A Night to Remember

A Night to Remember is a 1958 British historical drama disaster film directed by Roy Ward Baker that was released on July 3, 1958. The film stars Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Lightoller.

Plot
On its maiden voyage in April 1912, the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective of the ocean liner's second officer, Charles Lightoller (Kenneth More). Despite numerous warnings about ice, the ship sails on, with Capt. Edward John Smith (Laurence Naismith) keeping it going at a steady pace. When the doomed vessel finally collides with an iceberg, the crew and passengers discover that they lack enough lifeboats and tragedy ensues.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) While A Night to Remember may not be 100% faithful to the true events of the sinking and Walter Lord's novel, it keeps the spirit of the sinking of the Titanic event and pays tribute to everyone who died on the Titanic while also staying faithful to the novel from 1955.
 * 2) The movie stays true to the fact that the sinking was a tragic accident, just like James Cameron's movie Titanic.
 * 3) The acting is pretty solid, especially for the Titanic passengers as well.
 * 4) Amazing pacing in the Titanic sinking scenes.
 * 5) The soundtrack by William Alwyn was pretty well-done, and the different version of "Nearer, My God, to Thee" was also pretty good as well.
 * 6) Excellent directing by Roy Ward Baker.
 * 7) The cinematography is well-done.
 * 8) Amazing realistic effects that still look impressive today.
 * 9) Most of the characters in the movie are pretty likable, such as Charles Lightoller and Thomas Andrews.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) The Titanic at the end of the movie didn't split up, though it's forgivable since the wreck of the Titanic wouldn't be found until 1985.

Critical response
The film received widespread critical acclaim. It holds a 100% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews with an average score of 8.71/10. It is considered "the best Titanic film before Titanic (1997)" and "the most accurate of all Titanic films" and "the definitive Titanic tale", especially for its social realism, reflecting, in the words of one critic, "the overwhelming historical evidence that the class rigidity of 1912, for all its defects, produced a genuine sense of behavioral obligation on the Titanic among rich and poor alike; that the greatest number of people aboard faced death or hardship with a stoic and selfless grace that the world has wondered at for most of this century.

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