It is a performances centric movie

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I have always been interested in the actual story of the tragic accident that befell the luxury liner Titanic, and I have seen this 1980 movie a couple of times already, despite it being rather historically incorrect. But hey, it is a movie meant to entertain, and that is what it is and what it does."Raise the Titanic" tells the story of the American military's search for a rare mineral which they need in order for a new defense system to protect the USA. After having chased the mineral to an empty mine, they come to learn that it lies resting on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, in the cargo of the sunken luxury liner Titanic. A race to raise the majestic ship from its watery grave Begins as the Russians start to get word of their plans.The concept is adequate, although quite historical incorrect and impossible, as the ship sank in two halves, whereas it is fully whole here in this movie, aside from the damage by the iceberg that sank her. And the idea of raising the ship, while being really interesting, is just a bit out there.Now, what works in favor of "Raise the Titanic" was a rather impressive cast and equally great performances. Richard Jordan, has always been a favorite of mine, and he was doing a good job in this movie. Alongside him were Jason Robards, M. Emmet Walsh and the formidable Alec Guinness. All together a very impressive cast for a movie from 1980.The storyline is good, although it does suddenly become very rushed as an accident threaten the lives of three men, and several days of planning and execution is carried out in a very, very short time. Which, to me, was just too rushed and seemed like they were running out of time or funding in the movie project and had to rush things along. It ultimately sent the movie down the wrong path, leading it to mediocrity.I was more than impressed with the visuals and the effects in the movie, because it was breathtaking to see the Titanic re-emerge from the waves of the Atlantic and once again grace the waters with her massive hull. It was all very realistic and believable, well aside from the part that the ship was in one piece."Raise the Titanic" is entertaining for what it is, even if you are a man who values the importance of history and facts. It is a movie, keep that in mind, not actual fact.

I'm blown away by the number of negative reviews of this film. There are outlandish claims that this was considered a bomb of a movie from the outset. You can always tell when the reviewer wasn't even born when the movie was released.The truth of the matter is that this was a highly-respected film when it came out and was considered one of the more substantial motion pictures of the 1980s. I should know, since I was there and saw this in the theaters. People who don't really understand the context fail to realize that it was eclipsed by The Empire Strikes Back. The second reason for the huge differential between the box office earnings and the budget is that the late 1970s and early 1980s was a time in which motion picture budgets were spiraling upwards. Studios were putting massive amounts of money into their films and the risk was becoming excessive. One of the last big-production films was Die Hard. For the next decade, the majority of films were done on the cheap. Today we're seeing a resurgence of big-budget films. So if a movie doesn't make back its money in the first year, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad film.The cinematography, editing, score, acting (for the most part), and visual/special effects in this film are outstanding. I've read some comments on here deriding the effects and all I can say is that anyone who thinks the effects are crap is blind as a bat. I have my share of experience building CGI models of ships like the Titanic for Hollywood productions, so I can speak to the digital side. And I've built my share of practical models as well. The ship in this film is an excellent piece of work and the camera and lighting work suit it perfectly.Just to see if this movie stood the test of time, I sat down and watched it again on a 60" plasma screen. It rocked! All the suspense and tension was right there like back in the day.So if you can put the actual discovery of the Titanic out of your head and just think of this as a parallel universe, you'll very likely enjoy this film.

Raise the Titanic (1980) * 1/2 (out of 4) The U.S. Government is looking for a rare mineral that has gone missing decades earlier and they begin to fear that it might have fallen into the hands of the Russians. After some evidence turns up they realize that the mineral was placed on the Titanic and of course sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic. However, a scientist comes up with a plan to raise the Titanic and get the mineral off. RAISE THE TITANIC is based on an apparently highly regarded novel but whatever was working there certainly didn't carry over to the film as its considered one of the biggest flops in the history of cinema. The idea of raising the Titanic is something rather interesting but it seems as if the producers, writers and director all went into a room and decided to take this interesting story and do it in such a way that nothing would work. The entire Cold War stuff is just downright silly, there's a dumb love story thrown in and we get countless dramatic moments that contain zero drama. For a thriller I really can't think of too many other films with such few thrills. One of the biggest problems is the actual screenplay because it spends way too much time building up to the event. As with many "disaster" pictures from this era, we get about an hour of talk before we get down to any action but the problem here is that this first hour is just so dry and boring that you really begin to lose interest in them raising the ship. Once this does take place you somewhat have to laugh at how they plan on bringing the ship back to life so to speak. The special effects are less than impressive and of course you also have to put up with several factual errors that couldn't really be avoided since the real ship wasn't discovered for another five years. The performances are all pretty much as bland as the screenplay and the director doesn't do much to bring any life either. RAISE THE TITANIC could have been a good popcorn movie but in the end its just a flat mess that has nothing going for it.

I've been a big fan of the Clive Cussler novels over the years, so was excited to check Raise The Titanic out. However, besides fulfilling my desire to see Dirk Pitt on the big screen, the film is an absolute bust. It seems like 75% of the movie are scenes showing submersables underwater searching for the Titanic as the main characters on the ship above monitor them with varying expressions. The movie is just rather flat. There is no substance to it.To make matters worse, Richard Jordan was not a good choice as Dirk Pitt. His portrayal of Pitt makes the character pretty unlikable; perhaps he was attempting to play Clive Cussler himself rather than Pitt (Cussler, a rotten curmodgeon of a man, admittedly has based Pitt on himself or who he wishes he could be--Cussler is not nearly as cool as Pitt). Robards was excellent as Sandecker, but even his strong performance couldn't add much to a pretty lame script. Anne Archer and M. Emmitt Walsh also are in the film, but don't do anything exciting. If you are a fan of the Dirk Pitt novels, go ahead and give this movie a look. If not, avoid it at all costs. I rate this 5 0f 10 stars simply because I'm a fan of the novels. If I were not a fan, I'd rate it a 2 of 10. Sahara starring Matthew McCaugnehey is a better film, but Cussler killed the chance for a sequel with that cast--too bad.