Real life and movies just don't mix. That's half the reason A Civil Action sucked so hard. Reality isn't dramatic or expansive. Reality isn't really filled with Epic Stories in which Man fights for survival against Insert-Thing-That-Isn't-Man-Here. Reality is, to be blunt, boring. Why the hell do you think we humans invented movies? Movies are our escape from reality, so we can turn off our brain and not have to worry about how boring everything really is.
Of course, history has its choice moments. So we humans do the only thing we can think of: we make movies out of those choice moments. But, since reality isn't filled with the human-interest stories dime novels make us love so much, moviemakers have to spruce up real events with some extra trimmings.
"Fictionalized Account" is what they call it. As in: "The Following is a Fictionalized Account events which lead to the destruction of the R.M.S. Titanic." I'm not big on fucking with history for dramatic purposes. Can you tell?
Titanic begins as so many movies named Titanic begin: the ship sets sail. Aboard is Julia Sturges (Barbara Stanwyck), and her oh-so-pampered children, Annette (Audrey Dalton) and Norman (Harper Carter). Julia, trapped in a loveless upper-class marriage, is . . . well, "kidnapping" is a good word . . . her children.
Hubby Richard (Clifton Webb) isn't too keen on that, and bribes his way onto the Titanic. Surprise! Oh, and what a surprise it is. Annette is especially surprised when dad drops the bombshell and forces her to choose betwixt parents. How dare Julia want to take her out of a life of luxury. And, I must admit, having seen Paris and the Midwest, by God, I'd choose Paris any day.
Oh, but Julia's got a trump up her sleeve, and it's a nice one, too; surprisingly mature for 1953. Or, at least, it surprised the hell out of me. Maybe I've just watched the wrong kind of movie from the 1950s**.
Along the way, the Sturges gang interact with ship personal, both real and imagined. The Parents Sturges desperately try to keep their cool when its obvious they both want to lay the smack down on each other; Norman slavishly follows his father around; and Annette meets up with Giff (a young Robert "Number 2" Wagner), who looks so much like Leonardo DiCraprio it's scary.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, Cap'n Smith (Brian Aherne) tries to show emotion through his uneven beard.
So personal problems rage aboard the good ship Titanic. Then, in a move that would scream "cop-out" in any other flick, the ship is hit by and iceberg. Suddenly petty personal problems aren't all that important as 2200 people scramble for survival. Or something like that.
I'm almost afraid to admit that, going in, I had no idea who most of the cast was. We've met Robert Wagner before in these pages (and will again when I find The Towering Inferno), but as for Barbara Stanwyck and Cliffton (Cliffton?) Webb . . . I honestly didn't know what to expect. These people and I don't travel in the same cinematic circles. I didn't know what to expect. Jim Cameron's movie didn't exactly get my hopes up.
So I was surprised as hell when I got actual drama, created by actual actors who give actual, credible performances. Yes, ok, so these people are stereotypes. Richard is the rich bastard, Annette is the high-class bitch, yadda, yadda, yadda. But what's important is that these sometime-stereotypes are given motivations and personalities. You know, things you can hang on to. Things you can like about them.
Or maybe you don't care about them. Maybe you hate these people. The hell of it is, you'll hate them, the characters, not just the actors playing the characters. Lord knows that's happened in other movies named Titanic.
Charles Brackett and Richard L. Breen's script goes a long way to creating these characters. It also fleshes out situations, showing that there was more going on during that voyage then a self-involved "romance" between two vapid stereotypes. There's that too . . . but it's handled so well . . . and in a fifth of the screen time, no less. Director Jean Negulesco does a good job of keeping everything moving briskly, never letting one element of the script get bogged down in itself.
Unfortunately, two major problems weigh the movie down. First you have the historical inaccuracies (the full list is here). Close behind those come the special effects. Now, this is 1953, and does it ever show. Once the boat starts to go down, those of you who've been dying to rip on the movie can go right ahead and laugh. Especially when the damn thing explodes. That one really got me. At least Negulesco doesn't linger over the ship too much. Mostly he gives us shots of people reacting to the model ship. Their over the top reactions only made me laugh harder, but nothing's perfect.
The sets though . . . the sets are beautiful. They made me wish Fox had shot the movie in color, 'cause they look great in black and white. You can tell where all the money went.
So Titanic has factual goofs and bad special effects. But Titanic also has a cast of talented actors working with well-written parts. It's almost the diametric opposite the modern Hollywood event pictures. Interesting.
Gs (out of a possible five)
MOCK O' METER
Give the gift of a sinking ship.
Though, until now, the only 1950s movies I've watched have been monster movies and alien invasion pitures.
And, what could be wrong with that? I mean, really . . .