In 1979, this Titanic film did not have the grand special effects like any other movie. But this movie was shown on cable before National Geographic's premiere airing of Titanic when it was discovered by Bob Ballard. Well, this is my favorite Titanic film anyway. No, it is really an average movie but I always connect to that Sunday night memory when I first witnessed Titanic underwater and before most people were aware of it. I was thirteen and with my new VCR. I taped and saved the movie and the Titanic special. The special effects were nothing special. Strong acting from Susan St. James, Cloris Leachman, and Helen Mirren with a very small role. Helen's May Sloane says to Thomas Andrews, the ship's builder, "there will be many questions?" That scene in the smoking lounge is also a poignant since she is the last to see the man who built her and die with her. In the last moments of the ship, men knelt in prayer. What I will always take from this film is the ending. An ending which signified the true meaning of the disaster. The end of the film takes place in the following Monday morning on the Carpathia with all the survivors and the silence. Watching Susan St. James with her male companion was riveting. They were two second class passengers who lost no loved one from the disaster. At the last scene, Mrs. Astor is greeted by a Carpathian passenger who offers "it was God's will. You must move on. Coffee?" Mrs. Astor replies "No coffee, no God either. God went down with the Titanic." That was the last line of the movie. The last shot is over the water and the chairs with Titanic floating. There are other pieces of Titanic debris. But the debris represented the people which is enough for most squeamish viewers. The last film of Titanic filmed before the discovery. No, it's not Cameron. But it's a resolution. Something missing in the Cameron version.
Review of S.O.S. Titanic
