Don Lynch and Ken Marschall Commentaries

[Adam Tarzwell]

I just finished watching disc one of the movie with the historical commentary on and I must saw it was very thorough and well done by both speakers. I think these two men are the most knowlegedable people about the Titanic subject and all of their insight was great. Ken just marvelling over the sets a couple of times not paying attention to waht Don was saying and sorta being lost. It was great. I look forward to watching disc two as the sinking progresses. Someone remarked to me saying that they thought the special edition was lacking for such a huge blockbuster movie will I disagree when you got 3 sets of commentaries from Don and Ken, James and some of the actors it is a load of stuff... and the deleted scenes, ship tour, photo gallery, documentaries, behind the scenes featurettes... of course there always could be more but this is the DVD we have waited 7 years for...

 

[Mark Draper]

It would've been cool to hear David Warner explain how he got into the situation of being in the spot where Titanic began to split open. I was curious about that.

 

[Adam Tarzwell]

Yeah by watching the deleted scenes we saw how he got all battered and bloody...but not really how he escaped... you would have thought he would have drowned in the dining saloon. Oh well...

 

[John Lynott]

A further plus point to the commentary is that they make several 'criticisms' of the film...eg the 'clean' split of the detached stern, the 'Gone With The Wind' shot after the final plunge etc. Nice to see it not turned into a back-slapping hagiography.

 

[Dan Cherry]

Adam,
Lovejoy would have been able to access the boat deck from the crew stairs that he took as seen in the deleted scene. He would have popped up onto the boat deck and made his way to the starboard side, right where he was seen in the movie, arriving just as the ship began its fatal plunge.

 

[Mark Draper]

No I mean to hear the actor's opinion of his death scene in the movie.

Yeah, even Cameron said the break was too clean and more violent than the movie portrays.

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

>>Yeah, even Cameron said the break was too clean and more violent than the movie portrays

Back in 1997 there was discussion over whether the breakup occurred top-to-bottom, or bottom-to-top. I think the latter is now the more generally accepted theory. Regardless, most of the general public was still holding onto the notion that the Titanic went down as a single unit. JC grabbed their attention in a really BIG way, which was good.

Roy

 

[Robert T. Paige]

It's also interesting to compare the Don Lynch/Ken Marschall commentaries on "A Night To Remember" with those on "Titanic".

This probably belongs somewhere else in the trivia section:
In the "flying" scene with "Jack" and "Rose" on the bow in "Titanic" (1997) as the camera moves back into a long shot, there is a curious illusion that there appears to be a very close resemblance to the facial profiles ...between those of Kate Winslet (1997) and Audrey Dalton (1953). Have any others noticed this ?

 

[Jon Meadows]

Roy - I'm new here and haven't heard the bottom-to-top break-up theory. Has it been discussed on the boards? I'm not even sure how that is possible given gravity and the position of the ship.

I had always thought that the way the back fourth of the bow section is bent down was because of the breakup.

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

Hi, Jon!

Wow, I'm no Titanic forensics expert, but I'll attempt an extremely short summary.

Cameron's film shows the Titanic poised at a 45-degree angle, with the cracking starting on the uppermost deck, moving downward. There's a lot of debate whether the ship ever actually reached a 45-degree angle before breaking up.

The feeling of a number of experts is that, since a ship is essentially a hollow tube, like the center of a roll of paper towels, the increasing weight on the bow, coupled with the stern's determination to retain its horizontal stability, put heavy stress on the keel and double bottom, causing them to compress on themselves, thereby tearing the ship apart from bottom to top. The wreck is in two major sections, but a good portion of the ship between those two sections isn't attached to either one of them. In addition, the back end of the bow section is collapsed downward, which could have been caused by downblast, by impact with the seabed, or by being pulled downward towards the keel by the separation - or by all three.

Jon, you might want to check these out:

http://titanic.marconigraph.com/tech3.html
(Question 38)

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/item/1507/

Now, the forensic experts can join in and pick me to pieces. (But please, gentlemen, be kind!)

Roy

 

[Parks Stephenson]

>Jon, you might want to check these out:
>http://titanic.marconigraph.com/tech3.html

I would like to say that in light of more recent analysis, I will be changing the few pages on my website where I discuss the manner in which the ship broke apart and sank. I will not be doing this, though, until after the History Channel documentary airs on 26 February.

What I have on my website reflects what I believed at one point in time. I have since seen evidence that has caused me to reassess my earlier conclusions. The evidence and our new analysis will be the subject of the upcoming History Channel programme.

Parks

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

Hi, Parks!

Thanks for the heads-up! I'll be eagerly awaiting your latest thoughts.

Roy

 

[Scott Newman]

I finally found some time today to watch the movie with the historical commentary. Well done indeed.

It's good to hear that they (Ken and Don) are as much fans of the movie as they are historical references. It's definitely what sets a successful career apart from an ordinary job.

Because of their in-depth knowledge, it's also what allows them to do this as a successful career. For most of us, it's just a fascinating hobby that most of us think about while building our little plastic models. From what I gathered, being on the set was in many ways like reliving the actual event.

 

[Robert T. Paige]

It is also interesting to compare the comments on "A Night To Remember" with those of "Titanic" by Don Lynch and Ken Marschall.

Also Cameron's reply to Lynch's remark about his concern in the Lifeboat 13/15 lowering scene.

Thanks, also,

Robert

 

[Robert T. Paige]

Reference to Don Lynch's commentary on "A Night To Remember" in the scene in which Captain Smith enters the bridge just before the Titanic takes the final plunge.:

"This is a scene I thought they should have done.
You notice a second ago the water just about hitting the bridge windows. It would have been dramatic to have it come crashing trough the set there. Boom ! Right now !"

For comparison, watch the same scene in "Titanic" (1997). Cameron must have picked up on the clue.