... outside the courtroom - not so much.
This is a dramatization of the formal inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic, specifically, why the Californian did not go to the rescue of the Titanic after seeing multiple rockets fired that could have meant distress, and after noting that the ship was, at the same time, listing starboard.
I looked for additional material after watching "A Night To Remember" (1958) on the sinking of the Titanic, and I found this. The courtroom scenes are taken from actual testimony, and although the British actors are unfamiliar to me, they give compelling performances.
But outside the courtroom, this thing tries to turn Captain Lord of the Californian into J. R. Ewing of Dallas ("I'm gonna break you Bobby!"). Maybe most of you are too young to know what I'm talking about with that last reference. But I have a hard time believing that seamen cut from the same cloth as those on the Titanic would worry so much about saving themselves and abandoning all honor in the process, hiding the "scrap" log book, and that Lord would turn into a menacing bully, warning each of his officers in turn not to betray him.
9/10 for the courtroom scenes. 4/10 for the overwrought drama outside the courtroom, which the filmmakers, to their credit, say is just a dramatization, not based in any facts.
