108 Years Of The Titanic Tragedy: 7 Best Films To Watch During Lockdown On The Unsinkable Ship That Went Down The Atlantic

It was on this day, the 15^th of April 1912 that the mighty RMS Titanic, the unsinkable and biggest ship sunk into the bottom of the Atlantic. Well, to begin with, let me describe to you a little bit about the mightiest passenger liner to have set sail across the seas. The ship belonged to and was operated by the White Star Line. By now, the world knows that it was on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. It had 2224 passengers and crew on board and nearly 1500 died! This was history’s deadliest peacetime marine disasters.

Harland and Wolff, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland is one of the premium shipyards that specializes ins hip repair, conversion and offshore construction built three Olympic class ships for the White Starline RMS Britannic, RMS Olympic and The RMS TITANIC!

So, what exactly happened? Well, contrary to what we see in the films that depict the marine disaster, there are many realities that are foregone in the name of creative liberty.

Coming to brass-tacks – The ship left Southampton on 10^th April 1912. It was then called at Cherbourg in France and then Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before it headed to New York. It was after four days on the 14^th of April that the ship had crossed about 375 miles (600 km). It was while sailing through the south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 Pm (ship’s time). At 2:20 AM she fell apart and foundered with well over 1000 people still aboard. And it was just after two hours since Titanic sank that RMS Carpathia arrived and brought aboard an estimated 705 survivors.

There have been so many films that have been made on this marine disaster. Let us take a look on some of the most prominent ones.

1.   Saved from The Titanic: In the year 1912 Etienne Arnaud directed the film which was co-written by Titanic survivor Dorothy Gibson (who also starred as herself in the film). It released just 29 days after the sinking of the ship! The last known prints of this film were destroyed in a studio fire.  Only a few still pictures from the production of the film remain.

2.  Titanic (1943): In 1943, this German Nazi Propaganda film was made that was directed by Werner Klinger and Herbert Selpin which cast a fictitious German First officer aboard the Titanic as the hero and The British as the villains. This was also the first film to use singularly the name Titanic and also intermix historical plots and subplots with historical persons aboard the ship. 

3.  Titanic (1953): In the year 1953, another drama film with the same name was made directed by Jean Negulesco. It centred on an estranged couple sailing the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage.

4.   A Night to Remember (1958): This was one of the most prominent films from the earlier era to have been made on the ship. This was a British docudrama based on the eponymous book of Walter Lord. The film was directed by Roy Ward Baker. This film is till date considered to be one of the MOST HISTORICALLY ACCURATE Titanic Disaster films. This film had an exception – It didn’t feature the ship breaking in half!

5.   Titanic (1997): This is by far the most popular films to be made on the sinking of RMS Titanic. This James Cameron directorial became one of the most expensive films to have been ever made! The entire production cost of the film amounted to approximately 200 million dollars! And mind you this was way more than the actual cost of Titanic itself! It topped the list of highest-grossing films for 12 years and won 11 Academy awards.

6.   The Ghost Of The Abyss (2003): It seems Cameron had somewhat become obsessed with the very idea of the sinking of Titanic. After the huge success of his ’97 film on the sinking of the ship, there were many other animated films from different parts of the world that followed suit. However once again after 6 years, Cameron was back with a 3-D IMAX documentary film released by Walt Disney and Walden Media that featured the deep sea-exploration of the wreck of the Titanic. This film and of course ‘97s Titanic too were hugely criticized by one of the last survivors of the ship Millvina Dean who staunchly refused to watch it and also declined special invitations to the premiere of the movie.

7. Titanic: The Aftermath (2012): This 90-minuter documentary drama was made specifically for television that for the first time aired on Discovery Channel. It focused on the remarkable mission to recover and identify the body of the victims, meeting the descendants of three people involved in the disaster. This compelling documentary explores the fate of their forbears and reveals the impact of the sinking on those they left behind.

Today on the 15^th of April ’20, exactly after 108 years,  as we sit inside our houses during the lockdown, let us watch one of these films on Titanic as a part of our commemoration to all those who lost their lives on the ship. Which one do you plan to watch? Let us know in the comments section below. For more such interesting features, keep a close tab on Desimartini.com