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Movie poster
Titanic is a 1996 two-part CBS miniseries. The drama TV Movie follows several characters on board the RMS Titanic when she sinks on her maiden voyage in 1912. The miniseries was directed by Robert Lieberman. The original music score was composed by Lennie Niehaus.
- Directed by: Robert Lieberman
- Produced by: Harold Lee Tichenor, Rocky Lang
- Written by: Ross LaManna, Joyce Eliason
- Starring: Catherine Zeta-Jones. Peter Gallager, Mke Doyle, Tim Curry, Eva Marie Sint, George C- Scott, Marilu Henner
- Music by: Lennie Niehaus
- Cinematography: David Hennings
- Edited by: Tod Feuerman
- Country: Canada, U.S.A.
- Language: English
- Running time: 173 minutes
- Release date: November 17, 1996
- Distributed by: RHI Entertaiment
Plot
Titanic follows three main story threads:
- Isabella Paradine (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is going to travel on the Titanic to join her husband after attending her aunt's funeral in England.
Just when she is about to get on board, she encounters Wynn Park (Peter Galager), her former lover. Wynn is still in love with her, but Isabella tries to avoid him since the beginning of the trip. She even tries to change her room to be far away from Wynn's.
At a dinner in the restaurant of the Titanic, Wynn flits with Ophelia Jack making Isabella jealous. After a dance at the restaurant, Isabella and Wynn confront eachother privately. Wynn says to her he have been jelaous all the time because Isabella is now married to another man, a wealthy gentleman Isabella parents wanted for her. Isabella says to him she married her husband because her parents wanted but her parents are now dead. She says to him that she still loves Wynn.
After the incident, Wynn starts to romance Isabella during the trip and she finally falls in love with him again.
After a brief affair with Wynn at the Titanic, Isabella sends her husband a wireless saying they cannot be together anymore (despite their daughter).
When the ship starts sinking, Isabella reluctantly leaves Wynn when he forces her to board a lifeboat. As the boat is lowered, Isabella confesses a long kept secret that her daughter Claire is actually Wynn's. Later on board the RMS Carpathia she is grief-stricken when she finds Wynn's lifeless body on deck amongst other victims who have died of hypothermia, but luckily, when the Carpathia reaches New York she is reunited with her family who are blissfully unaware of Isabella's tryst because the telegram was never sent out due to the sinking.
- Also in first class is the Allison family, a real family who traveled on the Titanic, returning home to Montreal with their two small children and new nurse, Alice Cleaver.
They gradually become wary and suspicious of the nurse hysterical and neurotic behavior. Later on, a fellow maid asks her if she'd seen her in Cairo the previous month, but soon realizes that she remembers her from the highly publicized trial where Alice was accused of throwing her baby off a train.
When the Titanic starts sinking, Alice Cleaver panics and quickly boards a lifeboat with Trevor, the Allisons' infant son. The parents with their small daughter are unaware that the baby is safe and refuse to leave the ship without him, which in the end costs them their lives.
- A young vagrant named Jamie Perse steals a ticket at a bar to get on board of the Titanic.
At the ship, he manages to become friends with one of the crewmen, Simon Doonan (Tim Curry), who is also a robber, but later is revealed to be a much more violent and callous criminal than Jamie.
Jamie falls in love with Aase Ludvigsen, a recent Christian convert and missionary.
On the night of the sinking, Aase is raped and beaten by Doonan, causing her to lose her faith and will to live, but Jamie manages to get her into Isabella's boat when the ship is sinking.
Unbeknownst to them, Doonan also sneaks aboard that same boat, disguised as an old woman. After the ship sinks, Aase is knocked off the lifeboat by Doonan after she recognizes him, and he attempts to hold the passengers in the boat hostage at gunpoint, but Officer Lowe, who is in charge of the boat, hits Doonan in the head with a paddle, snapping his neck.
Jamie himself manages to survive when he accidentally falls into one of the last lifeboats before the Titanic sinks. He subsequently atones for his past life after he finds Aase in the makeshift hospital aboard the Carpathia. In the end, upon arriving in New York, the two plan to start a new life together.
Cast
- Catherine Zeta-Jones - Eustacia Vye
- Ray Stevenson - Clym Yeobright
- Clive Owen - Damon Wildeve
- Joan Plowright - Mrs. Yeobright
- Claire Skinner - Thomasin
- Steven Mackintosh - Diggory Venn
- Paul Rogers - Captain Vye
- Celia Imrie - Susan Nunsuch
- Richard Avery - Humphrey
- Peter Wight - Timothy
Reception
Titanic received mixed reviews from critics. The New York Daily News commented on the fact that the acting was substandard and the ship's operators and owner are portrayed "about as sympathetically as those connected with the Exxon Valdez."[2] The Seattle Post-Intelligencer also referenced the "embarrassingly bad acting" and out of place scenes.[dead link][3]
Awards
Titanic received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Miniseries or a Special. It was also nominated for Outstanding Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special.
| Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Miniseries or a Special | David Husby, David E. Fluhr, Adam Jenkins, Don Digirolamo for part 1 | Won |
| Outstanding Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special | Joe I. Tompkins, Jori Woodman | Nominated |