I'm kidding, but the network executive who OK's this turkey should have gone down with the ship.
I was born on an April 15 (but not 1912, the date the RMS Titanic sank), so this has been a favorite subject of mine -- beginning when I read Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" as a kid not too long after it was published in 1955. And then there's that tremendously emotionally charged movie of the same title and based on the book that came out in 1958. I felt like I was there, and experiencing it from the perspective of passengers in steerage, second & first class, as well as the crew.
Many others have commented on the factual inaccuracies, wooden acting, and contrived plot developments that supposedly were added to "spice it up," as if this human tragedy of titanic proportions needs "spicing." What bothered me the most were a number of scenes which made me just cringe, fold my arms and slowly shake my head, thinking, "Oh, Come on! Nobody could/would do that and expect to get away with it. Do they really think viewers are so dense to buy this"
As just a few examples, and these may or may not be spoilers:
Do you really think Capt. Smith would let a passenger (female or male) take steerage control of the ship on a visit to the bridge, just for fun? If he actually did, and it got to the White Star Line in New York, I suspect he would have started his retirement before his last return trip home. Test this on your next cruise: try to go to the bridge and ask to steer the ship for awhile.
Do you really think J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line, would climb down to the boiler room and order more boilers to be fired up for more speed? He would do this to defy the orders of their boss, Capt. Smith? And the crew would go along with it? No crew would go against the orders of their next in command, as ordered by their captain. Get real.
Bruce Ismay is another real person just trashed by this movie. He did save himself by climbing into a lifeboat when there were no other women or children at that station (although there were plenty elsewhere). At the inquiries, he said he did that so that the full story could be told. Nobody believed that. He lost his job at White Star; White Star was absorbed by Cunard, and I understand Ismay died alone and lonely in the U.K. in the 1950s.
The contrived character Simon "Snidley Whiplash" Doonan is so blatantly obnoxious and evil as a member of the ship's passenger crew, that he should have been reported by someone -- but never was. Instead, he strolls into cabins at his leisure and takes his time robbing first cabin passengers. And gets away with it.
The often mentioned rape-in-the-shower scene: What are the odds? The Titanic was the largest ship afloat, with well over 1,500 passengers on board. The vast majority were in steerage, where the rape scene occurred.
"Steerage" on the Titanic was better than 2nd class on other liners: the food was better, the service and cabins were better. . . . most passengers never had electric light or indoor plumbing at home. They had it here for the first time. If there were communal showers -- and I don't think there were -- I suspect they'd be in constant use as a real novelty. And they'd be segregated by sex.
So, here's this gal in a communal shower. But she's ALL BY HERSELF -- in a steerage section filled with several hundred other women who have never had the experience of a hot shower before. And "Snidley" Simon casually strolls in without a care or fear in the world and rapes her --and smirkingly gets away with it.
Oh, come on. What are the odds?
And then there's the business with Frederick Fleet in the lookout tower being ordered to release his binoculars for their return to the bridge, as if that were a mega blunder and contributing factor to the disaster.
Oh, pleeeeeeze! What bridge command on any ship would order the lookout to give up his binoculars? Especially after receiving ice warnings. What does the bridge want to see that's different than what the lookout NEEDS to see? They could call on the phone and ask Fleet to look.
Anyway, on the night of April 14, there was no moon, but a dead-calm sea and a velvet sky blanketed with stars. The two lookouts didn't have, and didn't need, binoculars because it was pitch black. What tipped Fleet off was that, dead ahead, there was a growing blackness due to an absence of stars. It was the iceberg, which led to his clanging the emergency bell in the lookout tower and calling the bridge.
If there were moonlight, they would have seen it sooner. If the sea were a bit rougher, they would have seen the white foam of the churn hitting the outline of the base of the burg.
To claim, as this film does, that the lookout was forced to give up the binoculars is a lie and a gross disservice to the memories of the officers and crew of the RMS Titanic.
Anyone who wants to understand and be profoundly moved by this tragedy as experienced by realistic and representative folks of all classes, crew and officers -- try "A Night to Remember." It doesn't need shower scenes, rapes, "Snidley Whiplash" or other contrived plots to make it "interesting."
