The TITANIC

Moira subscribes to THE LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS.  I was just reading a recent issue with an article on the TITANIC.  That's a subject that's fascinated me for a long time.  I've sometimes dreamed of being on the TITANIC. (I often dream about being on ships or trains.) According to this article, when the ship's wireless operator received a message from another ship saying "There are icebergs in these waters.  We've stopped for the night," he responded "Shut up, I'm busy contacting Newfoundland." (With a period a bad weather just ended, he had a big backlog of personal messages to send.)

Yes, I have seen James Cameron's shameless movie TITANIC. (I saw it a second time in its 3-D re-release last year, but left when the ship started sinking.) Technically, it's expertly made, but Cameron can't resist cheap tricks and obvious cliches. Remember in ALIENS when he ended a scene by having Sigourney Weaver suddenly give birth to an alien and then revealing this was just a dream?  It was particularly contemptible to show that Rose was a "free spirit" by having her smoking--Virginia Slims?--despite the disapproval of her mother and fiance.  Cameron has admitted he had Jack and Rose smoking because teenage moviegoers are stupid enough to think that smoking is "cool." I wonder how many teenagers got hooked on cigarettes because of that movie?

I actually prefer the 1958 British movie A NIGHT TO REMEMBER. (I liked Walter Lord's book too, and also read his sequel THE NIGHT LIVES ON.)