 To find out more details about my new paperback book on the Titanic and the Californian,
including ordering details, please look here. |
| To find out more details about my new paperback book on the Titanic and the Californian,
including ordering details, please look here. |
Love it or loathe it, you can't ignore it. Until Avatar, James Cameron's 1997 flick "Titanic" was the highest grossing film ever. Like Steven Spielberg before him, Cameron's movies have become the blockbusters of the age, films that you just have to see.
But is the film a true depiction of reality? Long after the sentimental fawning over the film had thankfully faded, historians poured over the film, devouring any mistakes. They were not disappointed. For many, this author included, the biggest "mistake" was the decision to focus on fictional characters rather than any of the other 2200 people on board, many of whom had lives just as interesting as Jack'n'Rose. James Cameron assured us that, where a scene did not feature these two lovers, and just on the ship, the film was "accurate" but the London Evening Standard's review, written by (I recall) a relative of ship designer Thomas Andrews, tells us that there is a substantial error in just about every scene. Which is right? With the film due to be re-released in 2012 in 3-D, a re-assessment is prudent...
(NB: This page only covers errors pertaining to the real Titanic, and not to whether the steam engine seen by the Southampton dockside was accurate, or how Rose's finger nails seem to grow between scenes etc.)
To obtain bigger versions of the screengrabs (often annotated), or to follow links, click on the images.
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The ROV "Duncan" is deployed down the starboard side of the wreck, but ends up going into the open gangway door on D deck on the port side |
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Mr.Bodine assures us that the watertight bulkheads only go up to E deck. While this is true for the compartments in the amidships (middle) of the ship, other bulkheads went higher. |
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The set built was not built full size, which explains the curious layout of the A deck windows and why the B deck cut-away ends prematurely. The modelmakers (right) got it correct though.
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No technically a goof, but I had to comment on this. Passports weren't is use in 1912, and tickets were not transferrable. There is no way, therefore, for a person to verify his identity. However, Fabriozi's appearance would betray the fact that he wasn't American; and, in fact, this scene was trimmed, and the omitted section has 6th Officer Moody eyeing the two boys suspiciously when he finds out their names are Scandinavian (the Gundersen brothers). He should, or could have turned them away, like the Slade brothers (late arriving stokers) were about this time. In the dining saloon, Ismay is told by Jack that he won the tickets thanks to a lucky hand at poker. This should have caused Ismay's eyebrows to raise. |
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While the film correctly shows the propellors only starting up when the ship had been pulled away from the dock by a distance, the centre propellor would not have started up so soon. The turbine that powered it relied on exhaust steam from the reciprocating engines that powered the two outer screws, and there wasn't sufficient steam built up yet. |
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On the way to the berths, Jack and Fabrizio pass a woman and her children. What were they doing there? Single men were stationed at the bow, women and families at the stern. We must presume that she was lost, despite the prominent signs and the assistance afforded by the stewards. As the Titanic goes through her death throes, the Irish lady takes her two children back to her cabin, where she relates the tale of Tir Na Nog. This cabin must have been in the stern, for the bow was completely underwater by this time. It doesn't matter. Jack and Fabrizio pass various signs, one of which directs passengers to "G deck" berths, rooms 40-58; our two heroes are looking for G-60. None of these cabins existed on the real Titanic. Incidentally, the actress playing the Irish woman is Jenette Goldstein, who played private Vasquez in another James Cameron film, "Aliens" and also John Connor's adopted mother in "Terminator 2" |
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Cal's sitting room on the Titanic bears little relation to the one on the real Titanic and is certainly much larger. Incidentally, Cal's party occupies rooms B52-54-56, the ones occupied by J. Bruce Ismay in real life. Incidentally, although the underwater interior shots of the wreck are (inaccurate) recreations, the firebox that is shown in the movie, with the white crab scuttling across it, is from the sitting room of B51, on the other side of the ship.
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This is a beautiful picture, but it contains a few things that are inaccurate. Firstly, the Titanic arrived at Cherbourg at dusk; indeed a few pictures exist showing that the sky was still light; but then again, we do not know how long it took to transfer the passengers and mail to and from the ship. It may have been twilight. Secondly, only the ship's "anchor lights" would be lit, and certainly not the one on the foremast which can (just) be seen; thirdly, "Molly" Brown described the sea as being so choppy that it made most of the passengers to be ill. Fourthly, given that the Titanic was only 2/3rds occupied, would every single light be on in the ship? |
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"We all called her Molly." Except...no-one did. The nick-name "Molly" wasn't attached to Mrs.Brown until the stage play and film decades later, and was chosen because "Molly" sounded better than "Maggie" which would have been more accurate. |
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This scene was supposed to be just a few hours after the photo was taken, and yet Murdoch's jacket show two stripes. Also, Murdoch's hours of duty were from 10am till 2pm. By the time the Titanic had left the coast of Ireland, he would have been off-duty, and probably asleep in his cabin, preparing his evening watch at 10pm. |
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In the first picture, a propeller shaft can be seen behind Engineer Bell. And then, a reverse shot shows the engines. Bell was therefore aft of the engines, and from a section of the ship's general arrangement plans, to be this far back from the engines, he would have to be in the next watertight compartment back. He wouldn't have seen a thing! By the way, contrary to what one ill-informed writer on imdb says, the "starting platform" containing the bridge order telegraphs and controls for the engines, was actually positioned at the bottom of the engine, between the legs of the cylinder housing susperstructure.
