Reviewing Movies

Just finished watching James Cameron’s Titanic. The ship as it appears in the movie has a rather grotesque, brutish, utilitarian look about it in the long-range exterior shots. It was constructed to slice through the water as efficiently as possible; not for the beauty and grace of its lines as sailboat would have been crafted. Above the waterline it was built to hold as much cargo, human or otherwise, as possible.

Having seen the Titanic Exhibit at the Johnson Geologic Museum in Saint John’s, NFLD I am aware that the lifeboat capacity of the ship exceeding legal requirements in 1912; by the math

60X20=1200-2200=-1000.

The death toll was far higher due to the under-loading of many of those boats. God forbid First-Class passengers be incommoded. Steerage passengers were kept locked below decks even as their companionways flooded for good reason. They weren’t expected to survive.

Among other details. Morse Code transmission was still in its infancy, indeed the universal distress call was CQD, S.O.S. still being an experimental signal. Despite repeated signals warning of icebergs in the waters ahead the Captain at the owner’s urging steamed full-speed ahead into ice infested waters. Unaided by binoculars the men in the crowsnest searched for bergs on a glassy sea.  The ice sighted dead ahead another ship’s failing became apparent—the rudder was too small to turn the ship. It has been theorized that had the ship struck the iceberg head-on it would have devastated the bow section of the boat and created a mighty concussion throughout but the boat would probably have survived. Striking a glancing blow along its side flooded the forward compartments and once more by design the watertight bulkheads were not extended all the way to the top decks so as not to incommode the First-Class passengers hence the cascading foundering of the ship.

Having set in motion the launching of the lifeboats it became apparent that neither the crew nor the passengers had undergone any lifeboat drills or training. In fact Titanic put to sea never having undergone any sea trials which might have made evident its rudder’s deficiencies. The icy winter waters off Newfoundland and hypothermia did the rest.

To add a human dimension to the recreation of a historical event the movie makers insert a hypothetical love-story into the mix. A spoiled society lass is about to be married off to money by her bankrupt mother and runs into an artistic adventurer in the person of Jack Hawkins. We are shown his gravestone. In the end it is Rose’s self-indulgence that kills Jack Hawkins. Had she listened to Jack and her fiancé Jack would probably have survived the sinking, as it was he was unable to keep both Rose and himself afloat and the cold North Atlantic claimed him.