Disaster understated

Philby-3

I'm glad this fine piece of film-making from forty years ago is still readily available on video for all those who want an alternative view to James Cameron's gross, overhyped special effects extravaganza from 1997. Cameron spent more on making "Titanic" than the White Star Line spent (adjusted for inflation) on building the original liner and her two sisters, the "Olympic" and Britannic". The British producers of "A Night to Remember" spent in total on their film about as much as Cameron did on hairstyles for "Titanic", yet tell the story much better.

The style is semi-documentary from a book by Walter Lord, an American journalist who had actually travelled as a child on the "Olympic." Hence time and place are evoked seamlessly even if the representation of the ship using small models and back projection does not match Cameron's 9/10ths scale replica. Filming is in black and white, wholly appropriate as most of the action is at night, and there's not a bad performance from any of the large cast, several of whom went on to greater things.


All the story is there - the elegant huge new liner with passengers and crew neatly divided by class, the reckless overconfidence (21 knots into an icefield when several other ships had radioed they had stopped nearby,) the ignored ice warnings, the strange behaviour of the Captain of the nearby "Californian," the general heroism of the "Titanic's" officers and crew, and the lovers, young and old, who would not be parted.

Anyone who came out of Cameron's film feeling vaguely cheated (as I did) should see this movie for a much better presentation of the story, and a vastly better script. Not that that would have been hard - Cameron was a mug to write "Titanic" himself - his talents lie elsewhere, in appealing to the chimpanzee  (primal fear) in all of us. The current interest in a shipping disaster which occurred 86 years ago does suggest it has a broader cultural significance than our desire to experience vicarious danger at the movies. "A Night to Remember" at least give some basis for thoughtful reflection.

score /10

Philby-3 4 January 1999

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0065144/