[JWBear]

I never new you were a fellow Titanic enthusiast! Girlfriend, we need to talk!

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Then might I recommend A Night to Remember ... a much more accurate telling of the tale, storywise, from the point of view of the crew involved with, ya know, the mundane ship's business of sinking with 2/3 of the passengers still on board. Not so accurate visually as the Cameron film, as it looks to have been filmed on a ferry boat. But it's based on the Walter Lord novel taken from witness accounts and historical records.

I also heartily recommend A Night to Remember, although it too has it’s inaccuracies.

BTW, Walter Lord’s book was not a novel. It was a work of non-fiction.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

…Cameron was stupid to drop the subplot of The Californian. Even if some of it is based on worst-case conjecture, the suspense is freaking palpable and the horrific irony unbearable.

Agreed. It’s something that works so well in ANTR.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

The use of Nearer My God To Thee
- yes, likely not on the playlist. Many witnesses claimed to hear it. Eyewitness testimony is suspect, but it's all we have. So it's the witnesses vs. the playlist. Yeah, an unlikely number ... but a tearjerker included with legitimate dramatic license in every tale of the sinking.

I hate that It’s always shown as being played just because people expect it.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

3rd class being locked below decks
- played up for dramatic effect, but not done as maliciously as depicted. 3rd class was, however, kept below decks too long by the crew. And when they tried to let women and children up, their response to the general panic was to let no one up. Most 3rd class passengers died. Um, not by choice, I would suspect. Picturing them locked below decks was legit. dramatic license, in my view.

I disagree. The crew wasn’t actively trying to keep the 3rd class passengers below decks. In fact, there were several stewards who organized groups of 3rd class women and children, and led them up to the boat decks. Many more 3rd class passengers made it up on their own. Many surviving from 3rd class testified that their fellow passengers stayed where they were because they simply did not know what to do! If the crew is guilty of anything, it’s the lack of information distribution; but all 3 classes shared the same treatment in that regards.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

First Officer Murdoch shooting himself
- also a great piece of myth that likely didn't happen. Though, of course, no one can really know. Though it's doubtful, I cannot fault any dramatist for including this bit ... He's the moron responsible for hitting the iceberg, and the drama of his remorseful suicide is almost too good to pass up when some witnesses claimed it happened.

Again, I have to disagree. Murdoch was hardly a moron – he couldn’t have gained the position he did if he was – and it’s not his fault the ship hit the iceberg. It’s no one person’s fault, really. A series of events that, if taken separately, would be unremarkable.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I deplored the concept of using fictional lovers when there were so many compelling real stories to be told.…

Agreed. Where were the Navratil boys? Archy Butt? Lawrence Beesley? Jack Thayer? Edith Russell? William Stead? If they wanted a strong willed woman making her own way in the Edwardian era, how about Helen Churchill Candee? Tragedy? How about The Allisons? Or the newlyweds, Daniel and Mary Marvin? Or the Goodwin family?