Titanic: A Film Review

“It was the ship of dreams.”- Rose

The Titanic was considered one of the wonders of the world, and the people of the Edwardian age thought it was a palace on water.

Director James Cameron in 1997 invented a new way to tell this tragic story of how 2,200 passengers on the White Star Line ship suffered during its sinking.

Titanic was at the time one of the largest ocean liners in the world. It could travel at 24 knots, 883 feet long, 92 feet wide and 52,310 long tons. She was made of iron and steel; there were two million rivets intricately drilled into her hull. At the time this was a marvel considering how thick her hull was and many thought she was virtually unsinkable.

Titanic was on her maiden voyage in April 1912, from the United Kingdom to America when it struck an iceberg and in 2 hours sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It was estimated that 1,500 souls died because of several factors: there were boastful remarks that the Titanic wasn’t unsinkable, the majority of the Third class were kept below, slow evacution and response. One of the major factors was that there weren’t enough lifeboats for all. She already had “enough” lifeboats and more than maritime law required; she had 20 and that only was enough to save half of its passengers.

Cameron delved deeply into the history of not only the ship, but also of the people who in history were deemed to be either heroic, cowardly, or those who lost their lives. To tell the story of Titanic without boring his audiences, Cameron had the rich history of Titanic revolve around a doomed love story between Rose Dewitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio). Telling the story is the older Rose (Gloria Stuart) of how she fell in love and was freed from her life that seemed to close in on her. Rose also explains what she experienced when the Titanic was sinking. Rose told her story to ocean explorer and treasure hunter Brock Lovett (the late Bill Paxton) and his team. Lovett had hoped to find the Heart of the Ocean that went missing when the Titanic sank. What he got was a story that was more than he ever could bargain for.

Rose is from First Class, a society which is in itself a world of its own. She must face the prospect of marrying Cal Hockley (Billy Zane),  a rich bachelor who wanted to show her off as his trophy prize. Women at the time were deemed just a figure to look at if you were in First Class society and had nothing really to contribute. They weren’t considered smart, despite the education they received. They had several goals and to do it well, do as they were told and to even to marry someone they had no regard for. Rose felt trapped and unwanted. One of the most powerful lines her mother Ruth (Frances Fisher) says is “Of course it is unfair. We’re women. Our choices are never easy.” It was their lot in life to expect to marry well and especially Rose because Ruth was now a widow and they had to continue the facade they were still rich. It was up to Rose to save them both to keep afloat in society.

It is only until she meets Jack, a Third Class passenger, that she learns she needs to be set free, take her own life into her own hands and do things for herself. During the short voyage, Jack and Rose fall in love and also interact with different people on the ship who portrayed the real life people of the Titanic.  They encounter Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber), designer of the ship, J. Bruce Ismay owner of White Star Line (Jonathan Hyde), Captain Edward John Smith (the late Bernard Hill) and the famous “Unsinkable” Molly Brown portrayed fantastically by Kathy Bates.

On April 14, 1912, the night the Titanic struck the iceberg, no one panicked yet because passengers weren’t told to board any lifeboats until it was time to where it started to sink. The fact that people were in awe that the ship was sinking or they refused to believe, helped slow survival time.

Director James Cameron, had thoroughly researched the events that happened while the ship was sinking: such as the band playing music to keep people calm, a priest giving last rites to worshipers as they hung dearly to life, or the baker who drank out of a flask to get his body ready for the freezing hypothermic temperatures of the Atlantic Ocean. Cameron intricately placed Rose and Jack or other fictional characters to interact with those who were part of the actual sinking. It still gave the audience a sense of suspense, hope and loss.

People are drawn to the fact of wanting Jack and Rose to survive together, but the reality is, many people lost lives that day. Jack gave Rose hope to live on and live a better life and she did. This movie isn’t just a love story, it is about how people changed their lives in those short span of time on the ship, even after the tragic event. Hats off to Cameron for dealing with an enormous task of creating a story to keep the audience attracted to but to also weave history to teach us a life lesson.

The late James Horner, the composer for this movie, created beautiful and at times haunting music to bring to life Titanic’s splendor, glory, and ultimate demise. The song, “My Heart Will Go On” sung by Celine Dion, basically retold the love story of Jack and Rose, but to also have people hope that if they lose someone, they will try to pick up the pieces and remember where they came from.

The real Titanic still draws people’s attention to this day because we as humans at that time had wanted technology to be the forerunners to prove that we can do anything. However, when that backfired, history was changed forever.  People realized that they needed more lifeboats,  First, Second and Third class society was coming to a close, considering how many Third Class passengers died. Majority of those poor souls had to be left in the bowels of the ship to wait for their turn to go up to the decks. Cameron proved this theory by diving deep into the ship with an ROV and saw the gates of the Third Class passageways closed. There is also information that the CQD distress call or SOS was already established before sinking. The Marconi Operator used both the old and new distress calls as the ship began to sink.

Cameron also did what no one could do before; he built the largest movie set ever made to tell the story. He went down to film the ship itself and tied his footage into the movie to give authenticity of the film for audiences. He took people to Titanic itself visually and that is something that was never done before. He also was one of the pioneers of CGI characters used in a movie of this grand scale. Because of his skill at cinematography, his passion for deep exploration, and his ability to tell a story, this movie rightfully won 11 Academy Awards in 1998. Only two other movies have won 11 awards; Ben-Hur starring Charleston Heston preceding Titanic in 1959 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003.

Cameron set a standard of movie telling with technology, that he even surpassed it 12 years later with Avatar. Making this movie brought people’s attention once again to this wonderful ship, but to also realize that we as humans have to treat one another better and also to remember that we can’t and shouldn’t really compete against mother nature.

