Titanic is a two-part miniseries released on CBS in November of 1996. It features the voyage and the sinking of the ship from several perspectives, namely three main stories, two from First Class and one from Third Class. Also included are the Californian and the Carpathia. The miniseries was directed by Robert Lieberman, and the original music score was composed by Lennie Niehaus.
Plot[]
Wynn Park & Isabella Paradine[]
Isabella Paradine is traveling on the Titanic to join her husband after attending her aunt's funeral in England. On the Titanic, she meets Wynn Park again before boarding, who is her former lover. She falls in love with him again during their time on Titanic, and after a brief affair, she pays the wireless operators to sent her husband a wireless saying they cannot be together anymore (despite their daughter).
The Allisons & Alice Cleaver[]
Also in First Class is the Allison family, returning home to Montreal with their two small children and new nurse, Alice Cleaver. They gradually become wary and suspicious of her 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. This is of course only loosely based because the real life Alice Cleaver hadn't killed her baby and her name was confused with another Alice who committed this atrocity.
Jamie Perse, Aase Ludvigsen & Simon Doonan[]
In Third Class, a young vagrant named Jamie Perse steals a ticket to get on board. He manages to become friends with one of the crewmen, Simon Doonan, who is also a robber, but later is revealed to be a much more violent and callous criminal than Jamie. The young man falls in love with Aase Ludvigsen, a recent Christian convert and missionary. On April 14, roughly an hour before the Titanic would hit an iceberg, Aase is raped and beaten by Doonan, causing her to lose her faith and will to live.
Sinking[]
Alice is woken by the iceberg collision and panics: she knows the ship is sinking rapidly and boards lifeboat 7 with Trevor, the Allison's infant son.
Isabella, Aase and Doonan (disguised as an old woman) all board the same lifeboat: No. 14, with Fifth Officer Lowe. 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. Aase, still in shock by Doonan's actions, is forced into the boat by Jamie.
Meanwhile, The Allison's desperately try to find their baby. Mrs Allison refuses to leave: "I'm not gonna leave this ship without my baby!" so Mr. Allison searches the whole ship to find Trevor, unaware of the fact he's already safely in another boat. The Allison's continue to search for their baby, while more and more lifeboats are leaving...
Jamie assists with the lowering of the last lifeboats when suddenly someone jumps in and the rope slips out of his hands. Jamie stumbles in the boat, probably breaking his arm. He can barely move and screams in pain as the boat is being lowered, but he is saved in one of the last lifeboats.
Isabella, Jamie and other survivors watch the Titanic sink, with Wynn, the Allison's and the Jack's still on board.
Post-sinking[]
Isabella begs Lowe to go back to the ship to pick up survivors, knowing that Wynn is there and needs help. Lowe agrees to go back, but is interrupted by an old woman with a heavy voice, who fears that the swimmers will swamp them. Aase takes off the woman's veil, revealing Doonan. Aase starts slapping Doonan for what he did to her, but he punches her overboard. Doonan tries to hold the passengers at gunpoint, but Officer Lowe, who is in charge of the boat, hits Doonan in the head with a paddle, snapping his neck and thus killing him.
The unconscious Aase drifts off all the way to Jamie's lifeboat. Jamie, still partially paralyzed, somehow spots her and dredges her into his boat, but it turns out to be a dead man. It is later revealed that she was pulled back onboard by the occupants on Lifeboat #14.
All lifeboats are rescued by the Carpathia. All survivors and some dead bodies picked out of the water are taken on board the rescue ship. Isabella is grief-stricken when she finds Wynn's lifeless body on deck among 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.
Alice is forced to give Trevor to Mr. Allison's brother and his wife but acknowledged as a hero by the newspapers.
Jamie subsequently atones for his past life after he brings Aase to the makeshift hospital aboard the Carpathia. Aase makes a full recovery and in the end, upon arriving in New York, the two plan to start a new life together in California.
Trivia[]
- This is the first Titanic movie to show the ship splitting in two.
- The mini-series also correctly shows Lifeboat 7 as the first boat to leave the Titanic or mentioning of Philips and Bride fixing the Marconi so they could send out more personal messages or receive ice warnings.
- During the scenes featuring the flooding of the Titanic, the rushing water badly damaged the set. During retakes, many extras were strategically placed to hold up the broken pieces.
- Filming was from July 8th, 1996 to September 3rd, 1996 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- A more accurate version of the script can be viewed here: Part 1 and Part 2.
- Some of the historical inaccuracies appear in the original script.
- The Carpathia's wireless room set featured in the film, is preserved at the Society for the Preservation of Antique Radio in British Columbia.
Historically inaccuracies[]
Because of the upcoming James Cameron film being released the next year, the mini-series was rushed into production and very hastily completed in order to cash in on the latter's before-release hype. As a result, the mini-series was filled with many inaccuracies which many Titanic enthusiasts found inexcusable given the wealth of knowledge about the liner and its occupants available by the mid-1990s.
Missing important characters[]
- Thomas Andrews
- Henry Tingle Wilde
- Herbert John Pitman
- James Paul Moody
- Sarah Rebecca Daniels (Allison Family Maid)
- Mildred Mary Brown (Allison Family Cook)
- George Swane (Mr Allison's chauffeur)
Factual errors[]
- While in Southampton, the Titanic is shown docked on the Starboard side while picking up passengers. In real life, passengers boarded the Titanic on the Port side.
- The Titanic was not fully booked as Henry Samuel Etches tells Isabella Paradine when she doesn't want to be near Wynn Park's cabin.
- The actors playing Stanley Lord, Arthur Rostron, Second Officer Stone, Third Officer Groves, Etches, and Forth Officer Boxhall were older than their real life counterparts.
