We are not talking here about a Hollywood blockbuster with mega-stars in a soap opera love story about the sinking of the Titanic. Far from it. This is really more of a behind the scenes docu-drama, offering a look at the struggles of the engineering and electrical crew on the great ship as they fight to keep Titanic afloat as long as possible so that more people can be saved, many sacrificing themselves in the process. It's a nice tribute, certainly mostly dramatized but believable, and it makes no real attempt to dazzle the viewer. It just tells the story.
It's slow starting, picking up with the Titanic undergoing sea trials before the beginning of her doomed voyage, and introducing us to the various characters, supposedly based on the testimony of one of the engineers to a tribunal set up in New York City, which is desperately trying to create heroes out of the disaster. We get a sense of the grandeur of the Titanic, but mostly we get a very believable sense of the hot and grimy work taking place deep in the bowels of the ship, as coal is shovelled and the engines are kept burning. The entire focus is on the engineering crew and a handful of electricians. We never see the rest of the crew and no mention is made of anyone else, although there are a handful of scenes including passengers. As the water pours in, you do feel the increasing desperation and your admiration for these men grows as they fight the odds.
There's a good depiction of religious tensions in this (the Protestant- Catholic rivalry in Ireland is very present) and we see the class divisions of the Titanic, not among the passengers, but among the crew themselves, who are segregated into increasingly less comfortable quarters depending on their jobs. All in all, it's a pretty straightforward account of a chaotic event, and of how people handled the chaos. (7/10)
