Customer Reviews

Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces

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

 

 

I am here on this beautiful Island of Curacao in the Carribean.
There's an international Dive Festival Going on from May 20th, till May 26th 2006.

And John and Richie are here!!

Premiering the release of their DVD!! They showed it too us in 2 parts and all I can say is that it's the best thing on titanic I've ever seen !!

If you've never heard of Titanic, then where have you been living? One of history's most captivating tragedies, the sinking of the Titanic draws countless numbers to learn more about the catastrophe. That fateful trip is absolutely fascinating, and I've watched a great many documentaries about that famed ship. A glorious super liner, Titanic is perhaps more famous today than it was in 1912.

As a result, most of us know what led to its sinking, either from the movie or from documentaries. This latest entry into the fold from The History Channel, Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces has a new postulation on the now generally accepted theory of the ship's demise. That current theory states that Titanic saw an iceberg straight in its path. It tried to turn to miss it, but the big ship clipped the side of the iceberg, tearing a gash or a series of small gashes along its side. Water flooded in, filling enough watertight compartments to cause her to go down. As remarkably shown in Titanic, the nose of the ship went under first, causing the stern to rise above the water. At some point, something caused the ship to split in half, causing the stern to crash back to the water. The nose then quickly went under, pulling the stern deep down to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Five years ago, an expedition to explore the wreckage made an interesting discovery south of the stern's debris field. They said they found "long strips of metal." Unfortunately, the submersible's camera equipment malfunctioned and they had no proof of what they saw. But this set in motion a new theory. Maybe these long strips were from the bottom of the ship. If so, then Titanic just didn't graze the side of the iceberg, but it actually ran over part of the iceberg too. We learn that an iceberg does not go straight down below the water (like a cliff); instead, the water causes the iceberg to form a shelf below the water. Hence, it's now theorized that Titanic somewhat ran aground on the iceberg. If so, in addition to the gashes on the side, maybe there was also significant damage on the bottom, explaining how the ship sank in less than three hours. If that were true, it could also explain why the front of the ship is relatively intact while the stern is crushed upon itself.

Now that I've told you all that, is there any reason to watch the special? Hell yeah!! The two-hour special shows you the 2005 expedition to look for these strips of metal to add proof to the theory. It's an interesting journey, one that's fun to watch to see what is or isn't found/learned. The expedition, once we get to the bits where the "long strips of metal" are either found or not found, is the most exciting piece on the DVD.

I liked the special. It is well done, just sit tight and keep your eyes open for on of the most exciting journeys down to explore the titanic.

Included on the disc are two bonus items. Starting things off is the wholly unforgettable, PR fluff piece "History in the Making: Titanic" (5 minutes). This is one of those filler pieces probably shown on The History Channel to get people to watch the show when it premiered.

Faring infinitely better is the second item, "History's Mysteries: Doomed Sisters of the Titanic" (42 minutes). This is a complete episode of History's Mysteries that details the unfortunate careers of the White Star Line's trio of sister ships, Olympic, Titanic, and Brittanic. This episode, without as much historical repetition, is fascinating and I learned much about the apparently cursed ships.


All in all, you get your money's worth, and it's surely some thing you'd like to add to your DVD collection!!

I have always been a keen observer of the history on the Titanic, and this DVD just adds to the majesty of its history. I'm always looking for more information on what really sunk the Titanic, and so when this video explored the prospect of the bottom being ripped open, and the evidence of that happening being displayed for the first time, it was something that just adds more to the real causes of her sinking. It had to be more than just the starboard side being ripped open, there had to be more internal damage, and this video does an excellent job of supporting that speculation. I whole heartidly endorse this history, and this video. It's very well produced, the photography is exceptional, and the theories and facts leave you wanting more information. I hope more is done to prove what happened to Titanic, but I also hope other explorers will leave this behemoth and her captive souls to rest in peace, undisturbed from further exploration.

First, there's the discovery of two complete cross-sections of the bottom of the hull. This is an enormous find, arguably the most significant since the discovery of the wreck. Major kudos--seriously--to these guys for this achievement.

But then there's the documentary. There's some beautiful footage of the wreck, but as a documentary, this show is extremely tacky, consisting essentially of eighty minutes of recycled footage, cheesy montages, stuff we already know (Can we please stop banging on about the Titanic being considered unsinkable?), and reality TV-esque fluff; and then there are perhaps twenty minutes of material actually relevant to the documentary's alleged subject. And those twenty minutes are extremely dumbed-down; I really do think the average audience member for a documentary like this is much smarter than the History Channel thinks.

But, then again, the less-than-spectacular quality of the piece *as a documentary* gives it a kind of home-grown feeling, as though these guys did it all by themselves. I really don't know just how, well, "professional" this thing was in its production, how involved the History Channel was. So I don't know how fair my complaint is.

So.. I really don't know.

It repeats a lot of historic material already shown or told on other documentaries but it is well used. It feels a little like the Cameron's movie as this film goes back in time and then back to the present and so on. There is new footage that is impressive. Watching captain Smith's bath tub and other things so close, and in a big TV screen feels a little eerie. The only thing I wish is, this DVD had been done in a nice wide screen format. I think is advertised as full screen, but sometimes small black bars appear on top an bottom.
What is a plus on this DVD is the documentary about Titanic's doomed sisters Britannic and Olympic. I learned about Violet Jessup and was amazed with her story.

I found the DVD to be a very useful adjunct to Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, although I wish the main video or the extra stuff had shown the updated info on the expansion joints of Titanic and Brittanic. The extra stuff includes an older documentary on Titanic and her sisters, which helped shed a little bit of light on the question. If you liked the book, I highly suggest the DVD to help with putting all the information together.

I've seen most of the documentaries about Titanic that have come out in the last 25 years, and it's rare to find one that is more than a restylized retelling of the same story with new and frightening music, or a simple invasion into previously undisturbed portions of the wreck. This documentary is different.

In synopsis; large portions of the ship are discovered in the debris field. These sections are from the bottom (keel) of Titanic. Their placement in the debris field and the type of breakage that tore them from the main wreck are analyzed as wreck evidence, and that analysis re-writes the story of what happened to the Titanic as it sank. This is not fanciful guesswork, this is the type of science I've been hoping would oneday be applied to the Titanic wreck site. It provides the first truly likely hypothesis for the breakup that I've seen, and the new hypothesis answers many loose ends that have been there all along.

I gave it four stars because the History Channel of course spends a significant amount of time trying to create drama and suspense (will they find anything? what could it be?) before getting to the point...but regardless; This is a great documentary for people who don't think they need to see another show about the Titanic.

This is one of the more interesting of the many Titanic porn DVDs. There are a lot of logistics and mechanical underwater scenes involving rovers and such, as well as the analytical revelations for the accident. I find a lot of this to be in the category of navel gazing, although it is interesting to learn that the actual breaking of the ship was likely nothing like James Cameron's theatrical embellishment. Comparisons of underwater details with mechanical drawings are also a nice inclusion, as well as a brief analysis of the ice that formed and drifted into her path. But the actual history, archival footage, interviews with historians, and computer animations of the ship are interspersed with the analytical material to make this a wonderful DVD for any Titanic or liner enthusiast to have. Included are bonus features; "History's Mysteries: Doomed Sisters of the Titanic" and "History in the Making: Titanic", which make this well worth owning.