I remember watching The History Channel's two-part complete Story of Titanic back when it was televised on A&E quite a bit. I have to admit that I enjoy the almost three hour documentary more today than I did those ten to fifteen years ago when I watched it on television.
Even though it was made in 1994, I still consider this to be one of the best documentaries ever made about the ship. Interviews with survivors such as Eva Hart, Edith Brown Haisman, Ruth Becker Blanchard, along with historians Walter Lord, Ken Marschall, and Don Lynch provide a great amount of insight into the story of Titanic. The haunting music, as well as the narration by David McCallum also help to set this apart from the sea of other documentaries.
The first part of the documentary, Death of a Dream, covers the Titanic Story up to almost two o'clock on the morning of April 15, 1912, when the ship had less than a half hour left. Different aspects from the luxury of the ship, her construction, to her near collision with the New York at Southampton are discussed in great detail.
Mention of either of her two sister ships is scarce, especially that of the last ship in the Olympic Class. The Olympic itself, of course, is mentioned in the construction segment, as well as receiving Titanic's distress messages during the sinking.
Statements and testimony for those that are no longer living has been provided via performances from various voice actors. These narratives are edited together against a backdrop of drawn pictures and actual images, sort of the same style as Ken Burns' documentaries.
Perhaps the greatest strength this documentary has, is that it was made while there were still several survivors still alive. Of course, Ruth Becker Blanchard had already passed on, but this documentary was made before Edith Brown, Eva Hart, or even Stanley Lord's son had died. Especially after the last survivor died, this is an asset that any future documentary won't be able to claim.
No, this documentary is not exhaustive, but this is the closest thing there is to it. The story of the Titanic has never been presented in as much detail as it has here.
Rating: 9.5/10
Note: I'll post a review of the second part, The Legend Lives On, sometime in the next couple of days.
No comments:
Post a Comment