Titanic 1997. Aibu to not realise how young Ruth was and that I don’t think Cal was that bad?

[phatt]

So it’s been a few years since I watched Titanic and always assumed that Ruth was in her 60s but she’s actually late 30s/early 40s. So she could have also got re-married (less likely but still a possibility.)

I know I’ll get flamed for this but I don’t think Cal was an outright villain. He did attempt to connect with Rose and love her but for his fiancé to be socialising with people in third class (when social standing was huge) and to blatantly cheat on him very openly then you can see why he’d be pissed off.

Also I’m judging him by Edwardian standards and not modern day. Obviously he did acts that made him a “bad” person as well.

Not just you!

17 year old me would have gone for the impossible romance.

50 year old me (current age) would have seen all the intrinisic benefits of a union with Cal and would have made the best of it and been faithful. Plus sex with Billy Zane would be okay in my book.

I believe Roses character was 16/17 and Cal was early 30’s.. bit grosse.. add to that the fact she was being pretty much sold to him, vile really.
still happens in other cultures

I didn’t realise there was such an age difference between Rose and Cal they looked the same age. I thought Jack looked much younger than her, I know Leo is actually a year older than Kate but he had such a baby face back then and definitely looked the age he was playing while she looked much more mature.

I always thought I'd be happier being poor with Jack than being hit by Cal, think he slapped her in one scene?

Even though he would have spent your life shutting you down, controlling you to the point of choosing your food for you, believing poorer people to be lesser humans and with a latent violent streak that came out if you displeased him?

Yes, after he discovered the nude drawing.

I thought Zane did a great job of showing that Cal wasn't heartbroken or hurt, just angry. His feelings weren't because he loved Rose and felt betrayed, they were just pure rage that his property had disobeyed him and been stolen by a lesser human.

The SS Californian: The Ship That Watched Titanic Sink - Owlcation

has links to testimonies etc for anyone who wanted further reading

I'm team Rose all the way. I would have gone for Jack and probably had a crap life and regretted it a bit. But i could not have been controlled like that, she was a pawn like most upper class women at the time. I was about 19/20 when it came out and she resonated with me. I had just moved away from my controlling parents and was living in near poverty but so happy and proud of myself (I acknowledge student 'poverty' in the late 90s when your parents can bail you out at any time is not the same as actual 1912 poverty when you have been disowned!!) I did think it was a bit slutty shagging Jack so quick but each to their own.

@SequinsandStilettos that’s such an interesting read thank you. I can’t believe the wireless operator on the Californian, when warning Titanic of the icebergs, was told to shut up. Not that it condones them basically ignoring Titanic’s clear distress a few hours later but you wonder whether they were angry about their warnings being ignored and clearly didn’t get the urgency of the situation. It’s just so sad that they could have helped.

Back to the movie, I do think if Titanic hadn’t sunk it would have been so unbearably awkward for Rose and Jack stuck on that ship with all those people they pissed off until it docked in New York. They could have been more discrete about their affair!

I enjoyed the titanic museum recently in Belfast, well with a visit.
I’d not realised about rich passengers and the wireless - so the operators were overrun with passengers wanting to send frivolous ‘texts’ to friends and family, prioritising those as presumably they paid well and wanted to keep rich passengers happy and essential messages like ice getting missed.
Theres a part at end in museum about the enquiry afterwards and safety changes implemented as a result.

Seconded, thanks @SequinsandStilettos

@TeamSleep it's not quite as simple as that with the wireless. The Californian operator was told to shit up as he'd just started talking unannounced, which wasn't what you were supposed to do. You were supposed to check it was OK to speak rather than just messaging. He was also so close the volume would have been deafening.

Also, in terms of the shutting down, the Titanic had two wireless operators working 12-hour shifts - 24-hour coverage, in other words. Californian haf only one, who obviously needed to sleep.

@Dixiechickonhols museum is great isn't it. Going back in October. Really well done I thought.

Think it's easy for us to forget wireless was in its infancy and few people were aware of its potential and potential limitations. And there was a general complacency on the line too, that no ship would or could come to real harm, so why worry.

How could they have been more discreet? She was being followed at every turn.

I always assumed Rose had money after the sinking because she pawned the diamond, so she was living off of Cal's money anyway. I also doubt that Rose would have wanted to live a 'real' live with Jack. Even in reduced circumstances, she would have been able to live far beyond what he could offer.

I was thinking not posing naked for a portrait and then putting it in the safe for Cal to find would have been more discreet.

Not raising up onto their big toes from flat like that without pointe shoes.

How could we assume that when she is shown at the end of the movie to have kept the diamond the whole time? She throws it overboard at the end.

Sorry that reply was for @PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog 😊

I did say pawn, not sell @Homer28

@PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog You think she pawned a very rare, very valuable necklace worth millions with no papers or anything which also had an insurance claim out on it, lived off of (Cals) the proceeds and then bought it back later with..saved wages?

@Homer28 any reason you're taking it so seriously? The value would not have necessarily been known at a general pawn shop in a small city at that time. She could well have pawned it for a few thousand dollars and got it out. Anyway as it is fiction and my own theory, it doesn't really matter does it?

I don’t think her mum was mentioned again.

I think you’re missing the point that she had the necklace at the end. So how could she have sold it and lived off Cals money?

I also just don’t think her character would want to live off his money.

@PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog is this whole thread not to debate the film/theories? There were pages of people debating whether or not rose and cal were sleeping together based on certain scenes/quotes etc. I don’t think anyone who said “no they were sleeping together <posted who said they weren’t> because XYZ was accused of taking it too seriously.
you posted your own personal theory and I pointed out a few things that I think debunk it. I wouldn’t consider her to be living off Cals money if she loaned a few thousand dollars that she repaid etc.