Customer Reviews

National Geographic's Secrets of the Titanic [VHS]

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm sure most people know that this is strictly a documentary on the discovery Dr. Robert Ballard did on the Titanic. I haven't watched my copy in over a year, but from what I do remember, it was very, very good. They start out before they actually find the Titanic with some of the explorations they did during the summer of 1985. Then on September 1, 1985, they discovered it. It's not the typical finding of the bow and such, they scan the ocean floor and pieces of the wreckage start showing up.

There is much detail about the discovery, a lot of background about their equipment, how they went looking for it, TONS of footage, and so much more. If you liked the movie and want to see what the Titanic looked like in 1985, 73 years after it fell into darkness, this is it.

Kids probably wouldn't like this too much as its not really a fun movie, but it is very educational and very interesting. If you were a big fan of the Titanic, you should get this.

It is actually interesting to see them building the robots and testing them before going into the ocean. The video is jam packed with background, pictures (color/B&W), footage, and a lot of historical information.

One of the final scenes shows a someones shoe (crew member?) where it had sat for 73 years until the 1985 discovery. There are no bodies in this (do you really think a body would last 3/4 of a century at the bottom of the ocean? nada), but they show you PLENTY of the remains from the Titanic. I believe they also show some of the Titanic survivors and the gravesites.

Excellent educational film. I took my copy to work after I first got it over a year ago and almost everybody in the office was watching it. It definitely holds your attention.

Starting with remarkable still photographs and film footage of the Titanic being built in the Belfast, Ireland shipyard, where "3,000 men labored for 2 years", this is a riveting documentary that intersperses these visions of the past with film of explorer Robert Ballard's determination and persistence in finding the wreckage, and he did so by using the theory that no one else had accepted, that the sixty-six thousand ton Titanic had broken apart before sinking, separating the ship on the ocean floor, with a wide field of debris in between.

The Titanic, called by some "a floating palace", had 325 passengers in its luxurious first class cabins, and a total of 2,229 souls aboard, sailing on its fateful voyage April 10, 1912; Dr. Ballard, who always desired to find the great ship, achieved his goal in the summer of '86, and using "Alvin", a small submarine where three men would be crammed for hours during the search, and then applying "Jason", a robotic camera that was able to enter the structure and give us eerie images of the underwater graveyard, with rivers of rust flowing from it.

The DVD "Extra" that is also on the VHS version is "Last Hours of the Titanic", and it is fascinating; it's an in-depth interview with Dr. Ballard, who speaks of the challenge of finding the wreck with the time constraints (and monetary limitations) he was faced with, and gives us explanations of exactly what happened in the final hours of the ship with animated re-creations.
This also has added footage of the ship, and the most poignant image of all, found in the extensive debris field...a pair of shoes, their owner having disintegrated, but on the ocean floor just as this unfortunate man was laid to rest, undisturbed for seven decades. It's an unforgettable image, and evokes the tragedy of the Titanic more than anything else I've seen.

This is the ultimate "real" movie about the Titanic. My son and his friends (5-7 year olds) are facinated by it. The combination of historical info and pictures, plus the modern-day science and technology of the underwater subs used to explore the wreck, are fantastic. This is the sort of movie that can hook kids (and adults) on history and science... a great addition to any video library.

This is the story of Dr Bob Ballard's discovery of Titanic on September 1, 1985. The DVD is the perfect complement to Ballard's book The Discovery Of The Titanic, and conveys all the excitement of the discovery. It is a fitting tribute to the ship, those who sailed and died with her, and to those who discovered her.

This video is a must have for Titanic enthusiasts. It is very well produced by National Geographic and narrated by Martin Sheen. It was released soon after the discovery of Titanic and has footage of Walter Ballard's team actually finding wreckage. The documentary tells a very somber story of the people on the ship and the events of the sinking. If you are a fan of the 1997 Cameron film this video will show pictures and tell the stories of people like the Strouss' and the "unsinkable" Molly Brown whose characters were not fully developed in the movie. It will really show how accurate the movie was in detail.

At this point in time (2010), the main interest that this DVD still holds for me is its own historical value - by now, its recounting of the Titanic disaster itself comes across as more than a little iffy. Why? Until September 1, 1985, people who were interested in the disaster had no solid forensic evidence upon which to base their ideas or theories - only survivor recollections (highly inconsistent) and the flawed official transcripts left by the American/British Inquiries (each with its own particular agenda). The discovery of the wreck marked the beginning of a complete reappraisal of that information based upon what the French/American team found on the bottom and its physical implications. That reappraisal, still ongoing, is touched on in this DVD's narration, but at that point it was just getting under way. Some follow-up coverage is provided by a later, added section that wasn't part of the original home video release.

Nevertheless, this documentary will always retain great interest for the Titanic community in that it contains some of the earliest video taken of the wreck; and underwater video at that depth was itself an emerging "artform." The ship isn't in nearly that good a condition today and a number of its most interesting physical structures and remnants have either collapsed or been removed or damaged by subsequent expeditions.

To summarize, even though my feelings about this DVD carry a few major reservations, I still would recommend it highly.

excellent presentation and most informative very pleased i brought this product

This was an older program, so I wasn't expecting a high definition presentation, but even so, it was pretty slow and you didn't see very much. It was mostly focused on the expedition and there really wasn't a lot of the wreckage and artifacts shown. I have seen more recent programs that do more justice to it.

The National Geographic has produced an outstanding film, here. As a Titanic buff, I have managed to accumulate, I think, every Titanic film produced. This, though, is the completely non-fiction documentation of what happened to the Titanic, and what the ravages of time have done to this disappearing great lady. This is an excellent film!

We bought this to show kids in a middle school class the REAL story of the titanic. We found that all the kids had an understanding of the Titanic that was based on the MOVIE, so I sought out a good documentary type of feel so they could get the real story and THIS IS IT! What a great film. You should have seen the faces of the kids - they were glued to TV screen and very unhappy when we had to stop the film because time was up for the class. They arrived the next day charged up, ready to get back into the story. You will enjoy this feel - it has great historic images and lots of "backstory" on the Titanic. Well constructed and narrated. This will now be shown for years to come to middle-schoolers who think Leonardo DiCaprio was actually on the ship, screaming "I'm the king of the world!!!"...