The Dark Knight - [spoilers ahead, ye be warned]

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

I hated Titanic for its unique ability to make me not care in the slightest whether any character in it lived or died.

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.

The sinking is not as visually splendid, but a real tearjerker - imo. And I love any film that creates suspence when the outcome is very well known. 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.

Originally Posted by JWBear

Just off the top of my head:

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.

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.

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.

Colonel Gracie depicted as a snobbish Brit, when really he was a nerdish military historian from Georgia.
- yes, sloppy depiction in service of a pale story theme.

The dismissal of Lady Duff-Gordon as a maker of naughty ladies underthings; she was, in fact, “Lucille”… one of the most famous, influential (and expensive) fashion designers of the early 20th century
- well, in all fairness, she was barely a character in the movie. That her fame and field were less than accurately described cannot, imo, be considered an historical error.

There are more, I can’t remember them all.
Yes, there are plenty more ... amazingly more ways in which the tale was told with fantastic accuracy ... though many important things were left out. Ommissions, however, are not errors.


I deplored the concept of using fictional lovers when there were so many compelling real stories to be told. But once fictionalized, I can't have too big a problem with a story theme rooted in the melodrama of the age featuring characters molded to a modern mode of anachronism (not unlke the proto-feminists of Disney animation.)


Sigh, not the best film. But amazing for its visual accuracy of the ship and the sinking, and rather high marks on the accuracy of the story. A decidely mixed bag. I think Titanic and A Night to Remember make a great double feature that compliment each other with a resulting full picture of the tragedy ... if you've got 6 hours to spare.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

We saw Titanic in Mazatlan, with spanish subtitles. It was interesting to observe the delayed reaction, between something said on the screen, and it being read and interpreted a few seconds later.