Raise the Titanic (1980)

User Rating:

3.8/10   

Director:

Jerry Jameson

Writers:

Clive Cussler (novel)
Eric Hughes (adaptation)

Release Date:

1 August 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller | Adventure

Tagline:

They've found the Titanic. There's just one thing left to do...

Plot:

To obtain a supply of a rare mineral, a ship raising operation is conducted for the only known source, the Titanic.

Plot Keywords:

Titanic | Ship | Military | Ocean | Helicopter

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Jason Robards	...	Admiral James Sandecker
Richard Jordan	...	Dirk Pitt
David Selby	...	Dr. Gene Seagram
Anne Archer	...	Dana Archibald
Alec Guinness	...	John Bigalow
Bo Brundin	...	Captain Prevlov
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Master Chief Vinnie Walker
J.D. Cannon	...	Captain Joe Burke
Norman Bartold	...	Admiral Kemper
Elya Baskin	...	Marganin
Dirk Blocker	...	Merker
Robert Broyles	...	Willis
Paul Carr	...	CIA Director Nicholson
Michael C. Gwynne	...	Bohannon
Harvey Lewis	...	Kiel

Runtime:

115 min | Canada:113 min (Ontario) | Australia:119 min (DVD)

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Iceland:L | Australia:G | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 (1981) | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Trivia:

A model of the Titanic was built at a cost of $350,000. When it was finished, it was discovered that it was too big for the tank in which it was to be filmed. An additional, bigger tank had to be built, at a cost of $6 million.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The tugs which take the Titanic in tow are harbor tugs, not ocean tugs. Such vessels would not be safe as far out at sea as the Titanic was located. Further, the method for towing the Titanic was what is used in harbors and other relatively calm waters. It would not be safe at sea where waves and rollers would guarantee the short, light tow cables would break.

Quotes:

John Bigalow: What a lovely thing she was.... Standing as high in the water as one of your skyscrapers, longer than two rugby fields, and furnishings to match the finest mansions in England. She was one of a kind, no question about it, and God himself, they said, couldn't sink her. Then in two hours she was gone... and fifteen hundred souls with her.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Beyond Titanic (1998) (TV)

Treading water

Along with Revolution and Thunderbirds the biggest flop in British film history and a one-time Stanley Kramer project before he jumped ship after a couple of weeks' filming, Raise the Titanic is one of those films that isn't really that bad, it just isn't much good. It handles the exposition and setup briskly and efficiently and the raising of the wreck genuinely spectacularly, but everything inbetween is just tedious and undramatic. A huge problem is the decision to drop the parallel narrative from the book: where the film only concentrates on the modern-day story, which means lots of looking at sonar screens while mini-subs float around in the darkest depths of the ocean for almost as long as it took the ship to sink, the book livened things up with the ship's maiden voyage and sinking as well. The end result is by the rules storytelling that keeps everything under two hours, but which keeps everything pretty flat as well. Still, it has its moments – Alec Guinness' cameo, Richard Jordan wandering through the ghostly skeleton of the Titanic's ballroom, the sequence of the raised Titanic sailing into New York past the Twin Towers inadvertently linking the first great civilian tragedy of the 20th century with the first great civilian tragedy of the 21st - looks good in Scope (though only the Swedish and Australian DVDs are in 2.35:1: the UK disc is cropped) and has a very nice score by John Barry.