In 2023, fans of James Cameron’s Titanic celebrate 25 years since Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet stood flying on top of the world, on top of the ship’s bow. The 1997 film, which swooped a whopping eleven Oscars, gave the world Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’, and iconic pop culture moments will be released in South African cinemas in a new remastered version.
Titanic is a rollercoaster of emotions with thrills, humor and romance. The “draw me like one of your French girls” scene links moments of past and present, and Billy Zane’s insane ego and eyeliner are giving antique misogyny. The heartbreaking scene where Jack and Rose don’t (but would have) both fit on the floating door unleashes an ocean of tears.
Even though the Titanic’s voyage proves ill-fated, it doesn’t matter to the film’s protagonist, Jack (Leonardo Dicaprio), in the long run. Winning a ticket aboard the Titanic is still the best thing that ever happened to him, as it brings him one step closer to meeting Rose (Kate Winslet), the love of his life.
In 1997, Titanic became the number one all-time global box office movie, and is currently the third highest grossing film worldwide. But among the countless documentaries, Cameron’s romantic drama on the ship serves a more ghostly sense of the ship that was. Now, 111 years after the Royal Mail Steamer (RMS) Titanic sank in 1912, why does the tale of the ship’s sinking still intrigue?
On that April night in 1912, the voice of Titanic crewman and survivor, Frederic Fleet shattered the silence of the night when he shouted “Iceberg! Right ahead!” as he spotted the looming piece of ice that would collide with the side of the ship. When the iceberg pops up during the movie, you can’t help but get that sinking feeling in your stomach.
Titanic’s seamen frantically shut airtight doors while seawater explodes into the ship’s lowest decks. Lower-class passengers’ beds shudder while chandeliers on the upper deck rattle as the Titanic fails to swerve past the iceberg. At this point, 1 400 liters of icy seawater per second gushes into the ship, which ultimately sank the ship two hours later into the Atlantic Ocean.
But, decades of investigations have confirmed the iceberg’s giant gash is fiction. The iceberg actually made many, smaller punctures below the ship’s waterline, where the ship touches the surface of the water.
Dramatics and all, the film brilliantly injects elements of sonder, that every passenger on that ship had a life as complex as one’s own, which they had lived despite being unaware of their fate. The 1 500 lost lives are best represented from the rich and powerful first-class passengers, to the immigrants hoping to start a new life in America.
The ship’s guard rails where on that freezing night, fathers hugged their children and wives before setting them into the lowering lifeboats, and leaned out to catch a final glimpse of their loved ones.
The band plays on
While Cameron’s film mainly follows fictional characters and storylines, Titanic still pays tribute to the real people who lost their lives. Some of the most emotional characters are the musicians in the ship’s band who continued to play as the ship sank.
The band is inspired to play soothing music rather than preserving their own lives. They stand on the deck playing, ‘Nearer My God to Thee’ while passengers and crew scramble for life boats in this bittersweet scene. The band makes all the difference during the tear jerking image, when an elderly couple embraces each other while their room floods.
I’m Flying
Two of the most famous scenes from the film take place at the ship’s bow: the first sight of the iceberg, and the romantic scene between Rose and Jack where they’re flying above the ocean aboard the largest moving man-made object on the planet .
In an interview with GQ, Cameron said that the need for a great sunset meant that the scene on the ship’s bow is out of focus (not bad for a film that won the Oscar for Best Cinematography). Also at the ship’s bow, Dicaprio’s “I’m the king of the world” was actually improvised.
Nothing shows audiences the true scale of the film like this scene: Realizing that she loves the poor stowaway Jack instead of her fiance Caledon (Billy Zane), Rose joins Jack at the front of the ship for the ultimate trust exercise.
From whimsical to terrifying, the scene starts out with Rose closing her eyes only to open them to reveal a magnificent sunset where it is like she’s flying across the sea.
Just like the ship the movie is based on, Cameron’s retelling of the Titanic will go down in history.
Titanic vividly shows the violence of the sinking and the spectrum of human emotions.
