I guess my ideal Titanic movie would be a cross between ANTR and Cameron's movie: the former for its focus on the true story and the second for the interiors and (what I perceive as) the best true-to-life nonfiction characters. The characters in ANTR just didn't seem to me to nail the actual nonfiction characters as well as the ones in Cameron's movie. For example, in the latter the guy who played Quartermaster Hitchens, and Victor Garber as Thomas Andrews, were both just perfect, I thought. Garber's uncanny resemblance to Andrews helped, of course.
I'll have to watch ANTR again. I have it only on video, not DVD, so I can't put it on here in the room where I work, although that still you posted showed the look pretty well. Ouch!
What'd you think of Murdoch's (as played by Ewan Stewart) look when Ismay gets in the lifeboat in the 1997 film? I thought that softer, but still good. (The remainder of the depiction of Murdoch from that point on in that movie went straight downhill...)
Kathy, I read A Night To Remember when I was 14. I didn't see either Titanic (1953) or A Night To Remember until a few years later. I liked them both but, being the male of the species, I thought the Clifton Webb-Barbara Stanwyck-Robert Wagner-Audrey Dalton melodrama bogged it down a bit in the middle of the motion picture. It was a bit soap-operaish for me. I grew to like Clifton Webb at the end, the remarkable actor he is! And Harper Carter, who played Norman, acted well too. Norman wanted so terribly to be a man. He became a man on that voyage.
I liked the very British A Night To Remember because it portrayed the men on the ship the way they were described by the survivors that Walter Lord interviewed. The officers and men showed bravery in getting the women and children into the lifeboats, knowing what their own fates would be. There was a bit of family melodrama thrown in but just enough for my liking. I'd like to believe that this is the way it happened that night.
But because of the acting of that foursome I mentioned, Titanic (1953) wins as my favorite Titanic movie.
I think First Officer Murdoch was portrayed the way I believe he really was in A Night To Remember. I only saw the 1997 movie once when it was shown on cable TV for the first time. I really don't remember too much about it except for the obvious computer animation and awful music. But again, I'm the male of the species.