Film review: 'Titanic'
As the "Titanic" leaves port for its four-hour minicruise on CBS, it's loaded with the usual baggage for our television disasters.
Oddly enough, considering that 800 people lived and 1,500 died, it's not a very eventful journey.
This isn't a special effects bonanza -- as we expect from director James Cameron's big-screen interpretation of the same events now being shot. There are enough effects to make the point but, essentially, this version is packed with stock characters from writers Ross LaManna and Joyce Eliason and jam-packed with the ironies of the unsinkable ship unthinkably sinking the night of April 12, 1912.
It is, of course, one of the hideous stories of the century, the historic ship five blocks long carrying its own library and 75,000 pounds of meat and not all those unnecessary lifeboats that it wouldn't need anyway.
Director Robert Lieberman shuffles about a dozen stories of fact and fiction, some interesting, some not, ranging from rape and pillaging to love and tenderness. And don't forget stupidity and then panic and pathos.
Among the characters: wise old Capt. Smith (George C. Scott), evilly arrogant shipline director Ismay (Roger Rees), star-crossed lovers Wynn (Peter Gallagher) and Isabella (Catherine Zeta Jones), devious ship attendant Doonan (Tim Curry), reforming petty thief Jamie (Mike Doyle), boisterous Molly Brown (Marilu Henner), snooty Mrs. Foley Eva Marie Saint), zillionaire John Jacob Astor (Scott Hylands) and, well, enough of a cast to populate the Titanic.
It's a curious enough trip, just by the size of the calamity, but there's nothing much to recommend the performances here, with some brief exceptions by some lesser cast members. And, in a zany way, the Titanic survives; this wasn't the first re-enactment -- and won't be the last.
TITANIC
CBS
Konigsberg/Sanitsky Co. in association with
American Zoetrope and Hallmark Entertainment
Executive producers:Fred Fuchs, Frank Konigsberg, Larry Sanitsky
Producers:Rocky Lang, Harold Tichenor
Director:Robert Lieberman
Writers:Ross LaManna, Joyce Eliason
Director of photography:David Hennings
Visual effects supervisor:Janet Muswell
Production designer:Christiaan Wagener
Editor:Tod Feuerman
Music:Lennie Niehaus
Cast: Peter Gallagher, George C. Scott, Catherine Zeta Jones, Eva Marie Saint, Tim Curry, Roger Rees, Harley Jane Kozad, Marilu Henner, Mike Doyle, Sonsee Ahray, Felicity Waterman, Scott Hylands, Janne Mortil, Malcolm Stewart, Kevin McNulty, Matthew Walker.
Airdates: Sunday, Nov. 17, 9-11 p.m., and Tuesday, Nov. 19, 9-11 p.m.
Oddly enough, considering that 800 people lived and 1,500 died, it's not a very eventful journey.
This isn't a special effects bonanza -- as we expect from director James Cameron's big-screen interpretation of the same events now being shot. There are enough effects to make the point but, essentially, this version is packed with stock characters from writers Ross LaManna and Joyce Eliason and jam-packed with the ironies of the unsinkable ship unthinkably sinking the night of April 12, 1912.
It is, of course, one of the hideous stories of the century, the historic ship five blocks long carrying its own library and 75,000 pounds of meat and not all those unnecessary lifeboats that it wouldn't need anyway.
Director Robert Lieberman shuffles about a dozen stories of fact and fiction, some interesting, some not, ranging from rape and pillaging to love and tenderness. And don't forget stupidity and then panic and pathos.
Among the characters: wise old Capt. Smith (George C. Scott), evilly arrogant shipline director Ismay (Roger Rees), star-crossed lovers Wynn (Peter Gallagher) and Isabella (Catherine Zeta Jones), devious ship attendant Doonan (Tim Curry), reforming petty thief Jamie (Mike Doyle), boisterous Molly Brown (Marilu Henner), snooty Mrs. Foley Eva Marie Saint), zillionaire John Jacob Astor (Scott Hylands) and, well, enough of a cast to populate the Titanic.
It's a curious enough trip, just by the size of the calamity, but there's nothing much to recommend the performances here, with some brief exceptions by some lesser cast members. And, in a zany way, the Titanic survives; this wasn't the first re-enactment -- and won't be the last.
TITANIC
CBS
Konigsberg/Sanitsky Co. in association with
American Zoetrope and Hallmark Entertainment
Executive producers:Fred Fuchs, Frank Konigsberg, Larry Sanitsky
Producers:Rocky Lang, Harold Tichenor
Director:Robert Lieberman
Writers:Ross LaManna, Joyce Eliason
Director of photography:David Hennings
Visual effects supervisor:Janet Muswell
Production designer:Christiaan Wagener
Editor:Tod Feuerman
Music:Lennie Niehaus
Cast: Peter Gallagher, George C. Scott, Catherine Zeta Jones, Eva Marie Saint, Tim Curry, Roger Rees, Harley Jane Kozad, Marilu Henner, Mike Doyle, Sonsee Ahray, Felicity Waterman, Scott Hylands, Janne Mortil, Malcolm Stewart, Kevin McNulty, Matthew Walker.
Airdates: Sunday, Nov. 17, 9-11 p.m., and Tuesday, Nov. 19, 9-11 p.m.
- 11/14/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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