Titanic

SPOILERS. Check facts in the wonderful book "Titanic," 2012, by Rupert Matthews.Having seen and enjoyed both "A Night to Remember" and this film before, I watched ANTR first and then "Titanic" to write this review. I was amazed to see how well "Titanic," filmed fifteen years before ANTR, compares with the later movie. "Titanic" is a clear winner on pacing. ANTR is long and slow---123 minutes with endless scenes of crowds screaming and haughty ladies bitching about one thing or another. No action takes place without a solemn, lengthy closeup of some face displaying horror. There is some wild overacting, particularly by the lady who plays Molly Brown in vaudeville style, and poor Captain Lord of the "California" is (unfairly) shown as the villain over and over again. That said, I'd still give "A Night to Remember" five stars as a dignified, elegant, honest, and poignant movie of a world-changing catastrophy---plus Kenneth More is a splendid actor and a joy to watch!"Titanic" is only 85 minutes long. It moves fast, with lots of subplots, and with only English subtitles it's sometimes hard to catch all the irony, much of which is supplied by the ladies in First Class, wearing their skin-tight glittering dresses. They know exactly what is going on, and don't mind showing their money-mad consorts what they think of their greed. One lady even gloats about the sinking. She wins because "I am a woman," so she gets to go in a lifeboat. There are some richly comic scenes, like one where the Chief Stewart and the Ship's Detective discuss the passengers who descend the staircase entirely in terms of how much money they are worth, and the opening scene in which the stockholders' table is gradually shown to be almost as long as the Titanic itself.The only really embarassing feature in the movie is the couple named "John" and "Anna." If they could have been drowned during the titles, then I would give the movie an even stronger five-star rating. For versimilitude, however, the steerage passemgers beat those in ANTR, because we don't have those endless views of Merry Irish Peasants doing jigs. In fact, most of the real Titanic's steerage passengers were Eastern Europeans, and language difficulties had to be overcome to get them into the lifeboats, so the movie's mildly sexy latin dancing in steerage is quite appropriate, as is the lady crying for "Tadow." Note, also, that in this film, as in the real ship Titanic, there is no iron gate to keep steerage passengers in their place. In fact, they crowd into the main ballroom, but return peacably to their cabins when asked to.Other instances where "Titanic" beats ANTR for realism include pictures of the firemen, who in ANTR are dressed in sparkling white, while "Titanic" has them appropriately garbed for shoveling coal in grubby pants and singlets. First Officer Petersen's remark that not only do they have aboard "The blue diamond for luck or disaster" (Ah, James Cameron!) but "two corpses packed in ice," makes the viewer think twice about all this glamour. I think the small sailing ship that is shown for a second or two in the movie is a reference to the belief of some experts that another ship besides the California was close enough to the real Titanic to see or hear her signals. It was also rumored that Ismay was pressing Captain Smith to have a speed test on the next day, which never came for the real ship, so the movie-makers only changed the timing of the event. Reference is made in the movie to "eight ships" that are coming to the rescue, and indeed in reality many ships did obey the ancient law of the sea to turn and head for a ship in distress. The would-be rescuers included a Canadian, a German, and a Russian ship, all too far away. Petersen's reference to prevailing carelessness when he hears there is no replacement for the starboard searchlight may be a reference to the less dramatic fact that on the real Titanic the binoculars that should have been in the crow's nest just before she struck the berg had "gone missing at Southampton and had not yet been found."I was very offended by James Cameron's "Titanic" movie, because I felt it trivialized a great disaster by overlaying it with a trashy soap-opera. I feel very differently about this 1943 "Titanic." Officer Petersen seems more like a narrator than a real character, with his overacting and over-explaining, and the movie's theme of greed is an important one in relation to the sinking of the Titanic. I see no anti-semitism here----in fact one of the few heroes is the Jewish professor, (a staple of "Allied" war movies like "The Mortal Storm," and "The Last Chance.") Professor Bergman makes no grandiose statements to the crowd. Unlike the speech-makers in ANTR, he simply stays aboard the ship, telling one person that his own life is of no importance now that his work is done.Finally, there is a lot of overacting in "Titanic," but that was true of the era. Have another look at Ingrid Bergman threatening to shoot "Rick" in "Casablanca." As Kenneth More stood out in ANTR, so the brilliant actor who played Senior Radio Officer Phillips was head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. I'd love to see that actor in another movie.

To understand this film you need to place yourself in the position of Nazi propagandists in the middle of World War II. This movie was designed to gather good will from women in Russia, England, the United States, and Eastern Europe. Goebbels' belief was that with enough pressure from women, men in those countries would be forced to seek peace with Germany. Every scene in this movie was filmed with that goal in mind:The English businessman, Bruce Ismay, is locked in a struggle with the American business magnate John Jacob Astor, for the control of 51% of the stock of White Star Line. At first they are both manipulating the stock to get average investors to sell so that they can buy the stock at a low price. The theme here is capitalist greed. Remember that the Nazis were socialists, friends to the common "Volk" and enemies of capitalism. Astor treats his wife as a pawn in this game, and Ismay does the same to his fiancé, who has accompanied him on the voyage.Ismay pushes the ship to travel at high speed through the ice field, overriding the objections of the ship's only German officer, who does everything he can to convince the women to speak to the men about slowing the ship down in order to avoid the inevitable catastrophe which is to come.As it becomes clear that Astor has won, but that the ship will sink, Ismay offers Astor a seat in the lifeboats, ahead of the women and children, if he can remain President of a White Star Line. Astor agrees, but Ismay insists they put the deal in writing. Saving Astor's wife or Ismay's girlfriend is nowhere discussed.In another plot line, the sole German officer falls in love with a female Russian aristocrat after he discovers that she has lost all her money. She refuses to leave the ship without him, but he orders her into one of the lifeboats while she's wearing his uniform coat and cap for warmth.Later, Peterson, the German officer, rescues a little girl who has been abandoned by her parents, and swims with her to a lifeboat, saving her life.Other elements of this pro-female theme is a subplot involving a Gypsy woman who "befriends" two men in steerage, each of whom fight to save her life while ignoring the lives of other women and children.Watch it through the prism of a propagandist looking to sway females to convince men to sue for peace, and the film will make a lot more sense than if you analyze it as entertainment.

Was so pleased to acquire this other version of the film. But what sold it for me was the ' Extras'. to see Captain smith looking around the ship prior to sailing and other interesting news footage, was worth the money. Also so glad that it arrived before the due date as it was a birthday gift.

no english

Bon film sur l'histoire du Titanic de 1943 avec de bons acteurs qualité d'image impeccable cela change des autres versions à voir !!!!!

Great movie. Great historic value. Great propaganda tool for regime. Worth watching.

Tutto come richiesto, rivivere questo film non è da tutti, per fortuna io posso grazie a questo DVD di ottima fattura