George C Scott and Zeta Jones Titanic Miniseries

[Jade Blatz]

I'm probably going to get some flack for this but I really liked the 1996 Titanic mini series starring George C. Scott as Captain Smith. After viewing this site I have realized that there are many technical inaccuracies and the rape scene was un-called for but it has something that Cameron's Titanic doesn't have more scenes with passengers that where actually on the ship. I was excited about Cameron's Titanic until I watched it for the first time and realized it was more a love story and the Tragedy was in the background to the whole thing. The thing that irritated me the most however is that they didn't show the heroics of the Straus’s which is my favorite Titanic story and they just showed them for like 5 seconds. Now although the miniseries had a couple of love stories and invented characters I felt the miniseries spent much more time on the actual disaster and the real passengers such as John Jacob Astor and his wife, the Straus’s and Molly Brown and plus they showed more of the crew then in Cameron's movie. I suppose I will have to see A Night To Remember one day as it sounds like it is more accurate and also shows more about the passengers and crew then Cameron’s movie. Anyways here is my favorite scene from the miniseries, enjoy!

Smith: She has taken damage along three hundred feet of her starboard side.

Ismay: Oh my God!

Smith (To Murdoch): You have broken one of the cardinal rules of safety, never turn your broadside to danger. Had we struck the berg head-on only one compartment would have been flooded.

Murdoch: I thought I could avoid hitting the berg altogether sir.

Smith: And not only did you stop your engines, you reversed them. She would have turned much more quickly the greater her forward motion.

Murdoch: Yes but the watertight doors where closed immediately after impact, the compartments behind them where sealed.

Smith: These watertight bulkheads go up only to E deck, the weight of the water in the bow will pull her down by the head.

Ismay: This ship can't sink.

Smith: The ship has about two hours.

Ismay: The lifeboats, we have lifeboats, we must launch them at once, get everyone off the ship.

Lightoller: That won't be entirely possible.

Ismay: Of course it's possible, we must begin immediately.

Smith: You may recall that we have precisely the number of lifeboats required by the British Board Of Trade: Seats for twelve hundred people.

Ismay: There's over two thousand people aboard this ship.

Smith: Two thousand, two hundred and thirty souls!

Ismay: I ... cannot allow this.

Smith: Mr. Ismay, it was under your directive that we where traveling through an ice field at the arrogant speed of twenty-one knots! I am the master of this vessel and I have been too complacent.

BTW does Ismay say "This ship can't sink!" in every movie because he says it here and I know he says it in Cameron’s Titanic.

-Jade

 

[amy sutak]

The movie has its problems but I liked it too.The rape scene I could have lived without.Alot of people hate this movie but I try to look at it this way bad movie or not it still moved me.You must watch antr by the way I didn't watch it for a long time then I was kicking myself so make sure you catch it.

 

[Eric Paddon]

The problem is that even when they focus on real people and real events they get a number of things wrong that were previously done correctly in ANTR.

1-Thomas Andrews is not even depicted.

2-The Californian sequences are a joke. They have Groves instead of Gibson on watch with Stone while the rockets are going up, and they have a bearded actor playing Captain Lord. Smith's protestation that "the distress rockets are supposed to be red!" has no basis in reality and appears to have been lifted from the 1943 German propaganda film.

Ross LaManna's original teleplay avoided most of these inaccuracies (his script had Andrews and properly had Stone and Gibson on watch) and he was so upset by the rewrite that he made a point of posting his original teleplay on-line (it's no longer there but most Titanic buffs downloaded it and have it).

Lennie Niehaus's score was outstanding, blowing Horner's away completely.

 

[amy sutak]

Eric is antr your favorite?antr is my favorite.I was upset with the movies inaccuracies as well but then I used it as an excuse to tell my friends what they had done wrong.Did you like anything about the movie?

 

[Eric Paddon]

ANTR is the best Titanic movie, bar none. The 1956 television adaptation of ANTR also does a fairly good job of sticking to accuracy too.

 

[Eric Paddon]

As for the miniseries, the score was great, and it was nice to see some real events not depicted in other productions shown (the Allisons), but the negatives unfortunately outweigh the positives. That being said, I still preferred it to Cameron's.

 

[Deborah Kogan]

I just recently saw the miniseries again. They give the time of sinking as 2:40 A.M.

 

[Dave Gittins]

They get just about everything wrong! I saw the show on TV recently and noticed dozens of things. One that had me giggling was that a lifeboat on Carpathia is painted with rescue orange inside. It's all too silly for words. Even the Allison story is all wrong, as the Alice Cleaver tale is untrue. I notice that there is no historical advisor credited.

 

[Eric Paddon]

I can let them off the hook regarding the Alice Cleaver story since frankly that's regarded as "conventional wisdom" among most lay Titanic scholars and only those who've had a chance to read a lot more in-depth have become aware of the challenges to that story. I'll admit it surprised me when I learned of the problems in the conventional telling.

