 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
| Britannic | |
|---|---|
 UK DVD cover art forBritannic | |
| Directed by | Brian Trenchard-Smith |
| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United States United Kingdom |
| Original languages | English German |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | David Forrest Stephen P. Jarchow Beau Rogers |
| Producer | Paul Colichman |
| Running time | 93 minutes |
| Production company | Flashpoint |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox Family Channel |
| Release | 10 January 2000 (2000-01-10)[1] |
Britannic is a 2000spytelevision film directed byBrian Trenchard-Smith. The film depicts a heavily fictionalized version of the sinking ofHMHSBritannic in 1916. The film portrays a German agent sabotaging her while she is serving as ahospital ship for theBritish Army duringWorld War I.[2] It starsEdward Atterton andAmanda Ryan, withJacqueline Bisset,Ben Daniels,John Rhys-Davies, andBruce Payne as co-stars. It first premiered on cable networkFox Family and was then broadcast in the United Kingdom onChannel 4.[3]
InSouthampton in 1916, HMHSBritannic, a sister ship of theTitanic, is commissioned as a hospital vessel for wounded Allied soldiers fighting in theGallipoli Campaign. Among the nurses who are to serve aboard her is Lady Lewis, who is being delivered toGreece viaNaples, where her husband has becomeAmbassador for Great Britain. Traveling with her is Vera Campbell, her governess, who is unnerved and faints during boarding, having survived theTitanic's sinking four years earlier, losing her husband. She discloses to Captain Barrett and First Officer Townsend that she is an operative ofBritish Intelligence, and suspects aGerman spy has boarded theBritannic. Barrett is sceptical that a woman can do such a job and Townsend mocks Vera.
The German spy has boarded theBritannic posing as her murdered chaplain, Chaplain Reynolds, and finds that the ship is secretly carrying a large amount of small arms and munitions bound forCairo. Under thearticles of war, Reynolds considers his actions againstBritannic to be legal and initiates a series of sabotage attempts to either take over or sink her, including inciting theIrish stokers, all members of theIrish Republican Brotherhood, to mutiny. Although she reports odd sightings and behaviours to the captain, Barrett scoffs at Vera's notion, and refuses to take her seriously, though Townsend grows more warm toward her. Campbell indirectly reveals to Reynolds her cover and admits she has lost her confidence due to being judged as a woman. The two find themselves growing attracted to each other. A mutiny is attempted and Vera intervenes by killing one of the men, with the co-operation of the Britannic's crew, foiling it; in the process, Vera earns the trust of the captain who apologizes for his chauvinistic behavior and is treated as an equal by the crew and Townsend from then on, much to her elation. She is praised as a hero and is treated with respect by the crew. A GermanU-boat is sunk by the Britishbattleship, HMSVictoria as it tries to torpedoBritannic.
Reynolds makes the decision to sink the ship after leavingNaples,Italy. Campbell and Reynolds make love before discovering his true identity. Campbell confronts him in the engine room where Reynolds reveals his real name, Ernst Tilbach, and then blows a hole in theBritannic's side bow. The ship tries sailing for the Greek islandKea seven miles away, but the beaching operation causes her to flood even faster. Campbell discovers that William, one of Lady Lewis's children, has disappeared. Ernst helps her and they get William to alifeboat before it is lowered. Another explosion causes Ernst to be trapped in a flooding room. Campbell helps him escape and they make their way through the ship, swimming through flooded rooms, vents, grates, and corridors, eventually making it outside by swimming through a porthole and climbing aboard an empty lifeboat that has been lowered into the water, but still attached by its ropes to the davits. After a lifeboat filled with people is pulled into the still spinningpropellers and are smashed to pieces by the spinning blades, Ernst ties Campbell to a line thrown to them from a nearby lifeboat and despite her protests that they both can be pulled to safety, he throws her into the sea after kissing her. The lifeboat's ropes break and it is sucked into the propellers; Ernst commits suicide, staying aboard the lifeboat as it is smashed by the blades. TheBritannic rolls over and finally sinks. Vera is comforted by Townsend as HMSVictoria arrives to rescue the survivors.
Production began in early 1999. Historian Simon Mills learned from Trenchard-Smith that the film was fictional and not meant to be historically accurate. When he noted that CaptainCharles Alfred Bartlett was fictionalised as "Captain Barrett", he was told that the name had been changed for legal reasons. Although he requested to be labelled as "technical consultant", he was named as "historical consultant" in the credits.[4] Filming took place atBray Film Studios,Kempton Park Pumping Station, The Church of Clewer St. Stephen andVictoria House.[5][unreliable source?]
Trenchard-Smith says the film was the best of the three disaster movies he made around this time. It got him the job directingMegiddo: The Omega Code 2.[6][failed verification]
David Kronke,Los Angeles Daily News, was somewhat complementary about the film’s humour and short running length, when compared to1997'sTitanic, but felt that the movie "bl[ew] it in the last half hour", due to badly executed plot contrivance and the climax being too similar to that of Cameron's. He was also critical of Jacqueline Bisset's acting.[7]
Ray Richmond, writing inVariety, thought that the movie was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the 1997 movie, but without an equivalent budget or pathos and felt that although it did "everything in its power to emulate [...] 'Titanic'" it came "far closer to outright satire." He criticised the special effects and concluded that "Authenticity proves the greatest casualty."[8]
ReviewingBritannic, Chris Cox ofmyReviewer.com called it "a dreadful film that deserves to sink to the bottom of the sea and join the wreck of the ship."[9][unreliable source?]
