Titanic Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Titanic Blu-ray Movie Review

Ever get that sinking feeling?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 18, 2012

Julian Fellowes created one of the most universally esteemed television series currently airing, Downton Abbey, a series whose entire labyrinthine plot mechanics were set into motion with the sinking of the Titanic on that icy night a hundred years ago this April. So of course it only seemed reasonable that Fellowes should craft a drama out of the Titanic tragedy itself, following in a long tradition that includes everything from A Night to Remember to the 1953 Fox melodrama Titanic to, of course, James Cameron’s similarly titled box office blockbuster which has just been repurposed for 3D exhibition and Blu-ray markets. (There are many other films and television outings which at least touch tangentially upon the Titanic disaster, including a 1943 German offering also entitled Titanic and the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown.) What may have seemed like an excellent idea on paper turns out to be somewhat less satisfying in actuality, perhaps somewhat similar to the doomed ship itself. Titanic takes a page out of Rashomon and (from the sublime to the ridiculous) Vantage Point, visiting and revisiting several interlocking stories via different perspectives as the ship sinks into the frigid Atlantic waters. The hundredth anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking has been occasion for all sorts of observances, including yet another television outing which is scheduled to air on History later this year. Television viewers with long memories will also recall there was yet another miniseries about the tragedy, also called Titanic, which aired in 1996 on CBS. That offering took a more standard narrative approach to the unfolding disaster, and some who saw it or the other, more chronological, accounts of Titanic’s only voyage may well wish that this Titanic had followed the same route, for whatever passing interest is generated in Fellowes’ multi-faceted approach is probably dissipated by the lack of momentum generated by that very structure, not to mention the sheer number of characters to keep track of.

Aside from this gimmicky structural issue, this Titanic has another major problem which makes it list precariously, and to understand why it’s instructive to take a moment to look at the James Cameron film. While Cameron’s Titanic obviously boasted a much larger budget and immensely more involving special effects than this opulent but relatively smaller scale miniseries, there’s one thing the Cameron film did very smartly that Fellowes takes an absolute opposite tack on. The Cameron film focused largely on only two characters, Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet). That decision perhaps more than any other is what immediately hooked audiences and made the film such a box office phenomenon. Yes, of course there were other characters milling about, but a cursory review of the film shows that many (if not in fact most) of those are quite inherently bound to the main love story. Cameron perhaps unconsciously understood that a tragedy involving thousands had to be reduced to understandable terms, and presenting two main characters, especially two who capably showed the class differences on board the majestic liner, did that quite handily.

Fellowes, on the other hand, wants to give the viewer seemingly as many stories as he can possibly cram into the miniseries' three hour or so running time, and as a result there are literally scores of supposedly “major” characters that the viewer needs to be introduced to and, more importantly, care about. It’s a losing battle right from the get go, and something Fellowes certainly should have understood given his ability to weave together large scale pieces that include large casts (not just Downton Abbey, but his Oscar winning Gosford Park as well). This Titanic plays like a filmic kaleidoscope where a character is introduced, the lens is twisted, and we’re off to a new one. Some of these characters then return in the “vantage point” gambit with new perspectives granted to the audience, but this fractured approach means some viewers are going to almost need a notebook handy to jot down reminders to help keep track of everyone.

Fellowes’ teleplay traffics in some well worn tropes that have populated many of the other Titanic outings through the years, including a bickering couple that may remind some of Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb in the 1953 Fox film (albeit British versions here), mismatched lovers who of course will instantly remind viewers of Jack and Rose, and a number of various historical figures who are either quickly portrayed or alluded to. The performances here are largely exceptional, within the constraints imposed upon them by the episodic nature of the miniseries. The large cast is filled to the brim with familiar faces, including Law and Order’s Linus Roache (some fans of that series may be surprised to find out Roache is actually British and performs with his native accent here, rather than the convincing American patois he adopted for the long running Dick Wolf saga) and Maria Doyle Kennedy, the despicable Vera Bates from Fellowes’ own Downton Abbey.

The production design here is relatively sumptuous for a television outing, with especially good costumes. The sets are really rather minimal, and the entire miniseries is hampered by some less than stellar CGI which casts an unreal pallor on the proceedings and removes some of the immediacy of the tragedy. Titanic aficionados are already largely on record detailing what they perceive to be the flaws of this version, and in fact this Titanic is undeniably lacking in some respects. That said, the overwhelming sense of doom and fate that infuses any treatment of this story looms large even here and provides some moving moments that may sway some viewers into more of a sense of appreciation than would otherwise be the case. The problem with this Titanic is that ultimately there are so many other versions out there to choose from, several of which probably do a more dramatic job of personalizing the story. A cast of thousands (or in this case hundreds) may give a project an epic feel, but it also deprives the audience from an immediate sense of the humanity involved, something that this Titanic can’t save itself from drowning in.

