Titanic's Final Mystery (2012)

Best movie ever!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I really enjoyed watching this documentary! Tim Maltin seemed like a respectable guy with neat enthusiasm. The various ways he came to his conclusion was hard work and adventure. For example, the various places he went to to gather evidence was intriguing.The character reenactments, the over portrayal of his theory, and explanations were well done. I walked away learning much on science, history, and record keeping. The film is well balanced between reenactments and general documentary shots.The reason why I gave it not a perfect score is because I felt the speed moved a little slow with the repeat of the dialogue of the characters and with the CGI effects- though I get they wanted emphasis on witness accounts.I recommended this film to some friends.

The documentary looks at the reasons behind the sinking and lack of rescue of the RMS Titanic, and sees Tim Matlin, author of several books about the Titanic travel to locations across Europe, North American and the Atlantic Ocean to meet experts and perform experiments to test theories.I have never read a book on the Titanic or seen any documentaries. I was vaguely familiar with some of the theories discussed here, about the captain being drunk (false) and about the lack of lifeboats. This not only covered what little I did know (and set me straight on false assumptions), but introduced me to new concepts I had never considered, such as the shipping routes and radio communication (which I would have thought minimal at the time).Really a great film for those who want to learn about the Titanic.

I found this on DVD at my public library, a Smithsonian film.The main investigator featured in the film is what the DVD jacket calls "Titanic Detective" Tim Maltin who apparently has been at it for 20 years. The findings are not presented as a Scientific investigation would be, presenting the summary of findings first, then showing how the findings were arrived at. Instead it is presented as a TV show mystery might be, that is keep you in suspense until near the end. I suppose you have to do that to make money.Anyway it is an intriguing film, clearly the result of much study. Right before the half-way point in the film, when Maltin introduced the point that some very cold Labrador Current water adjacent to much warmer water was observed the night of the incident, I pretty well figured out where all this was going. The cold water mirage effect.I happen to be a scientist and an amateur photographer, so always keen to learn about lighting and lenses. The mirage effect occurs when layers of air are at two different temperatures. This creates what in effect is a lens which bends light such that at a distance what we see doesn't really represent the objects we intend to look at. The greater the temperature difference, the greater the effect. And, under the right conditions distance objects can appear much higher than they really are or, conversely, much lower than they really are.With the detective work to examine many old maritime records from many ships 100 years ago, including one that took the same route as the Titanic, Maltin proved that these great temperature gradients were present that night in April 1912. Plus first-hand accounts of survivors matched what would be expected. The Titanic look-outs were experts, they were alert, but the unusual diffraction of light meant that a large iceberg that normally would be spotted 30 minutes away was spotted only 35 seconds away. It was a perfect set of conditions for the catastrophe.It also explains why the nearest ship did not respond to the distress call from the signal lamp on the Titanic. The weather conditions and cold water mirage made the lights flicker such that it appeared to be random noise instead of an actual signal.The conclusions are all circumstantial, because Maltin was not there and could not possibly verify his conclusions. But to me, they seem very convincing and this study appears to best explain why everything happened the way it did that night.A must-see for those interested in the Titanic story.

Titanic's Final Mystery (2012) *** (out of 4) One of many documentaries that were produced for the great ship's 100th anniversary sinking, this one here tries to explain a couple of the biggest mysteries that remain about that horrid day. Author and Titanic expert Tim Maltin goes through some major research trying to turn up new evidence on why the Titanic hit the iceberg and why the California didn't come to her rescue. If you've seen one Titanic documentary then more than likely there's not too much in the first hour that's going to catch you off guard. The start of this is just like so many other documentaries in that it explains the time, the historic nature of this ship and how everyone believed it would be impossible for it to sink. From here we get to the night that it did hit an iceberg and sink. The story of the Titanic is simply so fascinating that I think it would be nearly impossible to make telling it boring. The first portion of the documentary might be something we've seen countless times before but I found the dramatic re-enactments to be quite good and I thought there were some terrific diagrams used to show what exactly happened. There's also a terrific shot from above the ship of what it might have looked like to those coming down the side on a lifeboat and it was quite chilling to see the front of the ship under water. Yes, we've seen CGI effects of this before but it's very well done here. The second portion of the documentary turns more scientific as it tries to find out why the ship hit the iceberg. We're told that most of the time you'd have thirty-minutes to see an iceberg and get out of its way but the Titanic had just a thirty-second warning. I won't ruin what explanation is given but I'm sure Titanic buffs will debate if this was the actual cause. In the end, this is a good look at the events of that night that I'm sure die-hard buffs will enjoy.