For many, A Night to Remember is still the best cinematic account of the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912. Based on the bestselling book by Walter Lord, the movie followed in Lord's footsteps to create a drama as true-to-life and historically accurate as possible.

A true tragedy such as this has no need for fictional soap opera melodrama, nor should it perpetuate the myth that every man and woman acted honorably as the cold and clasping hands of death reached up from the watery depths to claim their lives. While certain members of the orchestra may have played on, there was absolute panic during the ship's final moments. The harsh truth is that many a good man, woman and child died that night, while others less worthy of survival lived to tell their tales of "sacrifice."

Still, you will find no true villains here -- although the captain and crew of the nearby and unresponsive Californian come close: Captain Smith and his crew all perform their jobs ably and honorably, the wireless operators' mistake in not passing a final ice warning along to the bridge is assuaged by his dutiful attempts to call for help until the last possible moment; and even Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star Lines, is cast in a surprisingly noble light. More importantly, I don't think any other film rivals this one in terms of the emotional force of Titanic's final plunge into the sea, punctuated by the prayers in several languages from those in the lifeboats.

A Night to Remember gives you viewpoints on the disaster from each of the classes represented on board, from those in steerage (some of whom couldn't understand what was happening because they did not speak English and all of whom struggled to find their way up the decks where the lifeboats were), second class and first class, all the way down to the firemen and other crew members working in the bowels of the ship. Among the rich passengers are the noble -- such as the men who downplayed the situation in order to get their wives and children in the boats and the women who refused to leave their husbands -- and the ignoble, including several rich women who complained about the whole evacuation process and even castigated the manners of some of their fellow survivors in the boats. Even after the sinking, prudishness reigned on at least one lifeboat, with snobbish women poo-pooing the very idea of going back to save others. On other boats, low-ranking crew members "in charge" refused to go back for fear of those in the water capsizing their boats, while those who made it atop one of the capsized collapsible boats forcefully kept people from grabbing hold until Second Officer Lightoller swam up to restore order.

You never really get to know the people onboard, yet they become incredibly real to you as the dramatic end of the Titanic plays itself out.

Most interesting to me is the movie's treatment of Ismay, the often-reviled chairman of White Star Lines. Not only does he exert no undue influence on Captain Smith to get to New York as quickly as possible, he actually takes an active part in evacuating women and children into the boats. When the fateful moment arrives that he does slip into one of the boats, he exhibits a great deal of shame in doing so. This is easily the most humane treatment of Ismay that I've ever seen in a Titanic-related film.

Of course, A Night to Remember does get a few things wrong, particularly in terms of the way the ship went down without breaking up -- but many facts such as these weren't really established until years after this film was released in 1958. Obviously, the special effects of this era are a far cry from those at James Cameron's disposal almost half a century later, but I -- and many others -- still say that A Night to Remember still delivers the most accurate portrayal of the final moments in the life of the Titanic. You can't watch this film and not be moved by the scale of the human tragedy.