Touches You

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

With a good cast and an interesting concept of covering the four days before the sinking, I was hoping that this would be more then just another Titanic movie. Unfortunately the film turned into yet another Titanic movie despite its cast and somewhat original idea, the film fails to use both of these to any good effect.The cast, while a good one, fails to live up to the film's potential. David Janssen fails to be either convincing or very good at being John Jacob Astor as does Harry Andrews as Captain Smith. With the exception of Ian Holm as Ismay, most of the crew and first class passengers are cardboard characters who we've seen countless times in other Titanic films (Cloris Leachman's Molly Brown is a perfect example). The film's two interesting characters, David Warner's Lawrence Beesley and Susan Saint James' Leigh Goodwin aren't seen very much throughout the film and their relationship falling apart before the sinking and them coming back together on the Carpathia after the sinking is an interesting before and after analogy that should have been explored more.Outside of the actors, the films production values are another problem. Much of the film was shot aboard The Queen Mary and this is very much apparent. Watching the film one does not get the impression of being on the Titanic as one gets from the 1953 and 1997 films or the excellent 1958 film A Night To Remember. One instead gets the impression of being on the Queen Mary or in a hotel somewhere and not on board the titanic. The shots of the Titanic sinking look like they were shots from A Night To Remember that were colorized for the film an the rest of the Titianic shots are obviously models or the Queen Mary standing in, giving a low budget feel to the film.The film's writing is also lacking. Summed up, it took the names of Titianic passengers and then mangled fact and fiction together to create the mess that is the plot of the film. The writing fails t capture the spirit of those on the Titanic and once the ship sinks, one does not feel for the characters who have died or who have survived. If anything, the writing makes the Ismay character seem almost sympathetic when he chooses to climb into the empty seat on a lifeboat. the film is also full of errors on those who sailed on the ship including Violet Jessop,w ho is portrayed an old woman in the film instead of being in her late twenties as she was in real life.All together, S.O.S. Titanic is just an average film in general and an average film about the Titanic. It fails to not only capture the spirit of the Titanic story, but everything we have come to expect from the films on the sinking. This film is for die-hard titanic buffs only because I am sure the average person would simply lose interest quickly.

This film is an extremely atmospheric telling of the sinking of the Titanic. It used mainly real passengers to tell the story through, and as a result isn't too bad a production.However, the special effects were terrible and inaccurate. Firstly, the film makers used the Queen Mary to film on as the Titanic - this ship looks totally different and is the same ship used for the Poseidon Adventure. In the long shots of the ship sinking, SOS Titanic simply colourised scenes from A Night to Remember. The scenes of the ship sinking were really hopeless - continuity was terrible and the water actually flowed down the deck TOWARD the submerged bow. This is the most important part in a Titanic story, so to handle it so sloppily really is unforgivable.However, the scenes on board really captured the atmosphere of the times and the atmosphere of impending disaster to which all on board were fatally oblivious. The opening scenes as the Carpathia rescues survivors were really handled well (apart from Cpt. Rostron only organising the ship at the last minute - this wasn't true), and they conveyed a sense of numbed shock and loss. The characters are all real, which is a plus too.All in all, this film does not impress in realistic special effects, nor in making the disaster look real; but it does well in telling a story and telling it with considerable atmosphere.

SOS Titanic is an enjoyable Titanic movie, albeit not all accurate. This was a made for TV movie, so there would be some limitations. The movie was filmed on the Queen Mary in Long Beach Ca and a soundstage in England. This movie starts out at the end after the Titanic sank when the Carpathia showed up and then shows flashbacks to the first day of the voyage. I can say that these producers did try to make a good Titanic movie, way better than the 1953 version by far.

As someone who has all the known videos mentioned by a previous reviewer and most of the leading books, not to mention biographies of Capt. Smith, 2nd Officer Lightoller and other assorted Titanic memorabilia, (I could go on);this positively is the worst film of the trajedy.The funnels were in Cunard's black/red (with black rings) colours, instead black top/buff; the superstructure of the bridge was rounded a la Queen Mary (where it was filmed), when it should have been squared off, the overall dimensions of the film set of the ship were tiny compared to the 886 foot reality.Most farcical was when "Capt. Smith" (Harry Andrews) is bellowing instructions through his megaphone to those getting into the boats - he only looks about 10ft from them!! The portrayals of JJ Astor, J Bruce Ismay and Molly Brown were appalling, totally unconvincing, under-researched and a travesty of the reality.When will film producers realise that when you film historical events, there is an army of highly clued-up amateur historians ready to pounce on you if you make a factual error!!I say lazy reearch.The only redeeming feature for me was to see David Warner playing Lawrence Beesley, the science master who had just resigned from Dulwich College and was taking his first trip abroad.One of my books is his "The Loss of the SS Titanic - Its Story & Lessons" (Mifflin 1912).Read this if you want a factual account from a second class male passenger's perspective.The bit where he tries to seduce an American school teacher sounds almost libellous, at the least, fictitous.Strangely David Warner is the only actor I can recall who has featured in two film productions of this event.The other of course being the dastardly man servant to Cal Hockley, in Cameron's fanciful production from 1997.Yes, I've got this video in my T collection but merely to have a copy of every available depiction.I do not find all the answers in any one but a bit of truth in all of them - admittedly not much in this one.Yes, I know this was made for TV and therefore had a limited budget for such a large canvas.One scene I liked was the Irish emigrants coming out by tender at what was then Queenstown, (now Cobh - I've been there) but why no depiction of Eugene Daly playing "Erin's Lament" on his Irish pipes?There is to my mind still many aspects of this drama still to be filmed.What about: 1.The near collision with the "New York" as T left Southampton?2.What about her construction at Harland & Wolff and delays in Sept. 1911 when workers had to leave off to repair S.S Olympic following her collision in Cowes, Isle of Wight with H.M.S. Hawke?3.What about the correct drama on "The Californian" especially with Ernest Gill, a donkeyman aboard, who saw rockets about the time T sent them up but reported nothing to her officers, (Read "The Ship That Stood Still"- by Leslie Read).Even "A Night to Remember"(1958) got it wrong - "Californian was NOT carrying passengers, merely cargo.Read my critique of this film in June 2002 for other errors in this, the best version yet for history fans, of the drama.4.Could we see more of Chief Officer Wilde someday?5.Could we see the reason these Olympic class ships were devisedand the meeting in 1907 in London attended by J.Bruce Ismay/Alexander Carlisle and other notables when this was discussed?.Film producers have a horrible temptation to dumb down leaving serious students with a feeling of frustration, but I suppose as usual it's all about putting bums on seats, students need to read all the leading works to ascertain the truth!!