dukee44 I was impressed with the 3/4 of the 2 part TV film that I actually saw (the 1st night was laundry night and the 2nd half came on while I was having a loooong phone call). I have seen from the IMDb message boards that the writers played fast-and-loose with the facts at times...well, THAT'S never happened before!;) The problem with chronicling a major disaster of that kind is the absence of eye-witnesses that lived through the event. Of course, too, it was almost 100 years ago so people who DID survive have passed on due to age.I do believe that from what I've read in books/the net and seen on TV that the explosion was an accident... I noticed that people from Halifax were also adamant about that point. It was a very dramatic piece. The German spy bit was just a plot-device, I believe... unprovable and not very important. I haven't studied what the temper of the times was so I can't comment on the captain's anti-war speech. But to move on...As I said above, I was very impressed by the FX used in the actual explosion sequence. The quality is high and the horror of it is VERY real: you're almost cringing at the thought of the people oohing and ahhing by the waterfront just seconds before the explosion and when you see people in their homes and schools surrounded by glass. The idea of showing people witnessing the disaster from several different places was also interesting.Good acting from what I saw and good capture of the period.

v_imdb-99 While this was a good attempt to articulate the disaster from a cinematic point of view, it lacked in many areas. First off, the glaring historical errors were bothersome, including the fact the city was lit like a Christmas tree despite strict blackout restrictions. The soap opera like plot lines involving Trixie and the German spy seemed a bit much, aside from the fact she was portrayed so naively when it came to love despite her extensive political knowledge. I also felt the city came off as a backwards two-bit town rather than a metropolis caught in the midst of war. I suppose this is because it was shot in Lunenburg, which is much smaller than Halifax was at the time of the explosion. I also thought the Titanic ploy of linking the past with the old woman who remembers the past seemed a bit trite.However, the soldiers' plight was well-articulated. Truth is, the first half of the mini-series is quite good, along with the special effects, but the second half degenerates into some melodramatic soap.The story, however, would have been better had the producers stuck to reality. Truth is stranger than fiction, and what is strange, is the fact the script made up things when the city was abuzz with far more fascinating things.Before the CBC markets these things as historical series, they should check to make sure they're accurate.

heckles My commentary: First and foremost, while the emphasis was on human error in the movie, the fact is war is a very fertile breeding ground for accidents on top of the deliberate carnage. "Saving Private Ryan" noted this with the mention of the glider that was fitted with armor plating - but no one thought to tell the pilot. So it crashes and six soldiers are killed needlessly. Accounts of war proliferate in tragic incidents such as that one. The Halifax Explosion must be the biggest war-related accident in history.The Great War featured incomprehensibly vast usage of artillery shells, and artillery shells need TNT and other explosives. A lot of this had to be imported from the U.S., and by ships. Ships had to be gathered in ports. Ports will then see a lot of ships coming and going, and harbor masters are going to be pressed to keep all this traffic moving. The odds were considerable something like the incident of Dec. 6th, 1917 would happen someplace in Allied ports sooner or later.Captain Le Medec probably wasn't the greatest or bravest mariner of all time. But how many ship captains who have seniority or pull are going to agree to captain a massive floating bomb at the height of the U-boat menace? Second, did anyone notice that the movie exonerates harbor pilot Mackie while making Le Medec and the Belgian captain look like total dolts at the helm; and has Mackie trying to avert disaster while the Frenchman funks off with his crew? Considering it is a Canadian and not a French production, what a surprise.Then there is the almost defeatist speech Capt. Collins gives to the war rally in the church. Excuse me, an *officer* in HM forces blurting out like that? It simply wouldn't have happened at the time. Contrary to what he later tells Barbara, Germans weren't close to suing for peace at the time, and the war wasn't kept going only because the Allies wanted another year of war profits. Indeed, with the Western Front stalemated and Russia close to surrender, Ludendorff et al were convinced victory for Germany was just around the corner. And a lot of people on the Allied side feared the same thing.On the plus side, I was impressed by what the production did with a limited CBC budget.

clydesdale15 It was nice to see another good movie about the Maritimes. There were certain things that lacked or needed more explanation, but on the whole it was an enjoyable movie based on true events. Most people have never even heard of the Halifax explosion; so, this movie should provide some info. The actors did a good job portraying their characters. It was wonderful to see Zachary Bennett (Ernest) again, whom most would remember as Felix King in the "Road to Avonlea" series. Unfortunately his character only appears in the first part and we never hear of him after that. This is a good movie to sit back in the evening and enjoy.