I would have issued this film a 7 rating but for one scene: When the Russian captain came aboard the Titanic and informed the Americans that the byzanium (sp?) was Soviet property. I was appalled that the American commander felt compelled to resort to a show of one-upsmanship as a threat to keep the radioactive mineral.What should have happened was that in a spirit of international peace, the American captain should have offered half of the byzanium to the Soviets. That way, both countries could feel safe without the other having a major strategical,military advantage.The greed and ignorance that is "the American way" really makes me sick: It is as though we have some kind of right and imperative that no one else is entitled to, and that all other countries are evil and the "enemy".If I were the Russian captain, I would have stayed on the Titanic past the eight-minute limit, just so that the ship was torpedoed. The American sub (and aircraft) could not have stopped that.The scenes in the movie were very well filmed and the Titanic was re-created to an astounding level. The water would not have been as clear at 12,000 feet, but I can forgive that, because the clarity of the water allowed us to see everything.Another element of the movie that is perhaps unrealistic but forgivable is the mechanics involved in raising the Titanic: Balloons and "foam" would not have been enough, and the concept of "foam" that was supposed to be injected by tubing or hoses is frankly ridiculous at that depth and considering the complexity of the ship's chambers.One final, small item is that I wish that the submersible had indicated its depth (and maximum depth capacity) as it entered the trough in which the Titanic was ultimately found: It would have added to the suspense.Nevertheless, the acting, direction and replication of the actual ship are excellent in this film. It is just unfortunate that the producer felt as though he needed to resort to cold war rhetoric and sabre rattling to make a compelling picture. Certainly, all the elements to captivate an audience were already and otherwise inherent.

There definitely are some dead spots. Too much time is spent looking for the ship. The three sided romance goes nowhere and could have been deleted. The entire operation of simply pumping foam, attaching gas bags, and exploding the Titanic off the bottom throws credibility out the window. Nevertheless, Richard Jordan and Jason Robards give it their best, despite minimal character development. The real star however is the Titanic model, which of course doesn't appear until past the half way point of the film. If you persevere until then, your imagination will be rewarded. Definitely watchable if you have enough patience. - MERK

What i mean by there are no more Matt Dillon's.The money that was spent to find this ore the time the man power and than the final decision was left up to some type of idealist a boy scout.The film had to many slow spots for me.I gave it a chance after reading some of the other reviews they were positive and many people seemed to enjoy it.BUT I have to be something that this film was not and that is honest.The Russians would have had those guys followed until that stuff came up.And also they take two toothless grave diggers to the exact spot.Now if i was one of the DIGGER guys just out of curiosity i would have come back two days later and dug it up.This film was poorly written.And no real navy guys would trust each other with that kind of secret THE ONE GUY ALREADY SAID THAT HIS ASSOCIATES NAME SOUNDS LIKE THE NAME OF A PIRATE..IN THE REAL WORLD THIS SCENARIO WOULD NEVER WORK THOSE TWO GRAVE DIGGERS WOULD BE LAYING DEAD BY NOW ...(AND YOU KNOW IT) I WISH THE WORLD WAS THE WAY IT'S BEING PORTRAYED IN THIS MOVIE BUT IT IS NOT. SORRY GUYS.

My view of this movie is colored by the fact that I read the book first. It was my second Clive Clussler novel, and I went on to read almost all of them. When I saw the ad for this movie, I was so excited.Then I watched it. What a huge, huge disappointment. Whoever wrote the script should be shot. Sorry, I shouldn't encourage violence like that. The writer of this script should be chained to a chair and forced to watch this movie in a continuous loop for a year.It is a god awful film, in a world of bad movies. The story made no sense, and they completely cut out the most exciting parts of the book. It makes me wonder, did the idiot who wrote this purposely leave these parts out? Did he have a beef with the studio and purposely do this to make the movie tank? I can't believe this movie actually made a little money. I haven't seen it on TV for many, many years. It's so bad that cable movie channels won't even run it at midnight.The highlight of the book was when the hero Dirk Pitt faces down a team of Soviet agents trying to take ownership of the newly raised Titanic, in the middle of a hurricane. For the movie, they reduced this entire conflict down to the Soviet showing up at the dock and trying to claim the ship as property of the USSR, and being told no.I came away believing that Cussler sold out on this movie, took the money and turned his back on it. I know if I could have stood by and watch them mutilate the book like this.For 31 years, anytime some asks what's the worse movie I've ever seen, this is always the first title that pops to mind. I might need to watch it again so I can laugh at how bad it is.