The Sinking of the Lusitania

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a live-action prologue in which McCay busies himself studying a picture of the Lusitania as a model for his film-in-progress. Intertitles boast of McCay as "the originator and inventor of Animated Cartoons", and of the 25,000 drawings needed to complete the film. McCay is shown working with a group of anonymous assistants on "the first record of the sinking of the Lusitania".
The liner passes the Statue of Liberty and leaves New York Harbor. After some time, a German submarine cuts through the waters and fires a torpedo at the Lusitania, which billows smoke that builds until it envelops the screen. Passengers scramble to lower lifeboats, some of which capsize in the confusion. The liner tilts from one side to the other and passengers are tossed into the ocean.
A second blast rocks the Lusitania, which sinks slowly into the deep as more passengers fall off its edges, and the ship submerges amid scenes of drowning bodies. The liner vanishes from sight, and the film closes with a mother struggling to keep her baby above the waves. An intertitle declares: "The man who fired the shot was decorated for it by the Kaiser! And yet they tell us not to hate the Hun."

Tags: tragedy

Review:
The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) *** (out of 4) This WWI propaganda piece is from Winsor McCay, the famed animator who decided to use his skills and so something quite different.
This film documents the German attack on the Lusitania ship, which was carrying 2000 people when it was hit by a couple torpedoes and sank fifteen-minutes later.
The film clocks in at twelve-minutes and the animation is used to show what happened and then we're given actual footage talking about how evil Germany is and we also have a brief tribute to some of the men who were lost.
This is a fairly interesting film on many levels but the biggest is because of all the fire and passion that McCay brings to the material.
There's no doubt that this was a very personal film to him and he clearly makes his feelings known by attacking Germany on pretty much every level.
The animation of the boat sinking is quite simple on one hand but I'd argue there are still some very striking moments here.
I think the greatest are the shots of the ship and the smoke coming from it.
The long, complete shots of the ship are quite striking in their animated form and just watch the way that the smoke comes off of it.
The previously mentioned tribute shows some of the famous people that died on the ship, which was somewhat questionable and especially since none of the other victims are even mentioned and no tribute is given to them.
America had entered the war by the time Winsor McCay released this film.
The sinking of the Lusitania, which carried munitions as well, swayed American sentiment, but not until Germany retracted its guarantee of not repeating the tragedy, among other issues of course, did the US ally.
McCay's masterpiece was surely as worthy propaganda as posters, as there was still fight to last a few more months.By 1918, the celluloid animation process had been invented.
John Fitzsimmons and Apthorp Adams providing such as the waves with less monotony to the task, and McCay is supposed still to have created some 25,000 drawings for the production.
As he had done with previous shorts, McCay produced a live-action introduction promoting his dedication and hard work.
His last film, "Gertie the Dinosaur", drawn on rice paper before the advent of cel animation, was the most accomplished work of animation to date.
Yet, with a cliché not to be used lightly, "The Sinking of the Lusitania" was ahead of its time--years before the assembly lines of animation studios would attain such splendor.
Where Gertie was a likable, coy cartoon--one of the first personated characters in animation, this short is a moving tragedy transcending to likeness re live-action.It likens a subjective docudrama styled as a propaganda newsreel.
It contains shots impossible to have covered, impossible to have recreated in a live-action film as of then, although probably thought impossible to create in animation until McCay did it.
There was little need for me to screen this film again before writing this comment; images of the ocean liner steaming past the Statue of Liberty, floral smoke arising from the torpedo hits, rhapsodic falling bodies, bobbing heads and the isolated sinking in the final shot to punctuate the event, I'll always remember..
Harrowing, realistic documentary cartoon by animation pioneer Winsor McCay. Although Winsor McCay is primarily known for such whimsical flights of fantasy as "Gertie the Dinosaur" and the comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland", this recreation of the great ocean-liner tragedy is just as remarkable.
Painstakingly realistic, the graphic detail and fluidity of motion in this cartoon are far ahead of their time.
This was actually the first film to use cel animation, as the amount of detail McCay envisioned would have made drawing each picture individually near impossible.
In fact, you really have to look closely at the human figures to tell that it isn't actual live footage.
The torpedoes striking the hull, the subsequent explosions, the lifeboats and ropes flying over the sides, the passengers jumping overboard, the attempts at rescue, and the tragic fates of those unfortunates adrift in the ocean are all wonderfully and harrowingly realised.
That the quality of this film isn't in the greatest condition anymore (at least the print of it I saw wasn't) somehow only makes it feel even more authentic.
I first became aware of Windsor McCay when years ago I read those surreal dream comics he did in the first decade of the 20th Century "Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend" and "The Adventures of Little Nemo in Slumberland".
I never saw anything quite like his art work (for that time - it was the age of "Mutt and Jeff" and "The Katzenjammer Kids".
Then I learned that he was the first major American cartoonist who tried his hand at motion picture cartoons.
I saw part of his "prehistoric" joke, GERTIE THE DINOSAUR, in some television shows - but only part.