Plan of the engine room: the red rectangles indicate
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I am grateful to Titanic authority Scott Andrews for this: "The upper door was a long counter-weighted "mail slot" through which the furnace was fired, and through which the fires were "worked" with slice bars, rakes and other implements; this slotted firing door was mounted on a larger vertically hinged swinging door which could be opened for thorough cleaning when the boiler was shut down. (The working of the fires was one of those things that Cameron did not portray correctly in his movie, as he showed the entire upper half of the furnace front opened for stoking; this was both dangerous due to possible "blow-back" of superheated combustion gas into the firing aisle, and was also wasteful of the heat being produced -- hence the small, quick-closing flaps.)" |
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The real Titanic had two hawsers that attached to the fire mast abreast of the bell; when Jack and Fabriozi are on the bow we see that the film's set lacks these two wires. They are very hard to make out on the model "beauty pass" but they seem to be absent there, too. This is also clear when we see the close-ups of Fleet and Lee in the crow's nest before the collision. The weather in this scene is wrong too; April 11th was overcast with partly cloudy skies. The Titanic left Queenstown at 1.30pm, and would have arrived at the extreme south-west tip of Ireland some 3 hours later, if travelling at 20 knots. In the film, we can see the Titanic has left Ireland well behind, so the time is now some time after 5.00pm, or even later. Sunset was at 7.30pm, so the scene should have been set at dusk. Lawrence Beesley confirms this. And why wait till Ireland was cleared to build the ship up to full speed? |
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During the flyover scene, the ship has been flipped left-to-right. The crew's galley on the forecastle should be on the port side, and the gymnasium should be to starboard. The ship's logline should be seen trailing from the poop; a photograph exists taken at Queenstown showing the log device on the starboard side of the aft bridge. |
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Only one photograph of the Titanic's palm court exists, and is from the starboard side (the one in this scene is on the port side); however, we can say that (a) there were only square tables, not oval, circular or rectangular ones; (b) the tops of the tables were brown in colour; (c) the furniture was coloured white and (d) their should have been vines trailing up the trelliswork. Also, the palm court only served light refreshments and not main meals...but then how else could Jack get his first glimpse of Rose if Cal's party had taken their meal below decks? |
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When Rose runs aft to attempt suicide, she is seen running on the 1st class promenade on A deck. Then, she is seen at the aft end of the second class promenade on B deck. There is no easy route between these two decks at this point. |
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The extreme stern of the Titanic is far too flat. And the font used for her name is wrong, particularly the letter "C" as one can see from this picture of the tender used to service the Titanic, the Nomadic. |
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Alerted by Rose's screams, the Quartermaster and comrades rush to the stern, where they see Jack and Rose and send for the Master-At-Arms...except that no QM would ever leave his post (the poop and aft bridge) for such a long period of time. To do so would be a serious dereliction of duty. Incidentally, scenes shot on the poop omit the log line, a device trailed out behind the ship which, when paid out, enables a determination of the distance traversed. |
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Jack joins the wealthy in the 1st class dining saloon. Except that Ismay tended to sit at a small, nondescript table in an alcove on the port side of the restaurant. |
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Leading Fireman Fred Barrett testified in London, that, on April 10th and 11th, 9 boilers were "out" (that is unlit, and unconnected to the propulsion system). On April 12th and 13th, 8 boilers were "out." This doesn't jibe with the "last four boilers" conversation in the movie. In the illustrated Titanic script book, Cameron was reported to have been "concerned" about showing events to which Rose could not have been a party. Its a shame that Cameron wasn't more concerned with getting the details of the scene correct. It seems to be "common knowledge" that Smith was going to retire after the Titanic's crossing. Actually, there is still some debate as to whether this is true or not. Incidentally, although Captain Smith's age on the crew register is 59, he was actually 62. The mandatory age of retirement in the White Star Line was 60. However, the retirement issue is not settled; a little while before the maiden voyage, Captain Smith visited the father of stewardess Sarah Stap, himself a master mariner and told him that this would be his last crossing, and he would be returning as a passenger. But was the "retirement" story known only to Smith and/or his employers? |
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That devious pesky Limey Lovejoy spies our hero and heroine in the 1st class area on D deck, underneath the foreward well deck. Except that on the real Titanic, the stairs leading down from C deck were positioned the other way round; you would come down facing away from the room, and you'd have to turn around to see the room. The room also seems far too small as well. |
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Captain Smith is shown leading the traditional sunday service in the 1st class dining room. The singing of the hymn "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" with the line "For Those in Peril on the Sea" was too good an opportunity to pass up. Except it didn't happen. One first class passenger bemoaned that it had been left out. It was sung in the 2nd class, as remembered by Lawrence Bessley and Edith Brown. Jack is seen strolling round the ship with ease. In truth, this would not have happened. There were very strict rules on segregation as this might prevent any communicable diseases from spreading. The concept of the whole film is a farce. |
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Incidentally, the shadows in this scene are all wrong. They fall from starboard to port, but the Noordam's ice warning was received at 11.40am. With the sun to the south, the shadows should fall the other way. The whole film cannot seem to make up its mind where the sun is. The Titanic was heading mostly west or south-west, but many times the sun's position is wrong. This is because the large Titanic set was built facing north to allow the wind patterns to carry the false smoke from the funnels south. And Harold Bride, as seen in this scene, never delivered the Noordam's ice warning to the bridge; the only warning he personally encountered was the Californian's. The morning of April 14th was described as rainy, and it is astonishing that none of the decks show any signs of dampness! |
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Jack manages to get up to first class space by climbing up onto the aft end of A deck from 2nd class space on B deck (this is how Rose would have had to get down these decks before her failed suicide attempt). However, the main mast, as seen in this view, is missing the awning rafter, a horizontal beam of wood that connected the mast with A deck itself. When Jack scrambles up to A deck, he gets Tommy and Fabriozi to help him shin up, as we see in a deleted scene. However, there was a ladder only a few feet away that could have been used. One of the actors seen watching the boy spin his top in this scene is none other than researcher Don Lynch, a writer of Titanic books and a high ranking officer of the Titanic Historical Society, Inc.
