"Divers at Work on the Wreck of the Maine" is not an exceptionally extraordinary work by French filmmaker Georges Méliès, but it has an interesting context, as well as a background, to it. Undoubtedly, the short was inspired by the blowing up of the 'Maine' during the Spanish-American War, and is thus a mere reconstruction detailing the events. (I know very little about the history so I'll leave you to do your own research about the event). Originally, filmmaker Méliès had created three films detailing the incident as a sort of trilogy, although very unfortunately this one is the only surviving installment. Furthermore, and as far as I know, there were no 'divers' who went down to work on the wreck, indicating this movie was intended as a kind of fictitious epilogue to the incident. His other two shorts, both also reconstructions, were "The Blowing Up of the Maine in Havana Harbor" and "A View of the Wreck of the Maine" (although the latter may also have been an alternate version of this short). It can also be noted that made right before this trilogy Méliès also released "Collision and Shipwreck at Sea" which was another possible reconstruction of incidents from the same war (according to the film historian John Frazer). As it is also lost now, however, there is no true evidence.
Because these newsreels were indeed reconstructions, it's interesting to think if Méliès was trying to fool audiences into thinking it the real thing. This was obviously not true of another later reconstruction ("The Coronation of Edward VII" of 1902) since the poster for that film blatantly stated it was a recreation. "Divers at Work on the Wreck of the Maine", for the time, is actually amazingly convincing. Not only does the director here paint a pretty convincing set of the sunken ship and uses some interesting diving suit costumes, he also uses the concept of shooting the film through a fish tank to add to the realism of the movie. This an innovation and looks much better than other reconstructions of the time, and as always proves Méliès's commitment to realism. Little actually happens in it otherwise (although it does use a mannequin to simulate a corpse) but it uses these ideas to create a convincing enough effect.
On its own, this one-minute work isn't much to talk about, except for that it uses the limited technology of then to create a realistic look to the setting. In the end, probably only something of interesting to fans of the director: partly because of lack of camera tricks, partly because Méliès isn't playing a role onscreen (as far as we know), and partly because there's little action to fill the run-time that will entertain people today.
Because these newsreels were indeed reconstructions, it's interesting to think if Méliès was trying to fool audiences into thinking it the real thing. This was obviously not true of another later reconstruction ("The Coronation of Edward VII" of 1902) since the poster for that film blatantly stated it was a recreation. "Divers at Work on the Wreck of the Maine", for the time, is actually amazingly convincing. Not only does the director here paint a pretty convincing set of the sunken ship and uses some interesting diving suit costumes, he also uses the concept of shooting the film through a fish tank to add to the realism of the movie. This an innovation and looks much better than other reconstructions of the time, and as always proves Méliès's commitment to realism. Little actually happens in it otherwise (although it does use a mannequin to simulate a corpse) but it uses these ideas to create a convincing enough effect.
On its own, this one-minute work isn't much to talk about, except for that it uses the limited technology of then to create a realistic look to the setting. In the end, probably only something of interesting to fans of the director: partly because of lack of camera tricks, partly because Méliès isn't playing a role onscreen (as far as we know), and partly because there's little action to fill the run-time that will entertain people today.