Michael_Elliott
Titanic: How It Really Sank (2009) **** (out of 4)Excellent, if all too short, documentary about what the causes of what would eventually sink the Titanic. Everyone knows it his an iceberg but this documentary shows the events leading up to the tragedy, which ended up killing over 1500 people. Through the documentary you learn that there were a handful of things that could have saved those people had only fate been a little kinder. Some of the obvious stuff includes the fact that thirty-two lifeboats were removed from the ship because the owners thought it wouldn't "look good" with them on there. Another issue deals with the type of iron rivets used on the film as well as the bulkheads being lowered, which caused the ship to flood faster. Also talked about is how Titanic got delayed one month and had they left on time they never would have come into contact with the iceberg. Other notes include the fact that there wasn't any wind that night, a crew change led to a member taking the binoculars key with him, a direction change that was twenty-minutes late and the gulf stream that was uncommon and made the iceberg able to be in its position. This is an incredibly entertaining documentary that also manages to be quite dramatic as we countdown the moments leading up to the crash and especially the final moments when so many people were forced into the ocean. We get a brief interview with Millvina Dean, the last survivor alive at the time who was just 10-months-old when the ship went down. Fans of the history behind Titanic will enjoy this and those unfamiliar with all the details should get a great idea of how much stuff had to happen for this tragedy to take place. The only problem is that this lasts just 50-minutes so I'm sure there could have been much more detail and talking heads.