The model of the Titanic, used in the flyover scene, does show the awning rafter. It also shows the forward facing bulkhead on the second class boat deck entrance (the upper red rectangle), which was missing from the full sized set (see later). |
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The reasons for too few lifeboats are highly simplified. The Titanic obeyed the letter of the law for ships over 10,000 tons, which hadn't been updated in 18 years, even though ship sizes had increased drastically. The new davits could handle four sets of boats, nested inside one another and were fitted solely in case the regulations were ammended. An excellent discussion can be found in chapter 8 of Walter Lord's "The Night Lives On" entitled "I Was Very Soft The Day I Signed That." |
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The temperature dropped drastically on April 14th, and many people noted that it was very icy. Jack and Rose's breath should be condensing in this scene. The sun is also in the wrong direction. It seems to be off to the right, possibly right rear. At this point, the Titanic was steaming practically westward, and the sun should have been ahead. |
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In their attempt to escape Spicer Lovejoy's pursuit, Jack'n'Rose find refuge in a small room that leads to the boiler rooms. However, such a room did not exist on the real Titanic. The escape ladders led directly up to the "Working Corridor" on the port side of the ship: these have been circled in red on the plan of E deck, to the right. |
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An oft quoted goof, it is true that there was no way for crew to enter the forward cargo holds from the boiler rooms. However, an overlooked goof is that the deck where the car was stored (which would have been crated) was actually one deck above the tank top, where the exits from the boiler room were located! Also, just before Jack'n'Rose find the car, we can see a staircase in the distance. There were no stairs down to the cargo holds, only ladders. |
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A fantastic shot, showing the ship ploughing through the flat calm waters. Except that the Titanic did not have a second mastlight, seen here on the main (aft) mast. |
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In this shot, the Quartermaster at the helm is in the wheelhouse, directly behind the bridge. In reality, the shutters in front of the Quartermaster would be closed and the bridge would not be visible. This would be to prevent the lights in the wheel house from destroying the night vision of the Officers of the Watch. The next shot shows Captain Smith and 2nd Officer Lightoller discussing the weather. However, the end of the scene lacks Smith's parting instruction to his subordinate, that is, if the situation became doubtful he was to be called. |
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The crow's nest is missing a weather cover at its rear (it was probably made of canvas and was removeable); one of the lookouts (George Hogg) who relived this pair made a mention of it as the American Senate Inquiry. Incidentally, neither of the lookouts nor Murdoch seem to be affected by what would be a biting wind chill! ...and.if Leslie Reade's interview with lookout Fred Fleet is any indication, Fleet implored his lookout, Reginald Lee, to desend from the nest after he had seen the berg, but Lee had clambered back in in time for the collision. The lookouts are in the wrong position, too. Fred Fleet, the man who warned the bridge, should be on the portside of the crows nest. |
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There is still much debate to this day whether binoculars would have helped the lookouts to see the iceberg in time. In this scene, we are told that the binoculars intended for the ship's eyes in the crow's nest haven't been seen since Southampton. What we are not told is that the bridge officers had binoculars and they were seen using them. By none other than Fred Fleet, the man who saw the iceberg. We never see Murdoch or Lightoller carrying or using binoculars in the film. |
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In the screengrabs, cabins that we know, or suspect to be occupied are highlighted in red. |
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The fallacy of the ship's proximity to the berg is also compounded in the next screen grab. Murdoch orders hard-a-starboard and then orders the engines full astern. No more than a few seconds have passed, in which time the Titanic was travelling at 22.5 knots, or 38 feet per second. We are not sure how far the Titanic was from the iceberg when the latter was first seen, but estimates place it at about 1500 feet (The Titanic was 882.5 feet long). If James Cameron's version is to be believed, the berg was practically on top of the Ship of Dreams. The distances, and the speed involved would certainly hinder any attempt to turn and stop the ship. The ship looks like she would have collided head-on! |
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The set for the wheelhouse is missing a door to the chart room. It should be located between where 6th Officer Moody enters the wheelhouse and the position of the crow's nest telephone. |
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This indicator panel verifying that the watertight doors were closed, never existed on the real Titanic. Incidentally, the film depicts a comparatively large gap of time between the ship being given the order to manouever round the iceberg and the watertight doors being closed. In reality, the gap would have been just a few seconds. The exact location for the control for the watertight doors is not known, but it was known to be in the bridge, not the wheelhouse. Regarding the telephoned ice warning, there is no evidence of any significant gap between the phone being rung and then being picked up on the bridge. Certainly, 6th Officer Moody would not have nipped off to get a cup of tea. The control for the watertight doors had the following, ""In case of emergency, to close watertight doors on tank top, press bell; push for 10 seconds to give alarm; then move switch to 'on' position and keep it there. Note: Doors cannot, however, be operated mechanically whilst switch is on." In the movie, there is no discernible gap between Murdoch ringing the bell and operating the door control. Also: Murdoch is outside the bridge, on the starboard bridge when he yells "Hard a port." This is different from the story told by Quartermaster Alfred Olliver, who said that he entered the bridge and saw the officer (Murdoch) at the lever to close the doors, and then heard hard-a-port after he had got there. This is not where the film Murdoch is located. If you look in the background, you can see Moody in the doorway to the bridge. Obviously he would see the iceberg passing by! Yet 3rd Officer Pitman testified that Moody told him that he hadn't seen the iceberg, but did point the ice in the foreward well deck. |
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Benjamin Guggenheim's mistress is Madame Aubart, not Aubert, as Rose tells Jack in the dining saloon. Also, according to steward Henry's Etches' account in The New York Times on 20th April, 1912, he went to Guggenheim's and his manservant's (Victor Giglio's) cabin and awakened them. This was probably about midnight. We can't be sure, but is it likely that in 20 minutes, Guggenheim would have finished his promenade and be fast asleep below? The lighting is completely wrong as well; lights on open decks and companionways would be extinguished by 11.00pm, and only red oil lamps hung in certain locations (e.g. the foot of stairways) to aid in navigation round the ship at night. These lamps would be lit until sunrise. |
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Far more ice was deposited on the ship that is depicted in the film. Incidentally, one ill-informed writer at IMDB says that ice would not have been cast on to the real Titanic. Eyewitness testimony contradicts this. The remainder of the scene is bunkum too: in reality, the ship had almost stopped when the Captain rang the order for "Half Speed Ahead." He then goes to the 'corner of the bridge' with Murdoch and 4th Officer Boxhall. Boxhall, on his own volition, goes down below to assess the damage for himself. Quartermaster Olliver is told by the Captain to find the Carpenter and get him to take a draft of the ship. In Cameron's Version, the Captain orders "full stop" and another bridge officer goes off to the bridge to comply - presumably this is Moody. A second or two later, we hear the telegraphs ring. Smith and Murdoch go the bridge wing, and after seeing the ice in the well deck, Smith tells his first officer to find the Carpenter; Murdoch acknowledges this and walks off. Poor Joseph Boxhall! Left on the cutting room floor! In fact, according to the script book, there is no mention of Boxhall whatsoever. The only time I can ascertain when his character might have been given a line is "Bloody pull faster - and PULL!" as his lifeboat clears the stern of the ship, rising high in the air. And even this line doesn't appear in the script book!! And even this depiction of Boxhall and his boat isn't correct. When Boxhall implores his crew to row faster, the Titanic's stern is towering overhead. This is within minutes of her foundering. At the inquiries, two people estimated the distance to the Titanic, and the shortest one was approximately 1/2 mile. At this distance, the Titanic would be a tiny speck on the horizon. |
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Although it is a standard part of the Titanic story that 3rd class passengers played soccer with the chunks of ice seen on deck, only one person, Dr. Washington Dodge, reported this incident, and his account has elements that raise the hackles of suspicion. |
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Leading Fireman Fred Barrett testified at the inquiries that the water rushed into the stokehold about two feet above the floor plates. It is hard to determine where the water ingress is in James Cameron's version, but one source is above head height! Incidentally, if you look at the DVD and then freeze frame it at this point, you can see that the boiler room already has water in it! |
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The film depicts Leading Fireman Barrett as helping others through the closing watertight door. But he testified that only he and an engineer by the name of Hesketh jumped through the door before it shut. The doors took 25-30 seconds to close, and then, in the last 18-24 inches, were allowed to drop by gravity, like a guillotine. Anyone clambering underneath would be likely to be injured!
