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Can we discuss the film Titanic?

156 replies

KindergartenKop · 22/10/2018 20:01

I've just found it on an obscure movie channel. Do you like it? As a teenager I loved it but recently it occurred to me that it's a bit weird to set an entirely fictional and unlikely romance against the backdrop of a real and horrific accident. You'd not find anyone making a 9/11 romance, so why is it ok to do this? Maybe this should be in aibu?!

OP posts:
IWantChocolates · 23/10/2018 15:42

I quite like the film as a chance to see what the boat was like, with all the attention to detail, and how life was different for the different classes of passenger.

The romance is a bit crap though. I hate the handprint on the carriage window, I hate the spitting bit and I hate the bit when Rose goes down to the party and does that stupid balancing thing on her toes which, I'm pretty sure, is physically impossible to do. There's just no need for it.

BollocksToBrexit · 23/10/2018 16:09

Where was/is the Titanic exhibition? Sounds interesting.

It was a touring one. They set up in an exhibition centre for a few months and then move on. Apparently they go all over Europe. We saw it in Sweden as it was on in the city we were visiting.

BollocksToBrexit · 23/10/2018 16:13

This is the one we went to. It looks like they're currently in Australia.

www.titanictheexhibition.com.au/about/

treaclesoda · 23/10/2018 16:16

I did love the costumes though...

PivotPivotPIVOTTT · 23/10/2018 16:24

I was searching Sky for a 9/11 documentary this morning and came across a movie called 9/11. I have just went into it again and the description reads "Divorcing couple Charlie Sheen and Gina Gershon are among the five people stranded in a broken lift just after the first plane hits the World Trade Center. Tense Drama". So there has been a drama movie based on 9/11 rather than the usual factual movies such as United 93 etc.

On another note I saw a news story this morning of a Titanic replica being built expected to launch in 2022. Apparently it launches from Dubai to Southampton then on to New York. First I've heard of this is it common knowledge?

itsbritneybiatches · 23/10/2018 16:38

It's on sky on Sunday I am going to record
It and watch it again.

Blobby10 · 23/10/2018 16:42

Theres a very good exhibition in Halifax, Nova Scotia which was where the Carpathia (hope thats spelt right!) docked to offload the coffins before proceeding to NY.

It was very moving and the shocking statistics were mind-blowing.

I like the film - Rose becoming a strong independent woman on the back of a tragedy. She reinvented herself otherwise her mum would have had her married off to the odious Billy Zane character before they left the boat!

MissLingoss · 23/10/2018 17:05

Wasn't the Cameron film criticised by the families of some of the ship's officers for the way they were portrayed?

I remember the French and Saunders version of Titanic. See that, you'll never be able to watch the film again.

MrsBartlettforthewin · 23/10/2018 17:21

It was First Officer William McMaster Murdoch's family. Lots of eye witness accounts show him to have been a hero but Cameron had him taking a bribe shooting one of the third class passengers then committing suicide (I think unless I've stuck a few people together in my head)

Cameron apologised in the early 2000 but the family had complained to him even before the film was released so that was a bit sucky on his part.

ShatnersWig · 23/10/2018 17:21

@Blobby The Carpathia picked up survivors. Most of the bodies that were retrieved were found by the Mackay-Bennett.

@Miss The family of Officer Murdoch did complain about the scene where he shoots himself. Cameron gave money to a fund, I think, towards a new village hall or some such where he had been born. The evidence for an officer shooting himself is fairly slight but enough for it to be a possibility. However there are many witness reports of Murdoch pretty much until the very end whereas his superior, Wilde, seems to have been conspicuous by his absence. If an officer shot himself, he is a more reasonable candidate that Murdoch.

MissLingoss · 23/10/2018 17:55

Yes, that's what I vaguely remembered, but I had the wrong officer. I was thinking of Charles Lightoller, who Kenneth More's character in A Night To Remember was based on. But I don't think Cameron was too kind to him, either.

Lightoller took his motor yacht to Dunkirk in 1940. A fictionalized version of him appears in that film, too. Don't know how often it happens that someone who isn't a major public figure participates in two completely separate events that get made into blockbuster films!

treaclesoda · 23/10/2018 18:00

I think Cameron's historical detail was great when it came to the appearance of the ship and all the inanimate objects.

He went seriously off the mark with the portrayal of some of the people though.

skyesayshi · 23/10/2018 18:09

@Nishky Rose is walking along the deck with Jack and they talk about how she will do things "like a man"

Rose:
Teach me to ride like a man.

Jack:
And chew tobacco like a man.

Rose:
And spit like a man!

Jack:
What, they didn't teach you that in finishing school?

and then this gross scene where he is showing her her to gob over the side and her mother comes along and is disgusted.

Ginger1982 · 23/10/2018 18:20

And does she not ultimately spit in Cal's face?

CarryOnScreamingValenta · 23/10/2018 18:27

The producer said it was for the viewer to decide whether Rose died at the end of the film or was just dreaming.

I think of it as her death - as a pp said, she meets all the people who went down with the Titanic.

I like the (brief) portrayal of Harold Lowe towards the end, who seems to have been a very interesting man in real life. I love the bit in the film where he hears Rose's whistle and delightedly orders his boat to 'Come about!'.

ForalltheSaints · 23/10/2018 18:35

dustarr73 I wish we could forget the awful song. Celine Dion deserves to be remembered for a lot better than that.

dingdongdigeridoo · 23/10/2018 18:48

It must suck for all those people who died on the boat that heaven is the Titanic. Also, according to this movie’s version of the afterlife, if you die as a maid you have to be one in eternity.

LetsGoFlyAKiteee · 23/10/2018 18:50

@MissLingoss yes!!!! That always comes to mind now. The mum dressed up as Queen Elizabeth lol

HarrietKettleWasHere · 23/10/2018 18:52

Yeah, it’s gross, loosening the proverbial corset strings a bit does not have to mean hocking in people’s faces Confused

HarrietKettleWasHere · 23/10/2018 18:53

I did love the Molly character, the mum’s American friend. I imagine she was like that in real life.

Hepzibar · 23/10/2018 19:05

The Unsinkable Molly Brown?

Kiss of death more like.

Nishky · 23/10/2018 19:57

Ah. Thanks for the explanation - will not bother to watch the rest of the film then

scaredofthecity · 23/10/2018 20:09

Where was/is the Titanic exhibition? Sounds interesting

I went to an excellent one in Cherbourg, Normandy last month. Randomly there was also an aquarium and an old nuclear submarine.

I wouldn't say it was worth a special trip, but definitely worth a visit if your in the area. Everything is in English and French, and I found it atmospheric and informative.

Honeyroar · 23/10/2018 20:19

I googled the exhibition earlier. There is the one in Berlin and a small lighthouse memorial one in New York, but there seem to be other temporary ones in other cities from time to time.

OdeYellerBelly · 23/10/2018 20:32

I worked on it. I made sandwiches for the cast and crew on a Russian freighter we'd hired to film the modern day bits.