 

[Neil McRae]

I've mentioned all the following in other posts but I think they all deserve repeating:

I still don't understand why the character of Isabella (Catherine Zeta-Jones' character) is supposed to be sympathetic. She's willing to ditch husband and daughter for this old flame of hers. Then after he dies in the sinking, she gets to go back to them because they never found out! Sheesh!

Other things that bugged me:

-Captain Lord is about fifteen years too old.

-Several lines are taken directly from "A Night to Remember" but they're spoken by the wrong people.

-I could forgive them not showing Pitman or Moody, being mere junior officers, but where during all this are Andrews and Wilde?

-I could have sworn Captain Rostron learned of the Titanic's fate from Boxhall, not Lowe.

-In Captain Smith's last scene he gives this sanctimonious speech about how the ship was appropriately named because the titans dared to challenge the gods. Granted old EJ may not have been an expert on mythoolgy but the titans didn't challenge the gods. They WERE gods until they were overthrown by their children, the more familiar Greek gods (Zeus, etc.)

-Smith tells the Allisons there are no more boats but there must be because we later see him talking to Boxhall (giving the sanctimonious speech above) and we all know Boxhall left the ship IN A BOAT!

-Most of all, this is some of the hammiest acting I've ever seen. This would make SOAP actors squirm! I can safely blame the wrinting for that because we've seen most of the actors (CZJ, George C. Scott, Tim Curry, Roger Rees, & Peter Gallagher) in much better performances.

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

It was okay..the rape scene was a tad shocking, and with any Tim Curry role, I always expect him to break out in Rocky Horror Picture show drag...
Plus Scott's performance was way over the top..

Tarn Stephanos

 

[Adam Usher]

many people dislike this mini series but actually, i really enjoyed it and i think that it is the most touching film or series about Titanic! In the final moments before the ship dissappears forever, everything goes into slow motion and all of the emotions are shown to the viewer. I personally get goose bumps whenever i see that part. I also like the scene with the captain and ismay when they decide what the final outcomes will be.

I do think that the film would have been much better if they had actually used a model istead of bad computer technology and if they used Andrews too.

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

I saw it all the way through for the first time last night. My first impression was "this is quite bad" but it does have it's moments.

One thing I couldn't get my head round was the accents. Some were really dreadful, such as Mike Doyle (Jamie) and Kavan Smith (Lowe). Doyle was obviously a graduate of the Dick Van Dyke School of Dodgy Cockney Wannabees. Being led on by a bad script didn't help, I suppose. And why do all "dodgy" characters have to come from the East End of London? I know some real dodgy characters but mostly they sound like Frank Skinner.

Looking through the cast list, I note there are quite a few actors and actresses who hail from Canada - most of the Jack family, Murdoch, JJ and Madeleine Astor, Bride, Phillips, Lulu Foley, Reginald Lee, the bartender, the Irish bunkmate, young Isabelle, and even a widow played by Cindy Girling, placed 3rd in the 1977 Miss Canada final!

The portrayal of the Jack family was touching as were the scenes below decks in third class when the realisation set in that they were going nowhere. The Californian scenes may have been flawed but at least the Californian featured. Mentions of the other ships in the Titanic story didn't go un-noticed either. The panicking Allisons were believable and as far as I know this is the only film to portray any member of the family involved in one of Titanic's saddest stories.

Overall, it was all right, nothing brilliant, and there was no particular love story to focus on, which is more than OK with me. It was watchable, although saying that I could have spent the two hours wrapping Christmas presents. And Tim Curry's end could have been a bit bloodier.

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Evgueni Mlodik]

Iain, that is because, like most tv-movies and lower budget films, the mini-series was shot entirely in Canada, which would account for the large Canadian supporting cast.

 

[tonton4ever]

To Niel McRae:
At that point, there weren't anymore boats. This is because the film incorrectly depicted Boxhall to have died on the Titanic. How they didn't know that he lived is surprising to say the least.

On topic with the post:
Overall I did not like the miniseries one bit. I think I spent more time laughing at the " errors-after-errors" in this film than anything. Quite a failure of a movie. Now, the score was indeed better than the 1997 film, but comparing the two that's all I really have to say the miniseries, in my honest opinion, had going for it. Not to mention the acting and accents were dreadful.

Incorrect locations and times, miscasting in numerous roles, characters given the incorrect heritage ( notably the Allisons,) fictional details about real life passengers ( notably Alice Cleaver,) missing key individuals ( Thomas Andrews, for example.)

So overall:

Positives: Great Score and decent work focusing the people of the Titanic.

Negatives: Too many unforgivable and major inaccuracies which provided evidence to many of the producers having absolutely very little detail of the Titanic's story, mediocre and subpar acting, terrible accents, and horrible CGI.

But that's my two cents. I mean no disrespect to anyone who is in favor of the film.