And to escape from boiler 6 to room 5 via the watertight door, you would
have to go down a small passage, flanked on either side by the coal bunkers. In the film,
the watertight door leads straight from one room to another!
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A small point: the background of the small area containing the red and green sidelights should be the same colour as their respective lights (red for port, green for starboard). |
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Ismay's walk to the bridge shows that his is still wearing his pyjamas; but it was noted, in real life, that he had put a pair of trousers on over his pyjamas. |
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If the recollections of stewards James Johnson and Annie Robinson are anything to go by, Captain Smith, Thomas Andrews and Purser McElroy used internal stairs (possibly the forward grand staircase) to view the affected area of the ship near the mail room. |
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After surveying the damage, Thomas Andrews comes to the bridge and relays the shocking news to the bridge officers: the Titanic was going to sink. Except that it didn't happen. We don't know what transpired between Captain Smith, Andrews, Chief Officer Wilde, First Officer Murdoch or Sixth Officer Moody, as all were lost. But hovering in the background are the other officers, who never spoke of such a meeting. Indeed, after being woken some twenty or so minutes after the impact, Officers Lightoller, Lowe and Pitman went on deck and assisted with preparing the boats. Incidentally, for someone intimately acquainted with the ship, Thomas Andrews makes a very peculiar mistake: the iceberg had not ruptured five compartments, but six. |
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Captain Smith then visits the wireless cabin and tells his operators to send out the call for assistance. He gives them the co-ordinates of the ship: 41o46'N, 50o14'W. Except that he didn't. When he visited the cabin, he actually gave out 41o44'N, 50o24'W; the famous (and incorrect) position was given to Marconi operators Phillips and Bride some minutes later by 4th Officer Boxhall. Incidentally, caveat lector: An IMDB correspondent insists that "CQD" was never sent out by the Titanic. It was. SOS was also used later on. |
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The passengers have gone back inside, according to Chief Officer Wilde because "it is too damn cold and noisy for them." The funnels started discharging within a short space of time after the collision, and the film omits its version of when this happened. However, what is inaccurate is just how noisy the funnels were. Gracie, on C deck heard them, as did Martha Stone on B deck. And yet, inside the ship, we never hear a peep. (The noise also hindered Jack Phillips hearing transmissions from other vessels, and the Marconi office was directly below a funnel!) |
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The lifejackets in the movie have the wrong number of cork pieces. In real life each side had six pieces but in the movie there are twelve. The size and shape of the cork blocks are wrong, too. |
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Harold Bride informs the Captain that the Carpathia is 4 hours away and making 17 knots, and that she is "the only one close." Firstly, the Carpathia would not know how fast she was making; if she did the 17 knot myth would have been exposed as a mechanically impossible fable that needs to be put to sleep; and secondly, the Mount Temple was actually closer. Captain Rostron of the Carpathia later said in testimony that he told the wireless operators to message the Titanic that her speed was less than 17 knots (15 or 16, I recall). Also, in his report to the Marconi company, Bride says that he relayed the Carpathia's report to the Captain, who was superintending the loading and lowering of the lifeboats. In this scene, the lifeboats have barely been lowered to level with the boat deck, and Smith spent most of his time on the port side of the Titanic, not starboard. While it is true that Bride did say that Smith was on the starboard side, there is no mention of anyone else that he was in this location, helping to fill the boats. Bride also says that Smith returned with him to the wireless room. In the movie, Smith is left alone to survey the busy boat deck, muttering "My God." |
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2nd Officer Lightoller is shown wearing a massive overcoat during the loading of the lifeboats, and even when he is struggling to climb aboard collapsible B. However, in his autobiography, Lightoller says, before launching the last two lifeboats, he was wearing "a sweater, no coat or overcoat...I had long since discarded my greatcoat" and remarked that he was in pants and sweater over his pyjamas. An article that he wrote for the Christian Science journal in October 1912 stated he was also wearing a lijejacket, as was Wilde. |
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Boat 7 is shown as nearly tipping the passengers into the sea, but none of the passengers or crew who testified recalled such an event happening. Boat 5, the one immediately in front of boat 7 did have some mishap; as 1st class passenger George Harder said, the crew "lowered one side quicker than the other." |
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Incidentally, on the real Titanic, there was a sign on the breakwaters that advised passengers that they were not allowed forward of that point. The starboard one is circled in a photograph taken by Francis Browne at Southampton. These signs have been studiously omitted from the 1997 version of the ship. With these signs in place, there would be no way for the "I'm the King of the World!" or the "I'm Flying!" scenes to have taken place. The crew's galley skylight (on the correct side of the ship here) has changed size and position compared to the flyover shot.
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Jack Dawson is held in the Master-At-Arms office; except that on the Titanic, it was an interior cabin with no porthole. |
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"Molly" Brown is depicted as being one of the first in boat 6. But this contradicts her own statement, summarised in Archibald Gracie's book thus, "Mrs. Brown was walking away [from the lifeboat], eager to see what was being done elsewhere. Suddenly she saw a shadow and a few seconds later someone seized her, saying: 'You are going, too,' and she was dropped fully four feet into the lowering lifeboat." Far from being one of the first in the boat, "Molly" was one of the last! |
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Thomas Andrews remonstrates with Lightoller for not filling the boats to capacity. While Lightoller claimed that he was unsure the davits and boats would not take the weight of the passengers, this meeting with Andrews is a fiction. If he had informed the 2nd officer of the loading problem, it makes Lightoller even more callous to then continue loading boats with "women and children only" leaving empty spaces. Andrews comment that the boats had been tested in Belfast with the weight of 70 men is a puzzle and seems to come from an off-the-cuff statement by researcher Brian Ticehurst for the Arts and Entertainment Titanic documentary in the early 1990s. No-one can verify this. What we do know is that the testing was done with 66 people, and the boats performed well. It seems that Cameron had done his research based not on documentation but by watching old TV shows. |
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Thomas Andrews directions as to how to get to the Master-At-Arms office bears no relation to E deck on the real Titanic. He says, "Go to bottom, go to left, take crewman's passage, go right and left again at the stairs, you come to a long corridor..." and then we are spared any of the overly long-winded directions. Fortunately, on the real Titanic, it was fairly simple. Look at the following plan with the elevators and Master-At-Arms office indicated:
When coming out of the elevators, there was no passageway to the left marked "crew passage." You would have to go right round the back of the elevators, past the base of the grand staircase, through the (open) emergency door, turn right, down the corridor and then turn right at the end. The only other way, going down the 1st class corridor on the starboard side of the ship would be blocked at the end by a door that was shut fairly early on. The whole geography of E deck is screwed up. After escaping from the office, Jack'n'Rose force open a door...open to still find themselves somewhere still on E-deck, this time free from water! They pass a foreign family, frantically flicking through a phrase book to translate a sign (and much to this author's disgust, this scene of the family, desperate to escape but encumbered by the language barrier, provokes giggles and laughter at the cinema). Another commentator has noted the confusion over ship's geography: "Rose and Jack retreat aft of the 3rd funnel while D deck (1st class dining salon between funnel 2 & 3) is being flooded. They go down to E deck, which floods then they come back up to D to the locked gate, then escape to C deck just as D floods to the top. The 1st class dining salon extended across the entire width of the ship, so D deck was flooded to ceiling aft of 3rd funnel at the time they escaped below decks. In reality, if the ship were flooded that high, only the stern would be sticking above water. The 'split' did not even show the water that high and far back in the ship." The film is also confused where Jack's temporary prison is located. The camera pans down after the first distress rocket is fired, to show how far the ship has sunk. In the very next scene, the camera tracks along the hull to show Jack peering out of the port.