- Captain Lord is shown having a beard, which he didn't have.
- Many of the lifeboats used in the miniseries are underfilled compared to the real sinking, in the movie's canon the number of victims of the sinking would have increased.
- Lifeboat 6 had 23 people in real life, the miniseries has only 11 or 12 people on board.
- Lifeboat 7 had 28 people in real life, the miniseries has 11 people on board.
- Lifeboat 14 had 45 people in real life, the miniseries has 10 people on board.
- The RMS Carpathia did not recover any bodies from the Titanic disaster, they only had the dead body of William Henry Lyons who was buried at sea on April 16th, 1912.
- The Carpathia arrived to New York City during a ferocious rainstorm, not in broad daylight as the mini-series shows.
- Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe very much did not whack any one with a oar as he is seen doing in the film
Set inaccuracies[]
- At the departure scene, there were white metal fences all around, but they look too modern and out of place.
- The Grand Staircase in the mini-series doesn't have a glass dome and has a chandelier dangling from the covered ceiling. The wood is also darker than the one on the Titanic.
- The First Class Dining Saloon was located on D Deck, not A Deck in the miniseries. The color of the room is peaches and cream, the real dining room was white. And there was no dance floor in the dining room since dancing wasn't part of First Class customs until the 1920's.
- Because of the fictional location of the Dining Saloon, the First Class Reading and Writing Room and First Class Lounge are replaced with a fictional two-story tea room.
- The Titanic is shown to have a large Morse lamp when they are trying to contact the SS Californian when the rockets aren't attracting the Californian's attention.
- The Smoking Room is shown to have a bar, in reality the stewards served drinks to the male passengers.
- The Wireless Room did not have an inquiry window for Passengers to pass messages to Jack Phillips and Harold Bride. Passengers gave the Purser their wireless messages and payment, and these were relayed to the wireless room by pneumatic tubes.
- For the rape scene, the Third Class didn't have showers. They only had two bathtubs.
Character errors[]
- Alice Catherine Cleaver was not a child murderer, she was mistaken for Alice Mary Cleaver.
- Alice Cleaver and Trevor Allison boarded Lifeboat 11, quite late into the sinking, not Lifeboat 7, the first one launched.
- The Allison's were also Canadians, not Americans as depicted in the mini-series.
- Boxhall is shown going down with the Titanic, in reality he survived the sinking and later died on April 25th, 1967. This means he was combined with Sixth Officer Moody since he answers the phone when Frederick Fleet spots the iceberg.
- Fifth Officer Lowe is the one who reports to Captain Rostron the loss of the Titanic. In real life, it was Boxhall who confirmed to Captain Rostron that Titanic sank.
- There is a possibility that Henry Etches is inaccurately died in the sinking in the mini-series, since he is seen in the water clutching a chair that Wynn Park throws into the water.
- Both Philips and Bride are played by redheaded actors, they most likely had dark hair color.
- Philips is seen dying on Collapsible B, but in real life he most likely froze to death in the Atlantic Ocean. The report of Philips on the Collapsible was only a rumor.
- Ida Straus' maid was named Ellen Bird, not Sofia.
- There are several errors relating to Margaret Brown. She actually boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg, not Southampton. She was not known as "Molly" until after her death, and in contrast to her portrayal as a raving, oversexed hillbilly, she was in fact an intelligent, well-mannered, social and political activist. She was also much older and less attractive than actress Marilu Henner.
- Charles Groves is seen on the bridge during the Californian's attempt to contact the Titanic and seeing the rockets being fired. In reality, Groves was in bed during this portion of the night. The person who was with Second Officer Stone would have been Apprentice Officer Gibson.
- Charles Victor Groves is 23, but is portrayed by Eric Schneider who seems older than 23.
Characters[]
Historical characters[]
Titanic[]
- Captain Edward John Smith
- First Officer William McMaster Murdoch
- Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller
- Fourth Officer Joseph Groves Boxhall
- Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe
- Joseph Bruce Ismay
- Allison Family
- Alice Catherine Cleaver
- John George Phillips
- Harold Sydney Bride
- John Jacob Astor IV
- Madeleine Talmadge Force Astor
- Margaret Brown
- Frederick Fleet
- Reginald Robinson Lee
- Henry Samuel Etches
- Joseph Bell
- Ida Straus
- Isidor Straus
- Robert Hichens
- George Alfred Hogg
- Benjamin Guggenheim (extra)
- Léontine Pauline Aubart (extra)
Carpathia[]
- Captain Arthur Henry Rostron
- First Officer Horace John Dean
- Wireless Operator Harold Thomas Cottam (extra)
Californian[]
- Captain Stanley Phillip Lord
- Second Officer Herbert Stone
- Third Officer Charles Victor Groves
- Wireless Operator Cyril Furmstone Evans (extra)
Fictional characters[]
- Wynn Park
- Isabella Paradine
- Hazel Foley
- Simon Doonan
- Jamie Perse
- Aase Ludvigsen
- Clarinda Jack
- Black Billy Jack
- Marge Miller
- Mr. Dickie (not on the Titanic)
- Lulu Foley
- Alden Foley
- Ophelia Jack
- Perry Jack
- Bartender Thomas Joe McCormack
- Crewman at Steerage Gate
- Claire Paradine (not on the Titanic)
- Edward Paradine (not on the Titanic)
- Italian Woman
- Irish Bunkmate
- Irish Woman
- Sofia
- Third Class Woman with Baby
- Mr. Stevenson (Carpathia crewman)
Quotes[]
"We're gonna hit the bloody thing" (a crewmember standing on the bridge when the iceberg is just moments away).
Videos[]
Trailers[]
Clips[]
Gallery[]
Posters[]
Screenshots[]
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