There are various sources about Titanic, of course Dr. Robert Ballard who found her in 1985 is one of the most renowned deep ocean explorers. He wanted to find her for years, but he had to fulfill his contract in finding a submarine for the US Navy. The technology he used to find the sub, helped find Titanic in all her glory. His first glimpse of this once immaculate ship were the boilers. As he and other explorers discovered, she really was bigger than life. The recent cruise ships we have built today are bigger than Titanic, but nothing will ever compare to her short lived glory days.

Every so often James Cameron or Robert Ballard will go back down to view her to research the amount of decay. National Geographic Channel, released  “Titanic: 25 years Later with James Cameron.” This 42 minute documentary allows Titanic fans to dive back to the ship as Cameron explores more myths and mysteries. He even decided to put to the test if Jack could have survived being on the door with Rose. This has been one of the many talked about theories and memes debated for 25 years.

Between Ballard’s and Cameron’s returns to the Titanic, they and other explorers have found evidence she is on her way of destabalizing. This is due to several factors: so many tourist dives, ocean explorers and salvagae companies have put their weight of their vesssels on her, or stripped her of prized artifacts. The pressure from the sheer ocean depth, and rusticles are also speeding up the process. These rusticles drip down like icicles and are made of bacteria that are eating the ship away.

112 years after the Titanic sank, a new form of rust eating bacteria was discovered and named Halomonas titanicae, which was discovered by Henrietta Mann. She believed in 2010 that the ship would completely collapse by 2030. That’s now in six years!

Most recently, R.M.S. Titanic Inc, who has salvaging rights to the ship, discovered that a large 14 ft section of the railing from the iconic bow is now on the bottom of the ocean floor. They have dedicated themselves to continue to watch the decay, recover what they can and digitally record what is left of her for everyone to enjoy. This company even hosts exhibitions, which i do recommend checking out. I have been to both Florida and Ohio expeditions. The Florida exhibition actually has a piece of the hull that fell to the ocean floor. You will see hundreds of artifacts, see a detailed small replica of the ship and an immaculate replication of the grand staircase that you can have your photo taken at. There are currently six exhibitions in the world, but you can also check out their virtual tour.

If you want to check out the original and largest Titanic Society, I recommend you check out the Titanic Historical Society Inc. There you will find heaps of information about this once luxurious ocean liner.  If you want to dive into actual testimonies, you may want to read the official Titanic Inquiry you can here. It contains both the American and British inquiries and their final reports.

There is even a Broadway Musical written and directed by Maury Yeston based on Peter Stone’s book. This debuted in 1997 and is totally separate from James Cameron’s cinematic masterpiece. Yeston’s work along with the fantastic talented cast and crew scooped up their own Tony Awards. They won four including Best Musical. Talk about two very diverse adaptations both having the responsibility to get the story to make an impact and draw audiences in.

If you want to check out some books on the Titanic, Bookshop.org has a plethora of books.  I have found several that I will dive into once I can and will blog about them. You will find these listed and others I have saved onto my Bookshop.org link, among other various genres you can purchase.  One can never not learn enough about this majestic ship. Even as a ten year old, I was fascinated with not only this ship but the Edwardian Era (hence the amount of research given on this blog entry). You can purchase the cookbook and select meals that may have been served on the Titanic. It’s called Titanic: The Official Cookbook: 40 Timeless Recipes for Every Occasion (Titanic Film Cookbook, Titanic Film Entertaining) by Veronica Hinke. This book also highlights the opulence that James Cameron showed in his epic film.

There was a famed millionaire named John Jacob Astor IV and he recently remarried as the Titanic was ready to sail. He brought along his much younger and pregnant wife Madeline as they are ready to return home to England after an exotic honeymoon in Egypt. This book by Shana Abe; The Second Mrs. Astor: A Heartbreaking Historical Novel of the Titanic, dives into their life and her life after the ship sank.

Continuing into the upper class society, Gareth Russell wrote The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era. This book brings the life of First Class Passengers with unpublished sources, deck plans and other interesting tidbits that Titanic enthusiasts can read about.

While perusing through Bookshop for Titanic books, I found this interesting book called Black Man on the Titanic: The Story of Joseph Laroche by Serge Bile. I never heard of this man before. I had only a few years ago discovered people from Western New York where I live who were on the Titanic. Joseph was a Haitian engineer and the only Black person on the ship. There were other races/cultures who either worked on the ship or were its passengers. The majority of the Third Class Steerage were made of a multitude of cultures.

A Night to Remember: The Classic Account of the Final Hours of the Titanic by Walter Lord recounts a vivid account of the sinking of the ship. This book was published in 1955 and Walter Lord interviewed 63 survivors of the Titanic sinking. It has remained one of the most popular books in Titanic history and next year it will celebrate its 70th anniversary of its publication.

I have to include Into the Deep: A Memoir from the Man Who Found Titanic that is written by Dr. Robert Ballard. In this memoir,  he talks about finding the Titanic and other deep-ocean explorations. He also draws readers in and talks about other emotional moments in his professional and personal life.

 I can’t forget James Cameron’s book. He was responsible for bringing Titanic back into the forefront in 1997 and still 25 years later he keeps pushing the envelope. This film was the highest grossing film, until Cameron broke that record with his own film Avatar. His book is called Exploring the Deep: The Titanic Expeditions, as he takes us on a journey with in depth photos, notes and deck plans of the wreck. He has dived more than 30 times to the wreck and has explored deep into the ocean.

What Titanic has accomplished in her heyday and aftermath is something that will forever remain in history. Her historical and monumental feat of shipbuilding, her opulence, her tragic sinking and exploration is one for the books. We are still learning every year something new as she silently sinks into the void of deteriorating decay. UNESCO states by 2050 she may be totally gone but her memory will forever resonate with pride, anguish and forever curiosity.

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