Just after boat 6 starts to descend, we see a view of a dangling rope used to lower a lifeboat . Since boat 8, the second boat on the port side that left according to the British Inquiry, and which we see next to Ruth's boat when she is calling for her daughter, is not yet in the water, this must be the falls (ropes) for boat 6. The camera then pans down into the water, and we see the window to Jack's cell. The downward angle (or "trim") of the Titanic was not so great at this point, and since ropes dangle vertically, the window of the room must be below boat 6. Which is much further aft than we saw before.
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When Boat 4 left the Titanic, survivors Mrs Stephenson and Miss Eustis could see water through the portholes on D deck. This was at 1.55am. In Cameron's Titanic, D deck at the position of boat 4 was already underwater. In the screen grab to the left, boat 4 is the second one from the bow, positioned to the middle and aft of the first funnel. The screengrab corresponds to approximately 1am, Titanic time. Incidentally, many survivors describe the water as being flat calm with not a ripple on the surface, unlike the film's depiction. Boat 8, also started rowing for the strange ship's light way off the port bow (and so would have rowed along the side of the ship, not obliquely, as seen here.) |
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These metal gates are called Bostwick Gates. If you believe Cameron's version, there were dozens of them used to separate the Third Class from the rest of the ship. In reality, the ship's plans reveal only two sets of gates, both of them on E deck. The first was on a forward staircase that would have flooded soon enough the impact. The other set was near the potato storage area, aft on this deck. Surviving third class testimony may refer to small metal gates that led from the well decks to the higher decks, small waist-high barriers within the ship, or emergency doors (at least two of which were open that night). There does not seem to have been wholesale discrimination against the third class, but there are isolated tales of passengers being kept below. |
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There are many problems with how the later lifeboat lowering are depicted; I shall give some examples. Firstly, as boats 13 and 15 are lowered, there are far too many people on the deck; secondly, as boat 15 reaches A deck, passengers and crew left behind struggle to reach out and climb aboard. Neither of these two events occurred as far as we know. It is hard to see, but both boats 13 and 15 seem to have between 20 and 30 people in them. Actually, they were among the most heavily laden boats of the night, with 60-70 people on board. Then there is the lighting. The boat deck was some 550 feet long, and was scarcely lit in places. If you were at the rear lifeboat stations, you would find it difficult to see the bow of the ship. In fact, this overlighting problem is endemic to the whole film. An example is given here and lighting levels for the Titanic's sister, the Olympic, are given here. One foot candle is the illumination that one candle would produce at a distance of one foot. While not a gloomy dungeon, the ship was not as brilliantly lit as is often depicted. |
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2nd Officer Lightoller never ordered Lowe into boat 14; Moody, his junior "suggested" that he go in this boat. And while Lightoller did fire his loaded revolver as a later boat (as depicted in the film) was being prepared for loading to prevent "steerage" from swamping the boat, there is no evidence that Lightoller was at Boat 14, or that he was the one who said he would shoot passengers "like dogs." It was probably Lowe who said this. |
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Steward George Crowe says this about the shots fired at Boat 14: "There were various men passengers, probably Italians or some foreign nationality other than English or American, who attempted to rush the boats. The officers threatened to shoot any man who put his foot into the boat. He fired the revolver, but either downward or upward, not shooting at any of the passengers at all and not injuring anybody. He fired perfectly clear, upward or downward." 5th Officer Lowe said, "So, as we were coming down the decks, coming down past the open decks, I saw a lot of Italians, Latin people, all along the ship's rails - understand, it was open - and they were all glaring, more or less like wild beasts, ready to spring. That is why I yelled out to look out, and let go, bang, right along the ship's side," and he fired three shots horizontally along the length of the ship, one for each deck that he passed on which there were people eagerly spying the boat. The film's depiction is approximately correct. Incidentally, although Lowe could speak Welsh, he did not have a Welsh accent. While we're on the subject of accents; Colonel Archibald Gracie is depicted in the film as British. He was actually American. |
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When Jack, Rose and their little gang come up on deck, they emerge from the 2nd class entrance on the boatdeck. It is lacking a forward partition as you can see (right) on this similar view of the entrance, albeit on the starboard side, on the Olympic. It is at this point that Jack'n'Rose meet Gracie, escorting Mrs.Brown and Mrs.Evans. But Gracie says he found them on the forward part of the starboard boat deck. What was he doing so far aft, and on the wrong side of the ship? Also, Gracie should be wearing a lifejacket. He tore if off and threw it into the sea after he got on board boat 12, and regretted that he did not save it as a relic. The crowds, like so many in James Cameron's version, are wrong. Crewmen Scott and Ranger lowered themselves from the davits of boat 16, which can be seen in this scene. Ranger said there was no one on deck when they went down the davits; Scott describes "a lot of firemen" there, but he is unclear as to where exactly they were. |
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The design of the distress "rockets" is wrong. They were actually "socket signals", small metal cylinders that were launched by pulling on a firing lanyard. When the Quartermaster in charge of firing them left the Titanic, he said there were "some" left in a box that originally held 12. |
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Ismay is depicted as leaving the Titanic in a scene almost bereft of people. However, research by this author indicates that there was a sizeable crowd surrounding this lifeboat and that shots were fired to quell the crowd. |
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As collapsible D is lowered, Jack gazes longingly into his love's eyes while, behind him, another "rocket" goes up. Except...the person in charge of firing them was Quartermaster Rowe, and he left in the same boat as Ismay, several minutes before boat D! No male passengers were allowed close to boat D while it was being filled. Crew members had linked arms around the boat and only allowed women and children to pass through. |
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So, Rose decides that she can't leave Jack and leaps back on board the ship. However, many things are wrong with this scene. Two gentlemen jumped into the boat from this point in reality, and one of them, Hugh Woolner indicates that the ship had a massive list to port (about 10o - though the film ignores this list completely), that water was pouring over the bulkhead into deck A at this point, that the A deck promenade was empty when he and his friend jumped from the water across the space into the boat, and that the lights on deck A were glowing a "devilish red" colour. Still, you can't have everything. |
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As Jack and Rose flee from Cal's bullets, they rush into the 1st class dining saloon. Note how rapidly it floods (probably because a scene involving Jack dispensing some much needed revenge on Lovejoy was thankfully excised). But everytime we return above decks, the water level although having risen between scenes, is never seen to rise as quickly as in the restaurant. Its almost as if the inside of the Titanic is sinking, but the outside isn't. |
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Also, the design of the deck lights are wrong. As can be seen from the image below, the lights had a screen on their forward side.