Titanic Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Titanic is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Filmed on high-def video, this presentation offers extremely good clarity and sharpness, but has the shiny smooth ambience of this format in spades, something that is not helped at all by the less than convincing CGI elements. As is so often the case with digitally shot features, a lot of tweaking has been done at the DI stage, leading to vast swaths of Titanic being at least partially desaturated (it's almost gasp inducing to see unfiltered video in some of the supplements, where you can finally see that these actors do in fact have normal fleshtones). A lot of the miniseries has been skewed to the ever-popular ice blue side of things, which does lend a suitably frigid ambience but which tends to rob the image of some fine detail in midrange shots. Black levels and contrast are good within the context of an artificially manipulated image. Those who don't mind the surface deep charms of HD video will probably find a lot to like in this presentation, which does generally offer superior sharpness.

Titanic Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Titanic's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is very well done, albeit rather subtly in many scenes. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly, and there is some attention paid to good directionality in some of the busier scenes, including several in the dining rooms and below decks. The best part of each episode in terms of surround activity is during the panicked moments as everyone begins to realize the ship is sinking. Foley effects are very well done and provide a sense of immediacy that the drama itself sometimes lacks. The score is rendered well and source cues also sound good. Fidelity is exceptionally strong and dynamic range is also wide and varied. For the record, a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is also included on the Blu-ray, and the difference between it and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is quite striking.

Titanic Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Episode 1 Audio Commentary features writer Julian Fellowes, producer Nigel Stafford-Clark and director Jon Jones, and is quite informative and entertaining. Stafford-Clark reveals that he long considered James Cameron's film to be the "final word" (filmically speaking, anyway) on the Titanic subject, until he realized that a version dealing with class differences and society in Britain circa 1912 might be a "new" hook (which is of course highly debatable). Fellowes and Jones both talk about the structure issue, perhaps injudiciously at times, as they admit up front that having each episode end with the sinking provided a sort of "cliffhanger" inherently built in to the enterprise which would hopefully require viewers to tune in again to see what happened to various characters.


• Trailer (SD; 2:09)


• Making of Featurettes include:
  Production Team (1080i; 6:26) features interviews with Nigel Stafford-Clark, Producer, Simon Vaughan, Executive Producer and Julian Fellowes;
  The Script (1080i; 3:58) focuses on Fellowes and his approach to the subject;
  Budapest (1080i; 2:58) centers on Titanic's place of filming and why Stern Studio there was chosen for the project;
  The Tank and the Set (1080i; 12:01) is a fascinating look at the demands the final sequence especially placed on the production and Production Designer Rob Harris;
  The Costumes (1080i; 5:05) features James Keast, Costume Designer, talking about the huge variety of apparel the miniseries features;
  The Cast (1080i; 5:36) features Stafford-Clark discussing how the cast was chosen, as well as a look at some of the table reads.


• Titanic: Behind the Production (HD; 30:37) offers several cast members discussing what the real Titanic story means to them and why the project appealed to them, along with other interviews with various crew members as well as copious scenes from the production itself.


• The Curse of the Titanic Sisters Documentary (SD; 47:33) is a really fascinating piece from the Carlton – National Geographic co-production Revealed which gives the disturbing background on Britannic and Olympic, two other doomed ships in the White Star Line.


• Photo Gallery (HD; 1:44)


• Time Lapse Set Build (HD; 00:52)


• Character Profiles (HD; 8:57) offers brief backgrounds on several of the miniseries' characters.

Titanic Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Titanic tragedy continues to fascinate people now perhaps more than ever, and the centennial observances of the disaster have of course sparked renewed interest and media coverage and in fact helped lead to this broadcast version. Unforutnately Julian Fellowes is unable to capture much of his Downton Abbey magic, despite working in the same vernacular and in the same time period of at least the first season of his acclaimed series. Fellowes simply bites off more than he can possibly chew, even in slightly more than three hours' running time. This miniseries would have benefitted from a slimmed down principal cast, which would have allowed the audience to really feel a connection with the characters. As it stands, various people come and go like ghosts in lifejackets, and there's simply not a lot of human emotion here, despite the best efforts of a uniformly fine cast. This Blu-ray release does offer superior video and audio, and the bonus disc has some great supplementary material on it, so even with the qualms expressed about the content of the main feature, this release receives a grudging Recommended.