RAISE THE TITANIC
US, 1980, 114 minutes, Colour.
Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer, Alec Guinness.
Directed by Jerry Jameson.
Raise The Titanic was a breathlessly-written multi-plotted bestseller of adventure and international intrigue. Streamlined (perhaps overmuch) for cinema purposes, this version focuses on the basic issues of a rare radioactive metal in the hold of the Titanic and the feat of raising it - in well-done sequences. Director Jerry Jameson's major previous effort was Airport 77 which surpassed soap opera when the engineering sequences got under way. But a lot of the pace and vitality are gone - the leads (except for Jason Robards) become rather bland types (though Alec Guinness has five minutes' worth of character sketch) and the film is another of
Lord Grade's lavish entertainments that are O.K. but only so so.
1. An enjoyable and interesting movie? Action spectacle? Adaptation of a big bestseller? The financial and critical failure of the film - deserved or not?
2. The elaborate production, Malta locations and special effects? Underwater photography? The technology of raising the Titanic? Panavision and colour photography? The cast?
3. The adaptation of the novel - and the streamlining of it? The remainder of the core elements - and the criticism that everything else, including characterisation,, was bland?
4. The mystique of the Titanic - its maiden voyage, passengers, accident and sinking? The technological aspects of raising the Titanic? Its contents? The film's emphasis on the engineering and the raising - and showing it twice? An enjoyable highlight of the film?
5. The political background - the Navy and the Sicilian project, the aims of the project for the nuclear situation? Admiral Sandecker and his commitment to it., Seagram and his advice? Scientists and their projects, plans, needs? The defence capability and the attack capability? The need for special minerals? Final options and the moralising of the ending?
6. The background of adventurers - the early miners in Russia with finding the byzanium? The information about the past, their escape and deaths in England? Contemporary adventurers - the opening sequence in Russia? Pitt and his explaining what had happened? Pitt as the modern adventurer -with money and resources at his disposal?
7. The discovery that byzanium was in the Titanic, the need for raising the Titanic, the presentation to the President and the need for money? Sandecker and his hesitations but backing the project? Seagram and his advice? Pitt and his abilities? The information given for locating the Titanic and the sequences of trying to find it? The various technical pieces of information and the way they were communicated to the audience? The calculations and the ultimate success - the atmosphere of discovery of the Titanic?
8. The international espionage background - spies in the United States, the use of leaks in newspapers, sabotage. the Russian presence at the raising of the Titanic,. the submarine preventing the Russians claiming salvage rights? The pressures to raise the Titanic early?
9. How plausible was the search for the ship, the techniques used for raising it? The irony of the docking in New York and the failure of the search?
10. The importance of the characterisations - subordinate to the action? Sandecker and his project, influence with the President, patronage of the search? Seagram and his relationship to Dana, his commitment to the project, clashes with Pitt? Pitt and his relationship with Dana? Clashes with Seagram, taking control, skills? their final collaboration to find the Byzanium?
11. The incidental sequences in Pitt's visiting Cornwall - the encounter with Brigalow? Alec Guinness in the part? His description of the Titanic, his contribution to the search? The flag and the raising of the flag? The return to Cornwall and the final decisions?
12. Audience agreement with the anti-nuclear stance of the ending?
13. The value of the film as big entertainment? Its probability and implausibility? Adventure? Adult matinee material?
