1958
TERMS:
Hubris: Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance: “There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris” (McGeorge Bundy).
Real Time: The time of the film = the real time of the event.
Cross cutting: the practice of cutting back and forth between two different scenes in order to make parallels between them.
Docudrama: A film which "masquerades" to some degree as a documentary.
BEFORE THE FILM
This is the first film this term based on an actual disaster, keeping to real events surround it. The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) is certainly based on a real eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., but as we pointed out earlier, the film has nothing to do with actual events surrounding the eruption and there are serious problems about the timing of the event relative to the age of the protagonists.
Unless you see Perfect Storm (2000) there are no other films coming this term based on real events. Others do exist like the silent film The Johnstown Flood (1926) and The Hindenburg (1975)
In addition to a Broadway show and this film, there have been other versions of the Titanic story made for theatrical release as well as several made for TV versions.
1. Titanic (1915)
This is a specific kind of a disaster film on two accounts: one it is what Maurice Yacowar calls an "isolated journey" disaster film. In these a group of people is isolated from the rest of the world when the disaster hits. Often taking place on planes, these disaster films put their victims away from the rest of society, hence locating some of the societal types may require them not being directly in the disaster itself (which is also isolated from the rest of society).
Secondly this is a "true disaster" - one which really happened and one in which the audience is aware of the outcome at the start.
The film Night to Remember is based on a book of the same name by Walter Lord which appeared in 1955. This was the first important book about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 in which it turned the historic event into “reality”.
Using techniques learned in researching tax issues, he tracked down some 60 survivors of the 1912 maritime disaster and turned their stories into a dramatic, minute-by-minute account of how the "unsinkable" British liner sank on its maiden voyage after colliding with an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The film becomes an early "docudrama". The result was that the book was a kind minute by minute telling fo the sinking through specific events involving real people. There are both acts of heroism and cowardice.
Lord held that this event ushered in an age of uncertainty.
The Titanic’s impact on society (the loss of a good number of the upper classes), the changes in maritime laws, and the doubts about technology were enormous.
The HMS Titanic was built by the White Star lines and was considered the greatest ship ever and indestructible and unsinkable. It exemplified in some sense en entire era which was rooted in a belief that technology could conquer all things including nature. This conflict between what is human and what is natural is a theme in Western society and often appears in novels, plays, films, and arguments.
The Titanic and her sinking took place in 1912 - a time very different from today in many ways. The structure of society was different, ideas about class were different, the idea of civility (now nearly gone) was crucial to understanding much of what happened.
One question which has to be asked is whether the film is able to bring today's audiences back into that time period. Did it in 1958 when the film was released? Think about the question of how movies have a permanence not found in, for example, stage works. This means that for a play, the audience and the production of the play exist in the same time; this is not true for a film. Films may be shown decades after they were made to audiences that are very different from those that saw the film on its initial release. This is one of the reasons that films sometimes do not "hold up".
In terms of the film you can ask "How does the film attempt to bring the audience back into the time period"
AFTER THE FILM
Time frame:
Acting techniques:
Photographic techniques
SOCIAL ISSUES
The problem of times and disregard for people without money.
Fate problems (why did the ship sink?):
Fate problems (Why did so many people have to drown?):
First class passengers are to be saved first. Steerage passengers try to get up to deck.
Often in real disasters causes are many - rarely one thing fails, but a multiplicity of events occurs.
Click here for one review of the film.
2. Titanic (1943) (German)
3. Titanic (1953)
4. Titanic (1984) (TV) (German)
5. Titanic (1993) (V) (documentary)
6. Titanic (1996) (TV)
7. Titanic (1997)
Use of documentary footage.
Formality of times - designer puts on jacket before going to Captain. People worry about classes and mixing between classes - consider the scenes where steerage passengers are playing with the ice and upper class passengers appear on the decks above them.
parallel editing contrasting steerage and first class passengers.
TEXT
class structure, money, gender (women weaker sex, saved before men), propriety, decency, appropriateness of behavior, "fitting" etc.
(a) radio message about ice is mislaid.
(b) trying to break record
Too few lifeboats
People not on duty all night in radio room
Belief that Titanic was unsinkable may have caused California captain to suspect the ship was signaling to another ship, not foundering.
Lack of drills with life boats led to boats going out only partially filled.
Women and children are to be saved first. Men generally allow women and children to escape first. Men who disguise themselves or make last bid effort to get on lifeboats are frowned upon.
Seamen are expected to stay with ship to the end. Only those needed to help with boat go on life boats. They are last to leave. Captain goes down with the ship.