Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic (2007) (TV)

Director:

Christopher Spencer

Writers:

Sarah Williams (writer) and
Diana Preston (book)

Release Date:

12 May 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Drama | History | War

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Disaster Film | Government Conspiracy | Lusitania

Cast

John Hannah	...	Prof. Ian Holbourn
Kenneth Cranham	...	Captain Turner
Florian Panzner	...	Lt. Capt. Schwieger (as Florian Panzer)
Michael Feast	...	Captain Hobbs
Graham Hopkins	...	Staff Capt. Anderson
Madeleine Garrood	...	Avis Dolphin (as Maddeleine Garrood)
Frances Marek	...	Alice
Adrian Topol	...	Vogele
Martin Le Maitre	...	Winston Churchill
Kevin Otto	...	Alfred Vanderbilt
Karen Haacke	...	Dorothy Taylor
Dean McCoubrey	...	Capt. Windridge
Andre Weideman	...	Johnston (as Andre Weiderman)
Ronald France	...	Lord Mersey
Steven Jennings	...	Carson

Also Known As:

Sinking of the Lusitania: Terror at Sea (USA)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Darlow Smithson Productions

Politics Vs History

##### Possible Spoiler #######

In this event Politics won. This is what we have to come call a "docu-drama" the telling of a story within an actual historical event.

In this case the event was the sinking of the liner RMS Lusitania on the 7th May 1915 by the German submarine SMS U-20. 1,198 passengers and crew were killed and the outcry against Germans was resounding and loud, especially in the then neutral US.

Even against the backdrop of the horrors of WWI it was big news and yet it has largely faded in favour of the Western Front or Gallipoli when WWI is reviewed. So this film should have been interesting and informative. However what we got was a fantasy that would have made the dead turn in their graves.

Those "right-on" chaps at the BBC who made this rubbish probably had this discussion first.

Producer "I don't like the Iraq war so I want to make a film that shows I don't. So I am going to tell the tale of the Lustiania.

Editor "Err OK, but wasn't she sunk by the Germans?"

Producer "Yes but we can have a German sailor with a conscience which will absolve them of any blame"

Editor "Err OK, but was't she off her advised course?"

Producer "Yes,but we will make up a reason and make the Captain a sympathetic guy picked on by the evil government (Dr Kelly anyone?) trying to cover up the fact she was carrying munitions"

Editor "Err OK, but hasn't it been proved by the survivors, manifests of the cargo from New York and by modern divers to the wreck that an ammunition explosion didn't happen? And anyway its was illegal to torpedo the liner without warning first?"

Producer "Yes, but we will just follow German propaganda at the time and at the end of the film tell everyone in writing we just made that bit up!"

Editor "How do we blame the government to make the viewer understand they shouldn't support the Iraq War?"

Producer "We show imagined conversations between Churchill and a captain who wanted the Lusitania sunk. We make the view believe the liner was routed into the path of U20 in order for her to be torpedoed, we don't tell them the admiralty were sending two destroyers at speed to escort her, we make it like their was only one U Boat in British waters, we don't tell them the Germans altered the U20s log ...

Editor "But if viewers are stupid enough to believe this made up tosh as accurate history how do we get them to link it to the situation in Iraq?"

Producer "Simple at the end of the film the lead character turns to camera as tells the viewer that he was betrayed by his government.

If the BBC want to make political points (and they increasingly do) than that's their affair. But for them to twist and invent historical fact to do it is disgraceful. Poor.