The ship also seems to be missing the expansion joints; gaps in the superstructure that allowed the ship to flex while at sea. These gaps were covered in rubber and were located aft of the doorway that can be seen in these screengrabs. |
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The International Press had a "field day" on this one. An officer shooting passengers, and then himself? Preposterous! But solid research has shown that the story has a basis in fact; more debate is presented here. In this author's eyes, the scene is inaccurate as it is slightly too serene. The shooting is actually described as occurring when the forward boat deck had dipped under, and panic had ensued. 1st Officer Murdoch's body was never recovered and no other bodies had bullet wounds. However, out of 1500 lost, only about 350 bodies were found later. The lifeboat is shown a few minutes later as being loaded on the deck, but, as far as I can ascertain, this did not happen: Colonel Gracie recalls that, when he heard the sound of the water gurgling up the "hatchway" (staircase?) forward, he saw "many ready to board [the boat]." As the boat deck became awash a couple of minutes later, there was a scrum for the boat, but an orderly loading as seen in the movie - no. |
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Research by George Behe indicates that, in the last few minutes, the bandsmen should either be wearing lifejackets, or have them close by. |
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Benjamin Guggenheim and his manservant watch as third class passengers struggle to reach the grand staircase and the boat deck. Where were the passengers coming from? There was no stairway forward of this point that would have allowed them access to this part of the ship and besides, this area of the ship was already flooded. And if they did get to this point, they would have to pass the grand staircase, or not notice that it went up another level! |
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It seems blasphemous to suggest this, but did this scene, or any version of it, actually happen?? It is from a book about Thomas Andrews written by Shan Bullock in 1912. In it, he quotes an unnamed witness: "Later, an assistant steward saw [Andrews] standing alone in the smoking-room, his arms folded over his breast and the belt lying on a table near him. The steward asked him, "Aren't you going to have a try for it, Mr. Andrews?" He never answered or moved, "just stood like one stunned."" In light of the fact that we do not know where, or from whom this tale originated, should we not question its accuracy and inclusion? Incidentally, Andrews is believe to have had a Northern Irish accent, not a broad Eire brogue. Oh, and the flooring for the set is wrong too. The film's smoking room seem to be carpetted, with some form of abstract patterning on it; the real Titanic had red and blue floor tiles. Also, Andrews would not have been able to walk straight up to Rose with the lifejacket; on either side of the fireplace were curved sofas that extended about 9 feet into the smoking room. |
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Captain Smith watches on as boat B is prepared for its departure despite it being upside down. In fact, Captain Smith had already jumped overboard at this point and besides, the boat deck was flooded by a rushing wave within seconds of the boat being pushed to the deck below. There was not a scene of mad chaos as the film depicts. Watch carefully, as Lightoller superintends events while standing on top of the boat. In fact, he never left the roof of the officer's quarters. After boat B landed on the deck, he went to the starboard side to see if he could be of any help. The film shows Lightoller still on the boat deck as it goes under, and shows him cutting the "falls" (lifeboat ropes). Boat "B" was actually abandoned by this point, in reality; nothing could be done with it, and the water was on the deck anyway. |
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From the moment he is told that his command will founder, Captain Smith is depicted as too stunned to perform effectively. This did not happen. |
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The bridge is depicted in the movie as having its lights on; from a cinematic point of view, this makes sense as no one wants to squint at hazy figures moving through a shadow of murk. But the bridge should have been kept in darkness to prevent one's night vision from being disrputed and not seeing any vessels in the vicinity (such as the Californian). Furthermore, Lloyd's publications suggest the very sensible notion of dousing all lights in the vicinity of the morse lamps, which would otherwise be swamped in the glare of any other lights nearby. There is also ample eyewitness testimony that Captain Smith did not die shut up in the wheelhouse. Junior Marconi Operator Harold Bride saw him jump into the sea from the bridge towards the end. Although some claim that Smith managed to swim to a nearby lifeboat, refusing to clamber on board, we do not know what happened to him. His body was never recovered. |
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Ismay testified that he was glad he did not see the Titanic go down. Also, QM Rowe, in charge of the lifeboat, told his British inquisitors that his boat, containing Ismay, was "stem on" to the Titanic. In this view, the lifeboat is somewhere off the starboard bow. While we are on the subject, "Molly" [sic] Brown sees the same vantage point, but from the port side. But her boat had been diligently rowing for the lights of a nearby ship for quite a while; and if the inferences of those in Boat 6, those in the flimsy craft to see the foundering as well as the movie depicts. |
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J.J.Astor is depicted as being indoors at the boat deck level of the Grand Staircase when the glass dome implodes. He must have made his way outdoors at some point, as his body was later recovered. Additionally, there is a major goof in this scene. A few minutes earlier, we had seen the boat deck windows implode due to the water pressure, and Fabriozi nearly gets sucked in. So, by this point, the grand staircase foyer is flooding. When Astor views the dome collapsing, not only is the boat deck foyer level dry, but also it would have been underwater anyway; remember the water crashed in through the dome from above. Still, Cameron had his set-piece in the can. And as for those stunt-men? We paid for them- we're damn well going to see them! |
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Similar to J.J.Astor, Ida and Isidor Strauss must have been on deck during the final stages of the sinking. Isidor's body was later recovered, Ida's was never found. The Strauss's stateroom was on C Deck, roughly above the entrance to the 1st class dining saloon. Given the rate of flooding of the saloon, and that the 1st class staircase lobby on A deck is seen to be awash a few scenes after we see the Strauss's cabin, their cabin would be underwater by the time we see them holding each other. And doesn't their bed seem too small for a married couple? |
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On the real Titanic, the boat deck seemed to rise, then took a sudden plunge, causing it to dip under suddenly and sending a wave rushing along the deck. At about this time, the boat deck became besieged by third class passengers who emerged from below decks. This does not resemble Cameron's view at all; the ship slowly slips under and the decks are crowded with people at all times. The film also shows boat A being hooked up to the davits for lifeboat 3; it was actually attached to the ones for lifeboat 1/C which were directly in front of it (and where Ismay escaped from). |
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In the film, the first funnel is shown falling to port; eyewitness evidence points to the fact that it fell to starboard. The pipe on the left hand side of the funnel (next to the ladder) is wrong too; it was a simple u-shape without a kink at the top. |
