TITANIC

“Perhaps the most revealing documentary on the 20th century's most poignant disaster” Mike Hope British Columbia, Canada 9 August, 2007. The Titanic sinking is a tragedy that grips our collective attention. All the elements of what would be a fantastic fictional story are present in this real life historical event. A ship, technically the largest and most luxurious of it's day (in a day of sumptuously elegant upper class shipboard appointments), packed with the famous & the wealthy in the elegant first class as well as many hundreds of third class immigrants huddled in the depths of the hold, sinks on it's maiden voyage with tremendous loss of life. While the narration begins with depiction of a séance with a medium seeking to communicate with a victim of the disaster & does not instill confidence in the documentary, the production quickly finds its pace & dissects the story in a way that few other such productions were able. Survivors are interviewed including a heart wrenching interview with the last surviving crew member and that man's haunting reflections. We are given to understand the logical progression of decisions made during construction which made sense to the owners and builders at that time but led to terrible consequences during the disastrous hours of the sinking. We are shown the working relationship & complex interplay between the owners of a ship & the builders who are contracted to fill the order for a great vessel, and how this played out in the event. We are shown how the British Board of Trade had been asleep at the switch as ships in little more than a decade had increased in size and tonnage at an astonishing pace. In short this documentary tells how it all happened, in such a way that the viewer understands & can appreciate how technology, confidence and a lax bureaucracy contributed to so much human loss. The closing chilling reflection by that sole surviving crew member gives meaning to the title.