We all know the story of Titanic, but coming from the '97 version of the movie I wanted to see if it had played on anything from the '53 version. Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb star in this movie as a pair of presumably separated parents, with the latter sneaking on the ship to catch his soon to be ex-wife and children. I don't want to ruin it, but the rest of the movie follows the path of this family leading up to the ship's untimely end, with a bittersweet reunion right before the inevitable.
I enjoyed the movie. It was much much shorter than '97's version, and focused not on the Rose and Jack of the movie (btw those weren't their names) but focused instead on the parental units and their relationship. I liked the backstory and why they ended up on the ship and I absolutely hated Clifton Webb's character. I found him to be pompous and selfish and more concerned with etiquette and class than with love and substance of character. Barbara Stanwyck brought it as always; she broke my heart at the end of the movie but I understand why the movie had to happen as it did. I did find myself comparing the versions throughout the movie, but instead of being disappointed I was actually pleased with the end result and the discovery that really, '53 and '97 are two different movies, based upon two very different accounts and lives leading up to the sinking of the ship. Rose and Jack could have fit into the 1953 tale; could have been on the other side of the ship having their own tearful goodbye. But I was more focused on this family's story and how everyone would reconcile before the ship went down. I did notice, however, that while '97 had people by name that were on the actual ship, '53's more so had characters based off of the ones on the ship without sharing their names. They are pretty easy to distinguish though, and just as in the true story and in '97's Titanic, there was indeed a male coward on one of the lifeboats. The character based off of "The Unsinkable" Molly Brown was the one to discover the fraud in this movie, instead of getting into an argument with the steward on the boat like she did in '97 Titanic, but either way she ended up opening her mouth for good reason on the boat. lol
There were places that I guess I could see James Cameron drawing inspiration from for his version of the movie, but like I said, his version and this one were virtually two different movies. To me, anyway. Now with all that being said, the most dramatic difference between these two movies was from the time that the ship was hit until the end of the movie, which is where my few complaints with this movie lay. One thing I can say that I did not like about this movie was the ending, because from the time that the ship was hit, everything else seemed to fly by. It showed the boilers exploding as the ship sank for the final time, but it and everything else went by very quickly. It also did not show the pandemonium that '97's did, one of the best parts of the movie to me. This film did not focus so much on the reactions of the people aboard the ship or on the lifeboats, it kind of bounced around and there was not much reaction. I could tell many of those actors were extras, because they had no extra emotion in their performances whatsoever. lol For example, a boiler exploded aboard the ship and it threw everyone aboard. Instead of the screaming or yelling or looks of fear upon their faces, it was more a look of confusion. Now if the ship was fine and it was a random explosion.......nah, not even then. The point is that I thought the ship's sinking, the climax and the catalyst of the movie, was very lacking in drama and oomph. That was probably my biggest complaint of the movie, that I wish the sinking had been a little more climactic other than the exploding of the boilers. I also wish the characters of some of the surrounding parties had been developed a little more; the movie doesn't really allow you to get too invested in them because you don't know enough.
Other than that, like I said I really enjoyed this flick. Solid cast, good material, and enough depiction of the night's actual events (they even included the actual navigational details and convos from the original ship) to be believable. I didn't like the lack of drama when the ship sank and that I couldn't get as invested as I would have liked in some of the main characters; you could tell, a little too easily, that they were fodder characters for the main two in this story. One of them, however, gets to take center stage as their fateful decision brings a realization to light. I can't say more than that or I could spoil it for you, so you'll have to catch this one yourself.
ATV Rating:
No comments:
Post a Comment