I had heard of his twelve minute long cartoon of the sinking of the R.M.S. Lusitania, but had no real knowledge of it.
As a meticulously drawn cartoon of that sad, sea atrocity of May 7, 1915 it is remarkable.
As has been said on this thread before by others, when the ship is sinking we see little figures jumping off the ship and drowning in the ocean.
Hideous in reality, that McCay did it shows great care in trying to seem accurate.
Today it is believed a second explosion occurred from either a boiler being hit, or coal dust exploding, or (this has been somewhat discredited) hidden explosives being taken to Europe for the war effort being blown up.
Whatever it was, it probably blew out the side of the boat and caused the ship to sink in 18 minutes (not quite the 15 minutes McCay mentions in the cartoon).It was meant for war propaganda - part of President Wilson's propaganda campaign under newspaperman George Creel, which made all Germans look anti-human.
Today there would be a more balanced approach to the story - a tragedy of three governments (Britain, Germany, and the United States) who managed to bungle matters so that 1,198 people (124 of them Americans) died by drowning or freezing or injuries from the explosions.
So is Charles Frohman, the theatrical producer of plays by men like Clyde Fitch and James Barrie (including PETER PAN - in the recent film about Barrie Frohman was played by Dustin Hoffman).
It is an interesting aspect that these real photos are used, but drawing the figures might have seen somewhat sacrilegious towards these famous dead people.Unless a film about the sinking is done by James Cameron as a follow-up to TITANIC, this is the closest we will ever get to a film on the loss of the "Lucy".
If you read A.A. Hoehling and Mary Hoehling's book, THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE LUSITANIA, they mention that a newspaper cameraman was on the ship who actually took motion pictures of the panic and the destruction as it went under.
Movies of the sinking of the "Andrea Doria" are still shown and one photo of it going under won a Pulitzer Prize for the photographer (who shot from a plane).
Apparently it didn't, but we do have McCay's excellent, fairly realistic cartoon to look at instead..
Animation historians must view this film immediately, but I suppose if you can find one McCay cartoon you can find them all - they're compiled on the 'Animation Legend' video and DVD.
'Lusitania' is the film where McCay tries to escape the caricatural confines of the animated picture to produce a serious and moving film, and damn, he succeeds.
The meticulous care which he put into the thousands of drawings necessary for this short cartoon meant that by the time it was finished, it was barely topical and WWI was over, leaving its calls for vengeance somewhat stranded.
McCay's animation has a dimensionality which is worlds apart from the character animation of Koko the Klown or Felix the Cat, perhaps a deliberate differentiation from such gentle entertainments.
The grim monochrome images of the Lusitania's stern raised in the air while hundreds of people leap to their deaths while remind most audiences of shots from James Cameron's 'Titanic'.
While the barely-concealed rage and maudlin tributes to the famous noblemen who died in the sinking (as opposed the penniless plebs who we can afford to forget) now appear unpalatably heavy-handed, the elegant curls of smoke from the stricken vessel are simply powerful cinematic touches which seal McCay's reputation as one of the great film artists of the silent era.
If only he, and not Disney, had become the template for the future of American animation....
From Winsor McCay, the revolutionary animation pioneer and director of the charming classic "Gertie the Dinosaur" comes a much darker animated tale.
This film recounts the tragic striking and sinking of the Lusitania which took away over 1000 lives.
This film is highly respectful in execution, and it certainly isn't what you would expect from McCay, who normally crafted extremely funny and enjoyable animations rather than heartbreaking dramas.
But, although its execution is much different than any other silent drama on the subject could be, it is highly effective and powerful, not to mention well made!
The animation is wonderfully done, and doesn't look too "cartoony" for the depressing subject matter.
McCay creates haunting and slightly propagandic images with this invention, images that wouldn't have been successfully captured on a 1918 movie set..
McCay's animation is hypnotic and the realism is shocking.
It's all on the same horizontal plane of action, but that makes it so strong and potent to look at, since the point of view doesn't change too much, except to show people falling off the boat.
The intertitles don't help so much; they break up the flow of the images and even down to seeing the names and faces and bios on certain 'famous' people of the period (major figures I'm sure but still a distraction), and I wanted to get more Windsor McKay drawings.
The most shocking part comes with those little figures falling off the ship in droves, but each one has enough detail that they can be distinguished as human beings..
Incredibly Powerful Piece of Work & World War I Propohganda Piece..
AN OFTEN HELD and widely spread attitude concerning animation is that it is kids' stuff and not proper fare for we 'sophisticated' adults.
All work in this film discipline are somehow lumped into the not so flatteringly used term of "Cartoons." Just check how they are invariably classified as being 'Children's'.WE MUST CONFESS that we succumbed to some of this propaganda; which would appear to be very difficult to resist.
When we add to that the widely held notion that all of today's pictures are superior to any from "the old days." These are falsehoods that would be easily put to rest if only one would view some of the early animation work of pioneers in the genre; whose names are unknown to most.GOING STRAIGHT TO the top of the list and the head of the class is one Winsor McCay. Mr.
