funnystrange.com

April 16 movie: A Night to Remember. This 1958 British movie about the sinking of the Titanic was the one I was trying to remember the day Patricia and I saw the Titanic exhibit. It's just as good as I remember. It takes a restrained, almost documentary style (almost no soundtrack music!) that makes the tragedy more compelling than all the overblown melodrama ten James Camerons could muster. I was sobbing by the end of the movie.

I read that except for one major factual error (they show the ship sinking in one piece, not splitting in half) A Night to Remember is as accurate as they could make it: nearly every scene and line of dialogue came from survivor accounts. They included a lot of historical characters, never focusing on any one person's story. I like that approach better than using the sinking as the backdrop for one fictional romance. I think it helps to convey the enormity of it. (They did actually show someone rearranging the deck chairs! He was trying to build a raft.)