Sinking of the Lusitania: Terror at Sea

Sinking of the Lusitania: Terror at Sea (also known as Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic, and, in German: Der Untergang der Lusitania: Tragödie eines Luxusliners) is an English-German docu-drama produced in 2007. This 90-minute film is a dramatisation of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915 by a German U-boat, U-20. The Lusitania scenes were filmed with full-scale sections of the ship off the coast of South Africa while the U-20 scenes were filmed at Bavaria Studios in Munich using the then-newly refurbished 25-year-old U-boat set, studio model and full-size prop originally built for Das Boot.

Sinking of the Lusitania: Terror at Sea
Created byCoproduction of Smithson Productions and NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk), commissioned by BBC1, Discovery Channel, M6 and Channel International
Written bySarah Williams[1]
Directed byChristopher Spencer
StarringJohn Hannah
Kenneth Cranham
Florian Panzner
Country of originEngland/Germany
Original language(s)English/German
Production
Producer(s)Martin Davidson
Editor(s)Colin Goudie
Running time90 min
Release
Original networkVarious channels
Original release13 May 2007

Editorial reviews

Documentary filmmaker Christopher Spencer uncovers the truth about the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in this film that gets to the heart of the mystery by leaving no theory unexplored. 7 May 1915: The RMS Lusitania, a luxury Atlantic liner, is carrying approximately 1900 passengers and crew when a German torpedo suddenly strikes just beneath the ship's bridge. In the eighteen minutes that it took the Lusitania to sink, 1200 passengers and crewmembers perished at sea. In the aftermath of the sinking, numerous conspiracy theories began to emerge: Was the British government secretly using a passenger ship to transport explosives? Had Winston Churchill sacrificed the ship to draw the United States into a war she had been reluctant to join? Now, nearly a century later, the facts are separated from the fiction as Spencer and his researchers sort through the details on a painstaking quest to finally raise the truth up from the depths. Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide.

Plot

"Remember the Lusitania! Avenge the Lusitania!" These are the words that inspired many young US citizens to volunteer for service during the First World War. The sinking of this great British oceangoing liner provoked outrage around the world on an unprecedented scale. On 7 May 1915, a German torpedo sent the ship to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean in just 18 minutes—its speedy descent into the depths occurring far too fast for most of those aboard to make it to the lifeboats. Of the 1,962 passengers and crew on board, 1,200 were lost, including 94 children and, crucially, 128 US civilians, many of whom were prominent figures. President Woodrow Wilson's neutral stance started to crack. All over the country there were calls for the United States to take up arms against Germany. In many ways, the Lusitania tragedy was the major turning point of the Great War, and perhaps the single greatest factor that eventually brought the USA into the war in April 1917.

Full cast

RMS Lusitania
  • John Hannah as Professor Ian Holbourn
  • Kenneth Cranham as Captain William Turner
  • Madeleine Garrood as Avis Dolphin
  • Graham Hopkins as Staff captain James C. Anderson, First Officer
  • Kevin Otto as Alfred Vanderbilt
  • Karen Haacke as Dorothy Taylor
  • Frances Marek as Alice Robinson
  • Aiden Lithgow as Tom Robinson
  • Robyn LeAnn Scott as Margaret "Peggy" Brownlie
  • André Weideman as Quartermaster Hugh Johnston, Helmsman
  • Rory Acton Burnell as Robert Leith, Senior Radio Officer
  • Andrew Whaley as Archibald Bryce, Chief Engineer
  • Vincent Laurentis as Robert D. Chisholm, Second Steward
  • Daniel Fox as Leslie N. Morton, Able-bodied Seaman

U-20

British Admiralty

Other
  • Ronald France as Lord Mersey, Wreck Commissioner of the United Kingdom
  • Stephen Jennings as Sir Edward Carson, Attorney-General representing Board of Trade
  • Erich Krieg as Fregattenkapitän Hermann Bauer, Commander of the German U-boat forces
  • Grant Ross as British reporter
  • Rosemary Ryan as Nurse at Queentsown

Television premiere

It aired on the Discovery channel in the US on 13 May, on BBC 1 in the UK on 27 May 2007, in Germany on 28 December 2008 on ARD and on ABC1 in Australia on 11 January 2009 and the History Channel in New Zealand on 3 February 2009

References
  1. "Sinking of the Lusitania Cast & Crew". Hollywood.com. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
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