When I first came across this movie, I thought it was interesting and recored late night off TV. I enjoyed the film, at least until I read the novel by Clive Cussler several times.
The cast is pretty good. Jason Robards is great as Sandecker and David Shelby is perfect as Seagram, fitting Cussler's description perfectly. Anne Archer is good in the role of Dana and it's a shame we don't see more of her and her lines are terrible ("Wormy on the hooky." for example). Alec Guinness does so well in the role of Bigalow that the film is worth watching just for his small role. Richard Jordan is the only bad cast member. He doesn't fit in to the character of Dirk Pitt at all and seems to be overwhelmed in his scenes.
The music is the best thing going for this movie. The great composer John Barry gives one of his best scores ever for this film, giving the film a much needed boost in atmosphere. Everything else behind the camera though, doesn't live up to expectations. The film's editing, direction, production design all give this film a B- Movie feel.
The special effects are decent at least, with some good underwater work. The models of the subs look realistic. And the model of the Titanic is excellent and is, for the most part, accurate.
The writing is the worst thing about the film. This is were thee film dies with terrible dialog (back to Anne Archer's lines). The worst thing is that the plot of the novel is all but scrapped and the screenwriters had the nerve to change the ending! The original ending had Pitt finding the ore in the Southby graveyard, bringing back to the U.S. and testing the Sicilan Project successfully. But the film instead has Pitt and Seagram (who wasn't even in the novel's ending, having went insane after the ore isn't on the titanic, though it was a good change for the film) going to Southby and deciding that since the ore could be used for a bomb, decide not to bring it up. This has got to be one of the worst adaptations of a novel in film history.
A film that should have been good and started the film series of Cussler's Pitt novels instead turned into a $40 million B- Movie that was destroyed behind the camera. It Should Have Been Good....
The cast is pretty good. Jason Robards is great as Sandecker and David Shelby is perfect as Seagram, fitting Cussler's description perfectly. Anne Archer is good in the role of Dana and it's a shame we don't see more of her and her lines are terrible ("Wormy on the hooky." for example). Alec Guinness does so well in the role of Bigalow that the film is worth watching just for his small role. Richard Jordan is the only bad cast member. He doesn't fit in to the character of Dirk Pitt at all and seems to be overwhelmed in his scenes.
The music is the best thing going for this movie. The great composer John Barry gives one of his best scores ever for this film, giving the film a much needed boost in atmosphere. Everything else behind the camera though, doesn't live up to expectations. The film's editing, direction, production design all give this film a B- Movie feel.
The special effects are decent at least, with some good underwater work. The models of the subs look realistic. And the model of the Titanic is excellent and is, for the most part, accurate.
The writing is the worst thing about the film. This is were thee film dies with terrible dialog (back to Anne Archer's lines). The worst thing is that the plot of the novel is all but scrapped and the screenwriters had the nerve to change the ending! The original ending had Pitt finding the ore in the Southby graveyard, bringing back to the U.S. and testing the Sicilan Project successfully. But the film instead has Pitt and Seagram (who wasn't even in the novel's ending, having went insane after the ore isn't on the titanic, though it was a good change for the film) going to Southby and deciding that since the ore could be used for a bomb, decide not to bring it up. This has got to be one of the worst adaptations of a novel in film history.
A film that should have been good and started the film series of Cussler's Pitt novels instead turned into a $40 million B- Movie that was destroyed behind the camera. It Should Have Been Good....