McCay was already an outstanding draftsman and true artist; who had already been well known for his comic strip, LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND, which had run for years; being syndicated to many newspapers in both the United States and throughout the world.THE METHOD USED by McCay made use of many thousands more drawings than would have been required only a few years later.
The painting of characters, vehicles, animals, etc.
on the cell and then photographed over the background eliminated possibly as much as 60% of the drawing required.BUT IT IS this quality of rendering the scenes that are so lifelike that gives such a dramatic and moving feel to this short.
There needn't have been more length to the story telling, when the actual sinking of the Lusitania was completed in about 15 minutes!
In particular, we are referring to the depiction of the great ship sinking, one end going down with the other high in the air.
All during this time, McCay has given us the sight of many people (in long shot); who are helplessly and desperately jumping many feet off of the ship to an equally unsure fate in the North Atlantic.WHEN WE SCREENED this short, we were instantly put in the same mental state we all had when viewing those poor, helpless murdered individuals who jumped from the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001.NOW YOU SEE what we mean about seeing this being a highly dramatic experience!
As history, the film deserves a 2; as its power as a propaganda tool, a 10!.
This is a tough animated film to rate, as in some ways this is a wonderful film and in others it's lousy.
When it comes to mobilizing the American public to demand war and volunteer to fight abroad, it was top-notch propaganda.
But, history has shown us a lot that was not discussed in the film.
First, the Lusitania was not an innocent passenger liner.
And third, although widely circulated during the war as a deliberate hoax, the Kaiser did NOT decorate the captain of the sub for sinking the Lusitania!!
If you ignore all the controversy above and just focus on the quality of the animation, for 1918, this is an amazing film.
Well animated with excellent backgrounds and a jerking and super-effective finale featuring a drowning mother and her child--this is an amazing film.
While most today would probably find the animation primitive and dull, for its time it was terrific.
Remarkable and memorable film.
One of the best, if not the very best, animated film I have ever seen.
It is not a typical animated film.
It is a very impressive film on a very tragic event.
I recommend this film for anyone interested in history or animation.
Winsor McCay best effort.
You must see this film..
Animation pioneer Winsor McCay applies all his considerable skills in this feature, creating a detailed and memorable account of the sinking of the Lusitania.
The technique still looks quite good, and it really brings the events to life.
The events seem to be depicted with great care and accuracy, and only the strongly-worded commentary on a few of title cards reveals the creator's viewpoint.
(It doesn't detract from the fine quality of this movie, but it's always unfortunate when entire nations of people are condemned for the barbarous or irresponsible actions of some of their leaders.
It's understandable, of course, but unfortunate.)The Lusitania sinking was one of the most notorious events in a century that saw more than enough of them.
The Sinking of the Lusitania is great history lesson as animated by Winsor McCay. I saw two versions of this Winsor McCay animation of this historic incident of the early 20th century: one on YouTube (which linked from tvdays.com) and one on Google (which now also links YouTube).
Also, the picture filled the whole screen which made some things on screen impossible to see like some of the wording of photos of famous dead people from the sinking (also obscured by "tvdays.com" on screen at all times).
On Google, however, the picture was framed enough to view all the way to the last margin on screen and had a suitably somber piano accompaniment throughout.
Anyway, what great detail McCay gave to the sinking, the lowering of the lifeboats, the moving ocean, and the two explosions along with the final shot of the water spewing for the last time after the ship goes down for good.
Since there seems to be no photographic evidence of this historical event elsewhere, this should be enough visual recording of the disaster for anyone interested in early 20th century history.
Highly recommended also for serious animation buffs..
But watching it with eyes having seen Cameron's Titanic, i found the cartoon really poor: the ship is a chinese shadow.
The attack looks like a firework.
The sinking is the best part but it's deadly slow and not at all impressive as Lusitania didn't break.
The story is as empty: Germans is accused of all vices like all usual enemy and the victims are just Who's who Big Names...
Winsor McCay's 1918 cartoon "The Sinking of the Lusitania" was designed to make the US population enter World War I.
The world has spent the past year remembering the global conflict, and the Lusitania got sunk 100 years ago this month.
Most important is that World War I set the stage for much of what happened during the 20th century.
In addition to the millions of people lost to the war, the Turkish army massacred almost half of Armenia's population.
It's always neat to see the relics of early cinema, and especially the animation.
Worth seeing, understanding that it's propaganda cartoon..
"The Sinking of the Lusitania" is a black-and-white silent film from 1918, so it will have its 100th anniversary in two years from now.
The writer and director is Winsor McCay and if you know a bit about film history, then you will know that he one of the pioneers when it comes to animation.
As groundbreaking as some of his early works may have been, this one here is where he really shines because it is about a very important event that happened during World War I, namely the sinking of the majestic ship Lusitania by the German forces.
This film does not only use animation to bring across his message, it is also very informative including intertitles that describe what happened or also lists some famous names that drowned because of the sinking.
Of course, there is certainly some fiction in this film as well, but I still believe it is very much worth watching and for me it is a contender for McCay's best work.