Film 18/52: Raise the Titanic (1980)

Let's talk about Raise the Titanic. A late seventies star-studded epic featuring: a John (King Kong) Berkey poster — check!; a John (King Kong) Barry score — check!; and produced by Sir Lew (Capricorn One) Grade — check! I waited a long time for a widescreen, HD release of the film, and have held out for the right time to watch it on The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema screen. Thanks to our 52 Pick-Up series, the time was finally right!

While I knew the name Clive Cussler from my days working in the bookstore, I was not previously aware that Raise the Titanic was the first of his Dirk Pitt novels to be adapted to the screen. Now, to be fair, only one more (Sahara, with Matthew McConaughey as Pitt) has been made since then. And to be perfectly honest, Dirk Pitt wasn't the star of Raise the Titanic — it was the ship herself. A 55-foot scale model of the doomed, majestic ocean liner. And who was responsible for the film's extensive model work, might you ask? Would you believe The Creature from the Black Lagoon? Yep, Ricou Browning himself, who had portrayed said creature in his underwater swimming scenes, was responsible for the impressive model unit direction in the film (he's featured in a very cool documentary on the Blu Ray). The film has been treated unfairly in the years since Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic, when it was discovered that the ship had cracked in two before sinking. But if you're willing to put that aside, it's pretty darn fascinating to watch the discovery footage from the film and distinguish it from the footage Ballard shot when the ship was discovered.

But the ship was the draw to this would-be epic film, which sank to the bottom of the box-office charts like her namesake. But does that mean it's not entertaining? Don't get me started on people that equate box-office tallies with quality. The film has a great cast, including Jason Robards, Alec Guinness, Anne Archer, M. Emmet Walsh, David (Quentin Collins) Selby, and a particularly solid performance by Richard Jordan as Dirk Pitt. It's a shame he wasn't given an opportunity to reprise the role; with a different vehicle (pun intended), I think he actually could have kicked off a franchise for the character. You may remember him in Logan's Run as Francis, Logan's fellow Sandman who eventually has to hunt him down, or as Duncan Idaho in David Lynch's adaptation of Dune, or Michael J. Fox's path to success in The Secret of My Success, or as the National Security Advisor in The Hunt for Red October.

I enjoyed the film, which while deliberately paced (i.e. slow, to modern audiences), manages to keep things interesting between the underwater activity, the intrigue with the McGuffin which has the US and Russians very interested in reclaiming cargo from the sunken ship. And what can I say — a great John Barry score goes a long way! Fun to experience on the big screen, and it has inspired me to read up on the Dirk Pitt books by Clive Cussler. Now to find someone who has read them (or is willing to read them) in order to write an article for bare•bones!