{"id":2688,"date":"2024-08-22T16:14:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T16:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:23:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:23:53","slug":"raise-the-titanic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/22\/raise-the-titanic\/","title":{"rendered":"Raise the Titanic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Raise the Titanic <\/strong>(1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associated Film Distribution\/Action-Adventure-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 114 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jerry Jameson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Adam Kennedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Barry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Matthew F. Leonetti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 1, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer, Sir Alec Guinness, Bo Brundin, M. Emmet Walsh, J.D. Cannon, Norman Bartold, Elya Baskin, Dirk Blocker, Robert Broyles, Paul Carr, Michael C. Gwynne, Harvey Lewis, Charles Macaulay, Stewart Moss, Michael Pataki, Michael Ensign.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $7M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Before there was Jack, Rose and a certain $200 million movie, there was Raise the Titanic<\/strong>, a reasonably entertaining action-adventure about an operation to raise the ship that famously sunk in 1912 in order to obtain a rare mineral. As I mentioned in my review of The Final Countdown, I saw Raise the Titanic<\/strong> as part of a late summer double bill. I have to say that I\u2019m glad I saw them as a double feature rather than separately. I would have felt gypped otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That being said, I think Raise the Titanic<\/strong> is the better of the two even though it has similar pacing problems. I like how Cold War intrigue is thrown into the mix with the Russians attempting to sabotage the operation. It adds a bit more tension to the proceedings. What threatens to sink the movie is the inclusion of a female reporter (Archer, Fatal Attraction) who\u2019s romantically attached to two other characters. She\u2019s entirely unnecessary to the plot. Her sole function seems to be printing a story about the secret operation after the Russians leak it to her. Nothing much comes of this, so why even include it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Raise the Titanic<\/strong> starts off strong with an American spy searching for an extremely rare mineral called byzanium in an old mine on a frozen, snow-covered island. He\u2019s discovered and shot by Soviet soldiers, but rescued by Dirk Pitt (Jordan, Dune), a former Navy officer-turned-adventurer for hire. It\u2019s explained by NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) admiral James Sandecker (Robards, All the President\u2019s Men) and scientist Gene Seagram (Selby, Falcon Crest) that the byzanium is needed to power a new defense system called \u201cThe Sicilian Project\u201d. Basically, it\u2019s a laser shield capable of stopping and destroying incoming nuclear missiles. The problem? The byzanium that was supposed to be in the mine is actually in a safe that was loaded onto the Titanic before it left on the fateful voyage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In order to obtain the rare mineral, the sunken wreckage of the Titanic must be found. Next problem? It\u2019s too far down for divers to retrieve the safe. The solution? Raise the Titanic from the ocean floor. How is this to be accomplished? Easy. Fill it with plastic foam, attach giant balloons and blast it free. Admittedly, it\u2019s pretty cool when this happens. Director Jerry Jameson (Airport \u201977) accomplishes it by way of smaller scale models and special optical effects. Today, such a cinematic feat would be accomplished with CGI effects. I\u2019ll stick with the 1980 version, thank you.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I haven\u2019t forgotten about the intrigue aspect of Raise the Titanic<\/strong>. The Soviets, believing the byzanium to be their property, plan to capture the Titanic once it\u2019s raised. In keeping with the times, KGB baddie Prevlov (Brundin, Meteor) further states if there\u2019s a superior weapon to be made from it, the Soviets must have it for themselves. While interesting, it occurs to me that Raise the Titanic<\/strong> would have worked just as well without it. The Titanic is a fascinating subject on its own. There\u2019s plenty of history. The notion of raising it is rife with all sorts of scientific possibilities. Why not limit the screenplay to its initial premise? Well, I may have an answer for that. The movie sags quite a bit in the middle section when they\u2019re searching for the sunken ship. These scenes aren\u2019t as tight as they should be. Luckily, the movie picks up once the guys find a clue leading to the ship\u2019s location.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting is fairly decent. We\u2019re not talking about Oscar caliber performances here, but they\u2019re more than functional. Sir Alec Guinness (Star Wars) briefly appears as a Titanic survivor who provides Gene with a bit of backstory. The only weak link, like I said, is Archer. For the record, Dirk is her ex-lover and Gene is her current squeeze. Again, I don\u2019t know why the makers saw fit to include this. The real draw of Raise the Titanic<\/strong> is the superior visual effects. I think it\u2019s a decent, if flawed, movie. It\u2019s totally watchable.<\/p>\n

TRIVIA TIDBIT: Upon release, the reviews for Raise the Titanic<\/strong> were overwhelmingly negative. Clive Cussler, the author of the original novel, was so disgusted by the adaptation that he refused to grant permission for any further cinematic adaptations of his books. Personally, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as bad as all that.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raise the Titanic (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associated Film Distribution\/Action-Adventure-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 114 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jerry Jameson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Adam Kennedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Barry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Matthew F. Leonetti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 1, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer, Sir Alec Guinness, Bo Brundin, M. Emmet Walsh, J.D. Cannon, Norman Bartold, Elya […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Raise-the-Titanic-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2688"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3624,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions\/3624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}