I'm likely not alone in worrying whenever a major incident is turned into a documentary, and with something like the OceanGate Titan submersible disaster, I wasn't sure if I would like how the topic was handled by Netflix. Thankfully, I was proven wrong.
Sometimes, the true crime or real-life documentaries we see on the best streaming services can come across as very sensationalized by their tendency to add unnecessary drama into the mix, which leaves a sour taste in peoples' mouths who find it insensitive.
But when it comes to Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster, it doesn't focus on the implosion of the vessel that killed five people in June 2023. It also doesn't try to reconstruct it. Instead, it focuses on the build up to the disaster, offering viewers a character study of the company's former CEO, Stockton Rush.
I'm impressed by how reasonable the documentary is. It may not be one of the best Netflix movies with its current score of 69% from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but it's fact-based and respectful in its retelling of the events that led up to the incident.
Why I recommend streaming Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster
If you're worried Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster will be full of dramatic reconstructions and repeated simulations of what happened, I can reassure you, it's nothing like that at all.
In the documentary, we meet a lot of former OceanGate employees, many of whom tried to warn people about the Titan submersible, and how these warnings went ignored by Rush and upper management.
Speaking to Tudum, director Mark Monroe said: “When the Titan submersible went missing, I was horrified and mesmerized by the 24/7 news coverage and global social commentary – just like the rest of the world. There was no context for what could have happened to those onboard, and the only touchpoint was the Titanic, a story that’s now become a grim fairy tale."
He added: "The more I dug into this terrible tragedy, the more intrigued I became about how this could have ever happened in the first place, and who exactly was the man who built and then went down with this ship. We hope that this film can help provide answers to these very questions.”
Among the people interviewed for the documentary is a man named David Lochridge, a submersible pilot and OceanGate’s former director of marine operations. I was stunned by his calm, level-headed testimony that sheds light on the situation, and the safety issues raised by him.
Lochridge was fired by Rush as a result of this, something that will no doubt anger you when you're watching, as it certainly did for me. You'll meet plenty more people who after trying to stop the expedition too, decided to leave the company when they were repeatedly ignored.
By watching the interviews of engineers, videographers, submersible experts, and former employees, as well as the daughter of the late French submariner Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who died on board, I learned so much about OceanGate and the development of Titan.
This includes a shocking segment about the cost-cutting measures that were used, including the choice to use carbon fiber to build the pressure hull, a material that was a controversial decision and objected by many.
This is the kind of documentary we should be seeing on Netflix more often. No chaotic editing and dialed up drama, just pure facts and insight into what happened, and how such a horrific incident can be prevented from happening again.
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