Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

justincward A TV movie to start with - but a 'British' TV movie from EMI in 1979, when offices still had typing pools and the Walkman was in development. Being British doesn't necessarily make it better than the Cameron film, but for a TV movie budget you get most of the A and B list of recent Hollywood Brits, familiar faces from TV giving it the full stiff upper, excellent costume and sets and an earnest attention to factual accuracy - the only serious mistake is to show the date as April 12th. How did they manage that? Expect static, horizontal camera angles, obvious matte paintings and rear projection, somewhat uninspired though atmospheric music, and note how Ian Holm's and David Warner's, ETC acting didn't change over the rest of their careers.What may surprise you is the tension, and the effective depiction of people in a dreadful situation that will keep you watching, even if there is little more emotional involvement than in a drama-documentary or an episode of 'Kojak'.That's what this is - a big-budget TV docudrama. And a really good one. Just not a cinema-filler. Punching above its weight on a Seven.

wadesisson SOS Titanic offers a very powerful look at the famed ocean liner and her doomed passengers. My only caution to present-day viewers is that the current DVD offers a shortened view of the original film. When this made-for-TV movie was released in 1979, it was about 30 minutes longer than the DVD you can buy or rent today. The original version was much better and more recent edits have taken away the great flow of the story as originally aired. If you remember this movie from the 70s and 80s, you will likely be disappointed by the DVD. It is hoped that a future DVD will address this and bring back SOS Titanic in its full, un-edited glory.

saywardstudio I have not seen the new 1997? version of the Titanic. Yes, I live somewhere deep in a cave under the ocean on a faraway planet. Anyway, I saw this one at the local library and thought, what the hey. (My daughter is enthralled with the Titanic, and she has seen the new one.... she lives on Earth, by the way! ;)) anyway, I thought we could watch it together. This movie is good for several reasons. Not blockbuster good, but good. There are very few, if any, 'special effects', which is something I find really cool. You get the effect of the ship actually sinking and all this water rushing around and everything without any 'digital' enhancement, to my knowledge.(Ex, today, the water very well be computer generated.) Special tiltings of the camera and general good acting made it seem real.(Although the guy that was falling in love with the girl--the older, blonde guy...not the young Irish guy, who was also in love, but with a totally different girl..) seemed a bit sleepy or dazed or something throughout the whole thing. When he is on the lifeboat and there are people floating in the water, he's like, "come on." barely putting his arm over the side of the boat, and he could have been smoking a pipe and in his pajamas for all anyone would know, not "Come on!!!COME ON!!!" All wild eyed and loud as I would picture myself to be in that situation, not to mention trying as hard as I could to get as many people in the boat with me as I could. I chalked it up to he was dazed, confused, scared, and possibly tired.I also found it refreshing that he and his 'girlfriend' meet and are talking earlier in the night, and they sort of 'break up' even though they weren't officially 'together', and I thought for sure they would be showcased in the lifeboat scene, "Ill save you, honey!!!" or whatever, but it didn't happen. I also thought one of them would die, but they're on the Carpathia(I love the sound of that name...have no idea what it means, it just sounds cool) "Well, that was scary, blah blah blah...) They totally leave you hanging! Are they going to go out again? Did they get married? After that, did they talk again? So, the movie makers didn't do two 'classic' movie moves in them saving each other or getting torn apart in death.Also, it was fairly historically accurate from what I have read about the music being played right up to the end. Personally, who the heck is going to be actually listening to music running around trying to survive??The ship going down was really cool the way they did it. It sounded eerie, too.We are rolling up on the 100th anniversary of the ship going down in a few years. It is a never ending reminder to me that man is not always as smart as he seems, we can never tame nature, anything can happen at any time, and that segregating people by class is stupid and wrong. High society and finery will get you nowhere on a sinking ship.

richard.fuller1 Cameron's was nothing more than a teen aged frolic and a technical masterpiece, but as far as catching the effectiveness of the era and expectations and afterwards, he is far below this one. No doubt, this movie is where my fascination with David Warner began, as his portrayal of Lawrence Beesley is a marvel to listen to. Cameron felt the romance with Leigh Goodwin (portrayed by Susan St. James, Goodwin was a real woman on the Titanic, but I don't know if she knew Beesley, but the romance was fictitious regardless) was cold and icy. I found it to be utterly delightful compared to Jack and Rose's juvenile romp in the motor car. And unknown to Cameron, Bernard Fox (best known as Doctor Bombay in Bewitched) who played Col. Archibald Gracie in the '97 Titanic movie, was Lookout Frederick Fleet in A Night To Remember. So Fox and Warner are two actors who have been in two Titanic movies. What intriguing names.Leachman's Molly Brown is a twist compared to Kathy Bates forgettable '97 interpretation or even Marilu Henner's out-of-date '96 telemovie portrayal.It is fun to compare the movies and persons shown. This one did focus on a few more, such as the Harrises and the Marvins, the Countess of Rothes, Emma Bucknell, a bit more steerage.The '96 telemovie with George C. Scott as the captain is the only one to show the Allisons, altho it doesn't clearly say what that was all about with the nanny, Alice Cleaver.Lawrence Beesley would jump to the lifeboat while still holding his night clothes, he wasn't wearing them. Fred Barrett would ask him why he had them, and he replied he had no idea.This movie was rich, however, with the shoeshine lads, the sensational music, from the sauna (as someone else mentioned) to the mundane (but it was all they had) steerage music. There is a much stronger feeling of Irish third class here than in any other Titanic movies, and we get a more overal feel of those in peril here, as compared to Cameron's version with only Rose in danger. Wireless operator Harold Bride as well as chief wireless operator Wilde have never been decently shown in a movie. Night to Remember had David McCallum and the '96 movie showed them also, but the overturned lifeboat has only been observed in Night To Remember, and only if you have really read about it, do you realize that is what is happening here in S.O.S. Titanic. Great fun in having to pinpoint the Strauses because Mrs. Straus would call her maid by her first name, Ellen, and I recalled from reading that Mrs. Straus' maid's name was Ellen Bird. The only way the Strauses were shown in this movie.Interesting also to note that in 1912, wives were listed under their husbands names, but maids were listed individually.The biggest complaint about this movie is the wrong date shown, which I suppose is inexcusable for the subject matter.Pearl Harbor wasn't attacked on December 9th, 1941.Still this one is nowhere near the worst. That would have to be the 1931 version. The '53 Babs Stanwyck one is a bit wincing also.And I'm not familiar with the Queen Mary, so its usage here is hardly a hindrance to me.Helen Mirren's moment as the maid who converses with Thomas Andrews is inspired. In watching this one as I type this, the silence throughout much of it is as effective, if not more, than Cameron's symphony orchestra. Sadly, I am aware that what I have just ordered is indeed an edited copy. The opening with the Carpathia is missing, with Ian Holm's chilling "my ship" as he describes the Titanic.Also missing is the elderly woman leading the steerage in song.And I fear the wonderful exchange between the shoe shine lads is cut also. The sauna may also be missing.And one post lists Charles Herbert Lightoller as the First Officer, another post says he was the second Officer. Lightoller was the Second Officer, highest ranking surviving officer from the Titanic.