Titanic or something like that.

Let me just say that I loved James Cameron's "Titanic," which took a huge historic disaster and turned it into a compelling film that went beyond the sensational. Yes, it was a populist film (who can argue with its record-setting box office?), but a damn good one. That being said, I enjoyed "A Night to Remember" immensely. It doesn't have the lover's story contrived for the Cameron film as its anchor, but I was still captivated by the ticking bomb of the "unsinkable" ship approaching its demise, with some rising to a heroic level and others resigning themselves to fate, or simply refusing to admit reality. And I was blown away by the special effects, expecting them to be primitive in an old-school kind of way. Yes, there were models, but their impact was every bit (if not more) of that of the Cameron film. This was truly a remarkable accomplishment.

The recreation of the famous world event seems to have been meticulously accurate and tragically predictable. Roy Ward Allen places you on the ship full of social class, exquisite tastes and proper procedure but, unfortunately, not enough life boats for everyone. While the much heralded James Cameron film 40 years later would out-do the special effects, its' interior of the ship in 1958 production is incredibly the same as its' remake, a tribute to the detail of those in charge. What is missing for the first third of the film, however, is character identity. The first rule of the disaster film genre is to get the audience to care about those in peril. I felt for a father and those locked below in steerage, but hardly anyone else. Cold? Not as cold as the water, the force behind the drama and I needed a bit more to know who to invest my heart with. Without specific rooting interests, I was left to watch inevitable history without the ruse of entertainment.

The sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage in April 1912 has been the subject of many books and films. Perhaps no book or film is better than Walter Lord's 1955 book A Night To Remember and this, its 1958 film adaptation. Given the reputation of its source material, how does the film hold up? The strength of the film is ultimately the same as that of Lord's book. Following the opening minutes of the film which are set prior to when the ship sets sail and introduces us to second officer Charles Lightoller (played by Kenneth More), Eric Ambler's script focuses on just about a dozen hours of the Titanic's story: namely the events from 11:40 PM on April 14th through about the same hour the following morning. The film effortlessly wanders around both the Titanic herself and the people aboard her. We see the Titanic story from a large number of perspectives including officer Lightoller as well as groups of passengers from all three classes from a millionaire couple, middle class newlyweds and a group of Irish immigrants. The film occasionally moves away from the Titanic to two ships that also play big parts in events: the eventual rescue ship Carpathia and the Californian (the infamous ship that stood still which stands at the center of a controversy that the film helped to reawaken( and those aboard those respective vessels.As a result, the film features a large cast. The aforementioned Kenneth More effectively leads it and he does extremely well in the role bringing a sense of both authority and humanity to his performance though it's worth noting that some of the actions and events he is depicted as taking part in didn't necessarily happen to the real man on that April night. Yet with the exception of More, there are no stars in roles (though several of the actors would go on to greater fame in the years ahead) with More's Lightoller being literally just one part in a large cast of actors and actresses who bring history to life ranging from Laurence Naismith as Captain Smith and Michael Goodliffe as the ship's designer Thomas Andrews to Honor Blackman as a first class passenger along with Anthony Bushell and Russell Napier as the respective captains of the Carpathia and Californian amongst many, many others. In doing so the filmmakers created a fascinating human drama played out for the most part on an 882 foot stage filled with people from all walk's of life.The film also succeeds for the fact that it stays true to events, or at least to events as they were known in the late 1950s, and not sensationalizing events. Unlike other depictions of the Titanic both on film and on television, there are no fictional characters or love stories taking center stage. The Titanic and those aboard it caught up in events are the stars of the film. The film features some excellent recreations of areas on the real ship that stand up well even against those from the James Cameron film wile both the direction of Roy Ward Baker and the black and white cinematography of Geoffrey Unsworth playing up the drama of the events of that night rather than attempting to enhance them cinematic. Even the score from William Alwyn, sporadic as it is, isn't intrusive or loud but subtly underscores the events taking place. While the film does have deviations and historical errors (of which Titanic researcher Paul Lee has compiled on his website for those who are interested), the film remains the most accurate Titanic film yet made.Where perhaps the film is let down is in its special effects. Some of the model footage hasn't aged well at all with some of the shots during the sinking featuring an obvious Titanic model with even more obvious lifeboat models. Other times the superimposing of those in the lifeboats in front of those shots leads to results that are at best mixed and poor in others. That said, the sequence of the Titanic taking its final plunge remains a fantastic combination of special effects with other elements to create a haunting and memorable sequence (even without the ship breaking apart as it was later confirmed to have done more than a quarter of a century after the film was made).Like the book its based on, the film if A Night To Remember succeeds by giving the viewer the facts of the event and the incredible human drama that played out on an 882 foot stage in the middle of the North Atlantic. It also remains after more than half a century the definitive film depiction of the Titanic disaster for that same reason. Chances are, it will stay that way and is a film to remember as a result.