Everyone knows what happened to the Titanic ( So no spoiler alerts needed ) and the opening credits alone are far bleaker than the entire James Cameron epic of 1997 . In fact you can't help thinking Cameron based much of his overrated romantic fantasy on this far superior movie . In A NIGHT TO REMEMBER we see the little Englander mentality , the somewhat xenophobic attitude and the rigid class structure and of course the hubristic lofty ideals of the British ruling class . Cameron used these threads in his own screenplay but for some reason injected romance , action , adventure and a storyline similar to a James Bond role reversal all set during 1912 A NIGHT TO REMEMBER is different , it's not a melodrama produced to make profits for the staggering cost of its production , it's a historical drama featuring the sinking of The Titianic .
While not being entirely accurate ( It's far more accurate than that other movie ) it is rather understated and rather bleak and Roy Ward Baker directs in an effective documentary style without resorting to an artificial Hollywood blockbuster style or having to change the laws of physics since throughout the disaster characters are reminded that the sinking ship's weight will pull down everything floating nearby , something a later film ridiculously ignored . If I have one criticism about the directing it's once the survivors are in the sea you don't really get the sense of how cold the environment is and we even see at least one character rowing about with the sleeves of his thin shirt rolled up
Far superior to the 1997 mega blockbuster A NIGHT TO REMEMBER shows that a disaster movie / historical drama can be quite effective without being massively expensive . Seven out of Ten
While not being entirely accurate ( It's far more accurate than that other movie ) it is rather understated and rather bleak and Roy Ward Baker directs in an effective documentary style without resorting to an artificial Hollywood blockbuster style or having to change the laws of physics since throughout the disaster characters are reminded that the sinking ship's weight will pull down everything floating nearby , something a later film ridiculously ignored . If I have one criticism about the directing it's once the survivors are in the sea you don't really get the sense of how cold the environment is and we even see at least one character rowing about with the sleeves of his thin shirt rolled up
Far superior to the 1997 mega blockbuster A NIGHT TO REMEMBER shows that a disaster movie / historical drama can be quite effective without being massively expensive . Seven out of Ten