On the quest for a rare element that could decide the balance of the Cold War, oceanic explorer Dirk Pitt (Richard Jordan) is enlisted to locate the largest deposit of the element - the sunken wreck of the Titanic (still undiscovered when the film was released).
I have a memory of watching the ending of this movie on TV as a child - it was years before I worked out what it was.
Ironically, I started reading Dirk Pitt novels and did not make the connection - I am pretty sure I owned the book this film is based on, but never read it.
By the time I worked out this sequence of a sunken ship rising to the surface, and arriving in New York, was a real movie.
I did not watch it - it was lumped together with other big budget flops.
After visiting a Titanic exhibit that featured posters of various Titanic movies, I was finally intrigued enough to watch it.
Raise the Titanic is a strange artefact of a couple of different things: First, it came out five years before the ship was found, in two pieces - a fatal blow to its premise.
Second, it is the epitaph of Lew Grade’s dreams of becoming a movie mogul.
While I read a few Dirk Pitt books, I cannot remember anything about them, or the character - he likes the ocean and cars?
Raise the Titanic is a weird movie.
Beyond the titular concept, it ties in the Cold War in such a bizarre contrived way.
But then it gives over to focusing on the mechanics of finding and raising a sunken ship.
There are a few moments of attempted espionage (a spy onboard; a Soviet ship shadowing the expedition) but they are dealt with so perfunctorily - the spy is found offscreen, dismissed in a sentence.
Directed with efficiency but little imagination by Jerry Jameson, I cannot say the film is exciting - until it gets into the search for the ship.
And I was almost won over when our protagonist is forced to raise the ship ahead of schedule - a mini-sub becomes trapped on top of the wreck and Pitt has to raise it before the crew’s air runs out.
The actual raising of the Titanic is the best part of the movie - it is so good, they replay it under the credits.
A combination of miniatures, and compositing, it is surreal and haunting.
Pitt wandering through the interior of the ship is almost as effective.
It is the one chunk of the film where it captures the strange magic of the title.
John Barry overdelivers with a haunting, majestic score, and the cast are serviceable, but aside from the titular sequence, Raise the Titanic is basically inert.
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