Catherine Zeta Jones Movie:

		List Price: $6.99		Label: Platinum Disc Salesrank: 36116 Released: December 7, 2004
		Our Price: $3.34
		Used Price: $1.94
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

The Titanic Reviews:
A Technical Error
2008-11-08 - I adore Catherine Zeta-Jones, so beautiful and elegant, and I always thought this movie was one of the best Titanic depictions. However, there is a major technical error in the movie.
Besides the minuscule error when the lookout reports the wrong words, not "Iceberg right ahead!" (from testimony at the real inquest), there remains a larger mistake. When iceberg warning is received on the bridge the helmsman is ordered "Hard a-starboard!" Starboard is to the right. Had the ship turned right, it would have put the ship's damage on the left (port) side. During the movie, even though the helmsman is ordered to turn starboard (right), the ship does turn left (port). Such confusion.
On the real Titanic, the helmsman was ordered, "Hard a-port!", turning the ship slowly to the left and therefore colliding with the iceberg in the well known location, on the right (starboard) side.
I was always taught an easy way to remember the difference between Port and Starboard; PORT and LEFT both have four letters.
If Hollywood is going to sink the ship (again), they should at least tell the helmsman to turn in the proper direction.

A Decent Rendering of the TITANIC Story
2008-11-08 - Having seen just about every Titanic movie out there, I would have to say that it is a pretty decent film. At least we didn't have to put up with implausible romances, such as Jack and Rose. The romantic story lines are kept within the classes in which they occurred, rather than some ridiculous First-Class/steerage romance.

Oddly, the sinking sequence in this version has more emotional impact than James Cameron's version did. Given the low budget, it was well done. There is a sort of starkness that makes an even deeper emotional impact than Cameron's movie.

My main "beef" is the portrayal of First Officer William Murdoch. In this version, he is made to look like a serious contender for "Developmentally-Disabled Merchant Officer of 1912! In the scene where Smith tells him that he should have either hit the berg head-on or kept the engines on full ahead, Poor Murdoch looks as if he's thinking "Huh? I don't remember hearing THAT in shiphandling 101!". Then, in another scene, Lightoller apparently finds it necessary to tell him, "So don't offend anyone in First Class by blowing their brains out." Duh! (More like "D'oh!") Finally in the scene where Murdoch takes his own life, he is shown as being too stupid to even point the gun correctly. One is almost relieved when he (rather ineptly) commits suicide. It's not as bad as the way Cameron portrays him in his film, but not a true portrayal all the same. Had the real-life Murdoch been that stupid, he would have never made it onto the deck of a ship, let alone the bridge of the TITANIC!!

I also found the rape scene completely uncalled-for. I think it besmirches the memory of all the stewards who died that night. Tim Curry, as always plays a great "heavy", but he would have been enough of an SOB without raping the steerage passenger.

Still, even with the exceptions noted above, "The TITANIC" is not a half-bad movie.

A great Molly Brown show!!!
2008-07-25 - The story is one that we all have heard several times over. Titanic goes into the North Atlantic Ocean, hits an iceberg, and sinks with over 1500 people on board. To me, the thing that makes this show worth a watch is the portrayal of Molly Brown. For all true titanic aficionados, there hasn't been a true depiction of Mrs. Brown yet. Jim Cameron's Molly was good but fell during the scene in the lifeboat. Marilu Henner did a great job in showing Molly's spunk, especially when she tells the person in charge of the lifeboat that she would dump him overboard. Now if we can only get both Cameron's and Marilu Henners' Molly's together then you will have one great show. After all, what happened to the ship dose need to be known. But it is the stories of the passengers that are the most important. Don't you agree?

Excellent portrayal of sinking, but a Few Blunders!
2008-04-09 - For Titanic buffs like myself, you will want to watch every portrayal of the Titanic sinking. This one probably ranks third for me behind the James Cameron "Titanic" from the same year and the 1958 classic, "A Night To Remember". George C. Scott is always captivating, as this was one of his last roles before his death. In my estimation, the special effects are not that bad, but truly can't be compared to the Cameron version. Historical blunders bother me, such as the discussion between Capt. Smith, Murdoch, and Ismay over the fact that the ship was indeed doomed. No records show Smith getting agitated or scolding Murdoch, and they also leave out Thomas Andrews, the ship's architect, who really was the one who gave the bad news. What they've done is taken scholarly historical commentary and weaved it into the script. The rape scene is unnecessary, as is the subplot of adultery. All in all, the movie is a good, modern-day representation of what happened that fateful night of April 14-15, 1912.

strong, well-acted "Titanic" drama
2008-02-11 - The 1996 Hallmark miniseries of TITANIC was unfortunate in that it ended up being largely overshadowed by James Cameron's 1997 big-screen blockbuster (by the time the miniseries was aired in the UK and Australia, James Cameron's version had well and truly exploded onto the scene). This was a pity, as the Hallmark version has many things in it's favour.

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Peter Gallagher head a star-studded international cast, and the adaptation succeeds in blending five different stories into the narrative. Perhaps most importantly this version depicts a real-life passenger called Alice Cleaver (played by Felicity Waterman) who attempted to kidnap the baby of her employers when the boat began to sink (leaving the family to search for the child until all the lifeboats had departed, thus sealing their fate).

At the time of this miniseries, Catherine Zeta-Jones was at the cusp of Hollywood superstardom. She looks ravishing as Isabella Paradine, who rekindles an affair with her first beau Wynn Park (Peter Gallagher). Also in this miniseries, we meet in greater detail John Jacob Astor (Scott Hylands) and his pregnant young second wife Madeline (Janne Mortil). The affair of Astor and Madeline was one of the biggest scandals of the period and it's great to have them as prominent characters in this version. The younger romance is provided by thief Jamie (Mike Doyle) and Danish convert Aase (Sonsee Neu-Ahray).

No version of TITANIC would be complete without the ebullient and "unsinkable" Molly Brown (Marilu Henner plays her with enough spirit and spunk to make Debbie Reynolds proud and Kathy Bates pale). And the villain of the piece is thieving steward Simon Doonan (performed with oily relish by Tim Curry). A flavour of classic Hollywood is provided by George C. Scott as the Captain and Eva Marie Saint as the selfish Hazel Foley.

The romance of Bella (Zeta-Jones) and Wynn (Gallagher) is a captivating and moving one, played with style and elegance, and I consider it far more effective than the romance in the James Cameron spectacle. True, the special effects are lacking in this version but the dramatics and acting more than compensate. A fantastic production and one I revisit often. Originally shown in two parts. With Tamsin Kelsey, Eric Keenleyside, Malcolm Stewart, Roger Rees, Harley Jane Kozak, Kevin Conway, Matt Hill and Barry Pepper.