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A brief insert shows a young girl floating, dead, inside the flooded 1st class lounge, silhouetted against the chandelier. However, a few minutes later, we see, from the outside, how far the ship has sunk, and the area of the lounge (in red) is almost completely above the waterline. |
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Just a minor gripe, but Jack and Rose jump onto the cover of cargo hatch no.4, next to the second class library on B deck. This cover was actually a tarpaulin, tightly battened down. It should have registered their weight if they had jumped on it. |
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Father Thomas Byles actually prayed with the masses at the aft end of the boat deck, not the poop. While he may have tried to reach the temporary safety of the poop as the water rushed towards him is not known. The verse Byles recites in the film is from The Book of The Revelation 21:1-4. By eyewitness accounts, Byles recited the rosary, and peformed acts of contrition and absolution to the doomed masses who congregated round him. |
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Chief Baker Charles Joughin is portrayed as intoxicated. This is far from the truth; he only had half a tumbler of spirits when he nipped down to his cabin during the evacuation. His depiction in the film bears little relation to his testimony in London at the British Inquiry. He says that, just before the end, the ship took a massive plunge to port, throwing everyone but him in a heap. The ship never recovered from that list. He found himself walking along the starboard side of the ship, outside the railings, when the ship slipped away beneath him. |
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Another correspondent on the internet writes, "When the ship begins to tear apart and the inside is seen collapsing, the room shown is a combination of the lounge's windows (already submerged as shown by the floating girl) and the smoking room's ceiling. Also according to where the ship breaks in the movie these rooms are not part of the tear." In fact, no ornate public room is near the tear. ...and, contrary to what an ill-informed commentator on IMDB has said, the fourth funnel was seen to crash aft, by a crewmember by the name of Dillon. The sound effects in this scene are wrong, too. All we hear is a deep groaning as the lights go out and then a splintering noise during the actual disintegration. Survivors actually heard what sounded like long, sustained explosions. The location where the tear occurs is wrong too. The bow section of the wreck shows that it broke apart from the stern near the front of the 3rd funnel. In Cameron's depiction, the break-up is aft of the funnel. |
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The stern is seen creating a huge wave when it comes crashing down into the sea. No survivor reported such a huge splash. |
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The Blue Ensign should be flying from the flag staff at the stern. |
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As the ship sinks, it creates a torrent of frothy turbulence that pulls Jack'n'Rose underwater. While it is true that there was suction when the bow sank, the stern's foundering was devoid of any such theatricality. We are told of a small wave that rocked debris. The film's version is bogus. |
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This line, which sometimes raised chuckles from a cinema's audience, was actually said. Well, sort of; "If you don't stop talking through that hole in your face, there'll be one less in this boat!" It was also said in boat 8, not boat 6. |
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The lifeboats were actually tied up nose-to-tail, and there were 5 of them in total, not the three as depicted in this scene. |
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Believe him or not, Lowe claimed that he never saw one female body amongst the debris. |
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Contrary to popular opinion, Lowe was given a torch by 6th Officer Moody before Lowe left the Titanic. It seems doubtful that his companions in the lifeboat in this scene would have, though. |
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If Lillian Bentham is right, the design of the officer's whistle that Rose blows is wrong. |
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According to the Encylopedia-Titanica website, boat 4 picked up 8 men, two of whom died, and boat 14 picked up 3 or 4, and one of those died; boat D picked up 1 person. However, Colonel Gracie's posthumous book corroborates Old Rose's number. The "6" include Rose herself and she does not seemingly include the 30 or so occupants of lifeboats A and B which provided refuge for people swimming in the water. These survivors were later picked up by other boats. Of course, the statement "Only one boat came back" is completely wrong; boats 4 and 14 came back to rescue some of the people. |
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Caledon Hockley is shown having been rescued from the swamped collapsible "A" lifeboat. In reality, it would have been daylight in this scene. Incidentally, Rose had been saved and was in Lowe's boat (No. 14), and now Hockley had been saved by Lowe, who was towing boat "D" and had taken the survivors from "A" off in her. It is amazing that Hockley did not notice Rowe who was only a few feet away! |
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Lowe did not use green, or any other coloured flares; the only person who did was 4th Officer Boxhall, and his boat was the first to be picked up. Also, when towing boat D to the Carpathia, Lowe was actually wearing what seems to be a white, (or at very least light coloured) scarf. |
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Hockley goes to the well deck to look for Rose; he is told by a steward that he is unlikely to find his party as they're all steerage. The script is ambiguous on this point: was class discriminaiton in place, or did the steerage tend to congregate here? If the former, Cameron was wrong: there was no class discrimination on the Carpathia. |
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Cameron seems to have gone to some trouble casting actors who looked like their characters, so why did he cast such a portly actor as T.W.McCawley, who ran the gymnasium? The gymnasium was gender segregated too. Ladies and gentlemen had separate times of the day in which they could visit it. |
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If Marconi messages were sent to the wireless room by pneumatic tube, why is there also someone to deliver them too? There are other problems too: Harold Bride was actually asleep when the Californian's final ice message came in. And Phillips would have sent out the short-hand message "DDD" to indicate "stop transmitting" rather than keying out each letter. I'll let others comment on the accuracy of the morse code! |
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Cyril Evans of the Californian later told those investigating the disaster that Phillip's message telling him to shut up was not intended, and was not taken as an insult. In real life, Evans did not shut down his wireless set immediately after the rebuke from the Titanic. He listened to some more of the private messages from the Titanic's crew being sent. And Evans was alone when this happened; 3rd officer Groves was on duty and it would have been a serious lapse of duty to leave his post on the bridge. With no-one to convey the details of the Titanic's rebuke to the audience, the only way for this scene to work would have been with subtitles. |
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Groves steps out from the Marconi view to see the Californian surrounded by icebergs...except, it wasn't. The Californian was in loose ice, on the outskirts of a massive ice field. It was too dark to see the icebergs, which weren't seen till morning. |