I was born on an April 15 (but not 1912, the date the RMS Titanic sank), so this has been a favorite subject of mine -- beginning when I read Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" as a kid not too long after it was published in 1955. And then there's that tremendously emotionally charged movie of the same title and based on the book that came out in 1958. I felt like I was there, and experiencing it from the perspective of passengers in steerage, second & first class, as well as the crew.
Many others have commented on the factual inaccuracies, wooden acting, and contrived plot developments that supposedly were added to "spice it up," as if this human tragedy of titanic proportions needs "spicing." What bothered me the most were a number of scenes which made me just cringe, fold my arms and slowly shake my head, thinking, "Oh, Come on! Nobody could/would do that and expect to get away with it. Do they really think viewers are so dense to buy this"
As just a few examples, and these may or may not be spoilers:
Do you really think Capt. Smith would let a passenger (female or male) take steerage control of the ship on a visit to the bridge, just for fun? If he actually did, and it got to the White Star Line in New York, I suspect he would have started his retirement before his last return trip home. Test this on your next cruise: try to go to the bridge and ask to steer the ship for awhile.
Do you really think J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line, would climb down to the boiler room and order more boilers to be fired up for more speed? He would do this to defy the orders of their boss, Capt. Smith? And the crew would go along with it? No crew would go against the orders of their next in command, as ordered by their captain. Get real.
Bruce Ismay is another real person just trashed by this movie. He did save himself by climbing into a lifeboat when there were no other women or children at that station (although there were plenty elsewhere). At the inquiries, he said he did that so that the full story could be told. Nobody believed that. He lost his job at White Star; White Star was absorbed by Cunard, and I understand Ismay died alone and lonely in the U.K. in the 1950s.
The contrived character Simon "Snidley Whiplash" Doonan is so blatantly obnoxious and evil as a member of the ship's passenger crew, that he should have been reported by someone -- but never was. Instead, he strolls into cabins at his leisure and takes his time robbing first cabin passengers. And gets away with it.
The often mentioned rape-in-the-shower scene: What are the odds? The Titanic was the largest ship afloat, with well over 1,500 passengers on board. The vast majority were in steerage, where the rape scene occurred.
"Steerage" on the Titanic was better than 2nd class on other liners: the food was better, the service and cabins were better. . . . most passengers never had electric light or indoor plumbing at home. They had it here for the first time. If there were communal showers -- and I don't think there were -- I suspect they'd be in constant use as a real novelty. And they'd be segregated by sex.
So, here's this gal in a communal shower. But she's ALL BY HERSELF -- in a steerage section filled with several hundred other women who have never had the experience of a hot shower before. And "Snidley" Simon casually strolls in without a care or fear in the world and rapes her --and smirkingly gets away with it.
Oh, come on. What are the odds?
And then there's the business with Frederick Fleet in the lookout tower being ordered to release his binoculars for their return to the bridge, as if that were a mega blunder and contributing factor to the disaster.
Oh, pleeeeeeze! What bridge command on any ship would order the lookout to give up his binoculars? Especially after receiving ice warnings. What does the bridge want to see that's different than what the lookout NEEDS to see? They could call on the phone and ask Fleet to look.
Anyway, on the night of April 14, there was no moon, but a dead-calm sea and a velvet sky blanketed with stars. The two lookouts didn't have, and didn't need, binoculars because it was pitch black. What tipped Fleet off was that, dead ahead, there was a growing blackness due to an absence of stars. It was the iceberg, which led to his clanging the emergency bell in the lookout tower and calling the bridge.
If there were moonlight, they would have seen it sooner. If the sea were a bit rougher, they would have seen the white foam of the churn hitting the outline of the base of the burg.
To claim, as this film does, that the lookout was forced to give up the binoculars is a lie and a gross disservice to the memories of the officers and crew of the RMS Titanic.
Anyone who wants to understand and be profoundly moved by this tragedy as experienced by realistic and representative folks of all classes, crew and officers -- try "A Night to Remember." It doesn't need shower scenes, rapes, "Snidley Whiplash" or other contrived plots to make it "interesting."