Matthew Kresal With a good cast and an interesting concept of covering the four days before the sinking, I was hoping that this would be more then just another Titanic movie. Unfortunately the film turned into yet another Titanic movie despite its cast and somewhat original idea, the film fails to use both of these to any good effect.The cast, while a good one, fails to live up to the film's potential. David Janssen fails to be either convincing or very good at being John Jacob Astor as does Harry Andrews as Captain Smith. With the exception of Ian Holm as Ismay, most of the crew and first class passengers are cardboard characters who we've seen countless times in other Titanic films (Cloris Leachman's Molly Brown is a perfect example). The film's two interesting characters, David Warner's Lawrence Beesley and Susan Saint James' Leigh Goodwin aren't seen very much throughout the film and their relationship falling apart before the sinking and them coming back together on the Carpathia after the sinking is an interesting before and after analogy that should have been explored more.Outside of the actors, the films production values are another problem. Much of the film was shot aboard The Queen Mary and this is very much apparent. Watching the film one does not get the impression of being on the Titanic as one gets from the 1953 and 1997 films or the excellent 1958 film A Night To Remember. One instead gets the impression of being on the Queen Mary or in a hotel somewhere and not on board the titanic. The shots of the Titanic sinking look like they were shots from A Night To Remember that were colorized for the film an the rest of the Titianic shots are obviously models or the Queen Mary standing in, giving a low budget feel to the film.The film's writing is also lacking. Summed up, it took the names of Titianic passengers and then mangled fact and fiction together to create the mess that is the plot of the film. The writing fails t capture the spirit of those on the Titanic and once the ship sinks, one does not feel for the characters who have died or who have survived. If anything, the writing makes the Ismay character seem almost sympathetic when he chooses to climb into the empty seat on a lifeboat. the film is also full of errors on those who sailed on the ship including Violet Jessop,w ho is portrayed an old woman in the film instead of being in her late twenties as she was in real life.All together, S.O.S. Titanic is just an average film in general and an average film about the Titanic. It fails to not only capture the spirit of the Titanic story, but everything we have come to expect from the films on the sinking. This film is for die-hard titanic buffs only because I am sure the average person would simply lose interest quickly.

cskocik I have mixed feelings about S.O.S. Titanic. On the one hand, I remember seeing it when I was about nine years old and being stunned. On the other, I watch it now and wonder why they bothered to make the movie. First of all, I have the shortened version, which I understand is far less effective than the full three-hour version, so my comments might not apply to the full version. But it seems to me A Night to Remember is the definitive movie about the Titanic, and this one seems like a brief and half-hearted recap of that much better movie. We see only the most cursory glimpses of various characters and how they came to abandon ship. I think the entire sinking ends up taking half an hour of screen time, even less than the Barbara Stanwyk movie. The attention to detail is impressive, but it seems to me you'd have to already know a lot about the Titanic in order to pick up on it -- for example, Lightoller jumping into the wave as it overtakes the boat deck. I agree with whoever said that the characters were not well-researched, with the notable exceptions of Lawrence Beesley, Thomas Andrews, and J. Bruce Ismay (the casting of Ian Holm was a stroke of genius!), and I simply can't accept Harry Andrews as the soft-spoken Captain Smith, or Cloris Leachman as Molly Brown, or David Janssen in a compelling but inaccurate performance as J.J. Astor. Still, all told, I'd take this movie over James Cameron's bloated epic. The music, as someone else pointed out, is outstanding, really underscoring the magnitude of the tragedy and somehow making it feel like you're drowning as you listen to it. Philip Stone is almost as good as Anthony Bushell as Captain Rostron. The stories are real, for the most part, even if some of them are clumped together into composite stories. The characters really existed. The script treats the story with the appropriate reverence, as opposed to Cameron's action movie treatment and offensive ridiculing of some of the heroes of that night. But still, I don't see any real value in this movie, when you can get everything it offers, and much more, from A Night to Remember.

Darlawood80 This Titanic movie that came out had the lack of special effects, but had a wonderful, but fictional cast. Lawrence Beesley who was played by David Warner was my number one favorite character of the movie, more of the hero type of man. The movie shows the lives of all three classes, not just only a certain portion. Though rarely seen on cable television anymore, SOS Titanic was general a good movie to watch. Most of the filming was took aboard the Queen Mary, which I think that was nice too. This film should be good for all viewers to see.

Tex-Mex This movie is perfectly shot; very good acting, pretty good special eff. and sinking scenes (although most of it wastaken of 'A Night To Remember', and restored in T.Color). For all who didn't notice: 99% of the ship close-ups were shot on the 'Queen Mary' in Long Beach,CA. To a previous comment: he's right, there's no real plot like you know them from all the other Titanic movies. The reason: This movie is based on the book by LawrenceBeesley (in the picture played by David Warner); and in that novel is a perfect description of what really happened on April 14th 1912. And there was no story a la Jimmy Cameron on the ship; When you watch the movie: look for David Warner for 2 reasons 1)his outstanding acting and 2)(for all Jimmy Cameron's Titanic fans) to see 'SpicerLovejoy' (Hockley's nasty servant) playing a nice guy; His reward for being nice this time: he survives If you are interested in the subject Titanic (and NOT LeoDiCaprio), you will enjoy this movie, which is my personal favorite after J.C.'S Titanic. Of course the spec. eff. are not that good on this one, but this version didn't cost $200.000.000 either.