James Cameron & The Wreck of the Bismarck

[Melissa E. Kalson]

Hello all.. Last night I taped a two hour documentary on the Discovery Channel (which I watched today) on James Cameron's latest underwater expedition. This time to the wreck of the German WWII battleship Bismarck. It was most fascinating. Has anyone heard of this before? I guess I don't know very much about WWII and I hadn't heard of the name and in fact wasn't aware that J. Cameron was doing another deep sea expedition. Again he was with the Keldysh and the MIR submersibles. It was very intriguing. Sincerely, Melissa K.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

This show was first broadcast back in December 2002. I ordered a copy from Discovery, but they're so far behind in putting it out that they had to cancel the early orders. I'll have to drop them a line and re-conform my own order. While the show had it's share of ups and downs, the CGI animation was..IMO...outstanding. The forensics was pretty good too.

 

[Kyle Stewart]

I watched it and i thought i was the best way the shown the ship and everything else.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

If anyone is interested, Discovery is offering this presentation on DVD. I got mine from the Discovery Store on King Street in Charleston.

 

[Tom Pappas]

"If anyone is interested, Discovery is offering this presentation on DVD."

This is equally true if no one is interested.

 

[Wesley Burton]

I have the dvd. It is a very good documentary.

 

[Michael Cundiff]

Melissa;

What is fascinating is the extreme pressure of which the MIRS are enduring while documenting the BISMARCK...150,000,000 lbs. pressing on the deep-submersible hull!!

Michael A. Cundiff
USA

 

[JHPravatiner]

I have the same opinion of "Expedition Bismarck" that I do of "Titanic". Cameron is a wonderful director, with an eye for detail and how to present a bygone world through that detail, but his dealings with historical fact (and presentation of historical figures) needs a bit of work. He's got the dressing right, in other words, but the heart of the matter isn't quite right. I think if someone else did the writing and Cameron the directing, it'd be a wonderful thing.

 

[Tom Lear]

True, the Bismarck wasn't exactly the "Death Star" that the documentary makes it out to be. You get the impression from the narrative that this ship, left to its own devices, could have won the war single-handedly.

Churchill remarked in his memoirs written after the war that if the Germans had sent the Bismarck and her sister Tirpitz to Norway, the potential threat represented by these two ships could have been very damaging indeed. Most of the major units of the British fleet, according to his account, would have had to have been kept in home waters as a counter-weight, with serious risks to Britain's position in the Mediterranean, protecting the North Atlantic convoys, maintaining links to Empire and so on. To paraphrase his writing, the mere leak of any rumor of a sortie by these two ships would have been extremely disruptive and time/resource-consuming, not just for the RN but the RAF as well.