Titanic's Final Mystery (2012)
*** (out of 4)
One of many documentaries that were produced for the great ship's 100th anniversary sinking, this one here tries to explain a couple of the biggest mysteries that remain about that horrid day. Author and Titanic expert Tim Maltin goes through some major research trying to turn up new evidence on why the Titanic hit the iceberg and why the California didn't come to her rescue. If you've seen one Titanic documentary then more than likely there's not too much in the first hour that's going to catch you off guard. The start of this is just like so many other documentaries in that it explains the time, the historic nature of this ship and how everyone believed it would be impossible for it to sink. From here we get to the night that it did hit an iceberg and sink. The story of the Titanic is simply so fascinating that I think it would be nearly impossible to make telling it boring. The first portion of the documentary might be something we've seen countless times before but I found the dramatic re-enactments to be quite good and I thought there were some terrific diagrams used to show what exactly happened. There's also a terrific shot from above the ship of what it might have looked like to those coming down the side on a lifeboat and it was quite chilling to see the front of the ship under water. Yes, we've seen CGI effects of this before but it's very well done here. The second portion of the documentary turns more scientific as it tries to find out why the ship hit the iceberg. We're told that most of the time you'd have thirty-minutes to see an iceberg and get out of its way but the Titanic had just a thirty-second warning. I won't ruin what explanation is given but I'm sure Titanic buffs will debate if this was the actual cause. In the end, this is a good look at the events of that night that I'm sure die-hard buffs will enjoy.
*** (out of 4)
One of many documentaries that were produced for the great ship's 100th anniversary sinking, this one here tries to explain a couple of the biggest mysteries that remain about that horrid day. Author and Titanic expert Tim Maltin goes through some major research trying to turn up new evidence on why the Titanic hit the iceberg and why the California didn't come to her rescue. If you've seen one Titanic documentary then more than likely there's not too much in the first hour that's going to catch you off guard. The start of this is just like so many other documentaries in that it explains the time, the historic nature of this ship and how everyone believed it would be impossible for it to sink. From here we get to the night that it did hit an iceberg and sink. The story of the Titanic is simply so fascinating that I think it would be nearly impossible to make telling it boring. The first portion of the documentary might be something we've seen countless times before but I found the dramatic re-enactments to be quite good and I thought there were some terrific diagrams used to show what exactly happened. There's also a terrific shot from above the ship of what it might have looked like to those coming down the side on a lifeboat and it was quite chilling to see the front of the ship under water. Yes, we've seen CGI effects of this before but it's very well done here. The second portion of the documentary turns more scientific as it tries to find out why the ship hit the iceberg. We're told that most of the time you'd have thirty-minutes to see an iceberg and get out of its way but the Titanic had just a thirty-second warning. I won't ruin what explanation is given but I'm sure Titanic buffs will debate if this was the actual cause. In the end, this is a good look at the events of that night that I'm sure die-hard buffs will enjoy.