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From the Titanic script book, we know that James Cameron was divided on whether to leave this scene in the film as he thought it might be too whimsical, showing "Molly" Brown asking for more ice as the iceberg drifts by outside. Cameron admitted that the scene appealled to his mischievous sense of humour. Wrong answer, Mr.Cameron. The scene shouldn't have been filmed or even considered for one simple reason: Molly Brown was in her cabin when the 'berg struck. I am not 100% sure, but I suspect that the Palm Court where "Molly" is supposed to have been seen would have been closed by 11.40pm |
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This scene indicates that SOS was sent out straight away. It wasn't; it was some little time before it started to be used. |
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Ismay implores Lowe to be faster in lowering the lifeboat; the gist of the scene is correct, even if the language isn't. What is wrong is that, at the start of the scene, Ismay watches a rocket go up and then rushes aft to the aft davit of lifeboat 5. Except, the first rocket wasn't sent up until after boat 5 was departed. Also, from Ismay's vantage point, the flaming debris from the rocket seems to fall directly overheard. They were actually launched at an angle of 20 degrees from vertical to ensure that detritus from the detonation did not hit the ship. (Also, when the first rocket goes up, watch the view point of Rose, Lightoller etc. They are all looking off to the port side of the ship; the rockets were fired from starboard, which is correctly depicted in the Lowe/Ismay confrontation). Also, watch out when Ismay rushes up to the davit; in the background we see a deckhouse, beyond the grand staircase foyer. Although the deck lights are on, the windows in the house are out. First of all, this is the area where the gymnasium is located, and it should be flush with staircase foyer; and secondly, it should be open, with the lights on. Indeed, John Jacob Astor comforted his wife in the gymnasium by cutting open a lifejacket to show her what was inside, and other passengers went into the gymn to while away the time, or to stay warm. It is difficult to ascertain what is going on with the boats at this point, but certainly steam was still issuing from the funnels when boat 5 left; in the movie, all is quite. Also, the forward starboard boat deck is reported to have been relatively bereft of people. |
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In this scene, Joughin is shown taking a huge swig from a flask. Once again, history portrays him as a drunk. Let us look at what he says in his testimony at the British Inquiry: he drank a half tumbler full of spirits while still in his room. Not on deck. If you're going to deviate from a man's testimony, at least give us a reason, Mr. Cameron. Putting in a set-piece to satisfy Titanic Anoraks isn't good enough. And the timing of the scene is bogus too. This is placed after the hails from the Captain for boat 6 to return to the ship. By this time, Joughin was engaged in trouping up to the boat deck with bread, and helping people into the boats. He didn't start throwing chairs overboard till later on. |
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I could be mistaken but this scene's accuracy is bogus. I don't recall anyone saying that the dogs had been released and ran out on deck. All I have is, "First Class survivor R. Norris Williams recollected, that as he was struggling in the freezing water he found himself staring into the face of a bulldog he thought he had imagined it but later he met a fellow passenger [Robert Daniels?] on the Carpathia who explained that he had gone to the kennels and released the dogs, sparing them from being trapped in there cages as the ship went down". But Williams only seemed to have mentioned this story in later life. Madeleine Astor is supposed to have seen her husband with Kitty, their pet Airedale, on deck as she looked back at the Titanic but this story is questionable. Some suspect that Astor released the dogs, but, again there is no proof. |
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In the DVD of the film, this scene, where Bride implores Phillips to escape is placed just after the moment when Cal gets into boat A. However, this is before boat B smashes onto the deck, upturned. In reality, Bride clambered onto the roof of of the officer's quarters, and helped to push "B" down, and he never returned to the wireless cabin after this. I am frankly astonished that James Cameron, knowing of his love for Titanic set-pieces through which he could allow his caricatures to run, omitted the instances when a stoker tried to relieve Phillips of his life-jacket and was left for dead on the floor of the wireless cabin; or that he failed to include a scene where the Captain releases the two Marconi men from their duties just moments before. |
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A truly powerful moment...shame it didn't happen. Ismay never paraded himself before the disgusted eyes of survivors. He secured the doctor's cabin on the Carpathia and never came out until they reached New York. |
Concluding comments: Although many of the flaws in Titanic are mostly superificial, overall they reinforce the view that the film is mostly of dubious accuracy. One almost feels that the film could have taken place on any suitably melodramatic backdrop; airship, skyscraper, earthquake zone or anywhere else visited by Irwin Allen in the 1970s. This is a shame as it makes this author feel that the historical aspects have been sacrificed and sledge-hammered into the narrative to make the film "work." We have Cal's party taking lunch in the Verandah Cafe (not possible, but how else was Jack going to catch his first glimpse of Rose?); then Rose attempting suicide (again, not possible, and taking a route at variance with the known geography of the real Titanic); then we have Jack being loaned a dinner suit by Margaret "Molly" Brown (how else was he going to get into the 1st class restaurant?); and then we have Jack, despite having a steerage ticket, seemingly having the run of the ship until Lovejoy reminds two convenient stewards that his presence is "not appropriate" (and incidentally, class segregation was strictly enforced, so 3rd class would not be allowed at the Sunday Service); then Jack and Rose form their union in an impossible location (the bow) and finally consumate that love in a spot that would have been impossible to reach on the real Titanic, and this is only after a chase scene reminiscent of the early Hollywood efforts. A chase scene which was, I recall, intended to show us as much of the ship as possible but only serves to remind us of the rum geography at work in James Cameron's Titanic (the ship, not the film). I find it absolutely impossible to believe that Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, the two historical advisers on the film, were blind to these and other flaws and must conclude that Cameron overrode them in favour of the old excuse "dramatic license." But how far can reality be sacrificed before "dramatic license" falls away and we are left with nothing but "fiction"? But, to this reviewer, the most irksome thing of this whole Cameron/Titanic business is the way that the film's contents have been accepted by neophytes as fact, and I am not necessarily talking about teenagers looking at the passenger list for Jack or Rose, but how these "newbies" lecture experts on "how the boat deck would look too cluttered with more boats, that why more weren't fitted"...or "the bulkheads only went up to E deck"...etc...etc...
It is disturbing that the Titanic Historical Society, whom Cameron approached for help and who named him "Man of the Year" was not more strident in its condemnation of the film rather than sycophantically absorbing the mesmerising spectacle. Cameron's own duty had been fulfilled too: he had shown that he could tackle science fiction, adventure and horror with his first forays into film making. With "True Lies" he has demonstrated that could produce comedy-drama. All that was left was history and romance. And therein lies the true reason for the historical shambles that is "Titanic."
But now we have a film whose inaccuracies will be repeated and believed for decades.
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