Reynolds: Titanic Day: The Movie to See and the Movie to Miss @ ExileStreet

ExileStreet ^ | 4/16/08 | John Mark Reynolds

[ParsifalCA]

I have written two plays for my kids to perform based on the sinking of the Titanic, surely a strange parenting technique, and have been interested in the doomed liner most of my life. One of the plays will be performed this weekend, so if you are near Biola University in Los Angeles, you can get my take on what the sinking of Titanic meant.

For the rest of the cosmos, including the better looking, better educated, and more socially aware that will not condescend to see me cling to my outmoded religion due to economic bitterness by writing a play about the Titanic, there are the movies. [more @ ExileStreet]

[Nextrush]

My wife drug us all out to see the sad 1990’s film including my toddler son and young daughters eight and nine years old.

Adultery and nudity. I actually closed my eyes when Kate Winslet was naked because I was ashamed to be seeing it with my family.

Naked people in movies may not be a problem for many of us but for some it always brings out bad thoughts and actions.

I remember once telling a guy who decided to give up drinking not to sell his alcohol to other people because it may hurt them or someone else because they drank it.

For some people, nudity in the movies is art, but for others its a stimulus for little things like masturbation but even worse things like hurting other people.

That’s why such matters need to be handled carefully.

Its not so much how it affects us, its about how it affects others.

In the old days movies were made with how these things might affect the audience in their minds.

[Bender2]

I have to say my age (60) may have me a tad biased, but I feel even with the fantastic CGI effects (and the lovely Kate Winslet's non-CGI original superstructure!) in 1997's Titanic, the plotline of 1953's Titanic was better and rather daring for the times. Also the acting of Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Thelma Ritter, Robert Wagner, Richard Basehart, Brian Aherne, etc was much better IMHO.

As to 1958's A Night to Remember, for the time it was a moving, well made film, but recent revealing TV documentaries have shown while Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller was shown in a most heroic light in the theatrical film (as he was in Walter Lord's book), his actions later in the hearings afterwards to shade his testimony towards covering the White Star line and Harlem and Wolf ship builders' reputations are not as clean and brave.

BTW The Nazis made a propaganda version of the disaster called Titanic in 1943. At that link you can find a history of most of the Titanic film & television productions through the years since 1912.

[Guenevere]

Good post...I agree.

It's hard to find a good movie with good morals...

August Rush..is one of the better movies, although the premise is what happens after a one night stand .... there is NO nudity.

JUNO..is one of the better movies...although again it highlights the consequences of a one time sexual encounter...

...and I found it a life affirming cautionary tale.

[Tanniker Smith]

I actually wondered during the wraparound segments what the research guys must’ve thought when they looked at this wrinkled, old 100-year-old lady while thinking, “there was a naked picture of her in the vault ...”

[Boiling point]

I have always fantasized that I could have saved the Titanic, were I there. For example, there were roughly two thousand people aboard, if the average weight was 150lbs, that’s 150 TONS of people. If everyone grabbed a heavy object and went to the back of the ship, then the anchors, chains and all were released, (hundreds of tons), this would have possibly raised the damaged area above the water line. At the very least it would have raised it high enough to lower the pressure of the water rushing in, thus buying time. With the thousands of man hours available, the entire front of the ship could have been stripped and moved to the back. Also, the yet flooded chambers in the bow could have been filled with buoyant items, thus displacing the water.
A very simple solution, would have been to use the lifeboats available to transfer people and supplies to the very iceburg that sank it.

[netmilsmom]

Get “Enchanted”

One backhanded ‘gay’ comment (easily missed by the kids). One visual ‘gay’ joke (also missed by the kids) and a chipmunk ‘poo’ scene. All the rest is fun.

This is the first movie in years from Disney that has all hand drawn annimation. (first 20 minutes) It’s beautiful.

If we continue to support the good movies and shun the sexualized ones, Hollywood might, and that’s a big might, get the idea.

[llmc1]

I completely agree with Reynolds’ view of the 1997 version. I could not wait for it to be over. I watched the 1953 version the other day.... twice. I cried both times.

[Army Air Corps]

The best part of the 1990s version was the end credits.

[Guenevere]

Saw Enchanted...agree

The Barbara Stanwyck version is much better, deeper and yes, a genuine tearjerker.

[Kenny Bunk]

Boiling has no point. In all fairness to you, B.P., you did say it was a fantasy, and a lubberly one at that.

So, here's mine. If every life boat on the Titanic had been properly deployed, loss of life would have been minimal.

The crew was untrained in the use of the new-fangled patent lifeboat falls, which completed mystified them for hours, and no life-boat drill at all had been conducted for the passengers. The crew must have looked like a bunch of Annapolis yuppies trying to hoist the spinnaker on their new J-105, manual in one hand, lazy guy, halyard, and downhaul in the other. Being British Jack Tars, they probably did put their drinks down first, which would not have happened in Annapolis.

The Captain went into a funk (common enough in emergencies) and did not order abandon ship at all, or at least in no way soon enough. "I say, Steward, go on deck and get me some ice while the ship's architect and I calculate the precise moment at which we all shall die." Teddibly English, you know. Remind me to sail with Scots.

Uncle Benjamin Guggenheim, whom we always called "Googy" at school, should sue for the portrayal of him and Ma Guggenheim as two stock characters from Yiddish vaudeville in that great movie with Clifton Webb and Robert Wagner.

Now, FrPR, cue the Klezmer music and row smartly away from the ship in our otherwise empty lifeboat.

[Boiling point]

Certainly my solutions require swift action and efficient utilization of man hours, both of which were sorely lacking in the first half hour or so after the strike. My point is however, imagine the weight of items that could have been thrown overboard or moved aft in the couple hours time available. Keeping in mind that as the weight is transfered the gash is rising, reducing the pressure, and increasing the effectiveness of the pumps. Also, the time purchased with these actions might have been enough to stay afloat till the Carpathia arrived. Anyway, it is a very fun subject to armchair quarterback.

[Bender2]

Re: I have always fantasized that I could have saved the Titanic, were I there. For example, there were roughly two thousand people aboard, if the average weight was 150lbs, that’s 150 TONS of people. If everyone grabbed a heavy object and went to the back of the ship, then the anchors, chains and all were released, (hundreds of tons), this would have possibly raised the damaged area above the water line. At the very least it would have raised it high enough to lower the pressure of the water rushing in, thus buying time. With the thousands of man hours available, the entire front of the ship could have been stripped and moved to the back. Also, the yet flooded chambers in the bow could have been filled with buoyant items, thus displacing the water.

A very simple solution, would have been to use the lifeboats available to transfer people and supplies to the very iceburg that sank it.

Gadzooks, you have an imagination! However, not being an expert in ocean liners or other big ships and their buoyancy, etc, I don't think there was enough time for your transferring weight fore to aft to work. The Titanic sank in less than two hours from first strike. And as I recall, the cracks in Titanic's hull was located way down below the waterline.

Now, from my watching the documentary channels, I believe transferring all the passengers to the iceberg would be a slim, if not impossible, proposition. One, icebergs can be very unstable, rolling and such as they melt and there is no way to tell if the berg even had an area upon it at the waterline where people and supplies could be landed.

Next, the Titanic took time to slow down and travel a fair distance from the berg after the strike. The berg was also moving along its own path. Now, the lifeboats were only oar powered, so finding the berg, moving passengers and supplies to the boats (all while the Titanic is sinking and listing further and further down into the water), then rowing there and back more than once would again be hampered by the time frame of less than two hours.

That said, what you propose is within the realm of suspending disbelief for a novel or screenplay. So, get cracking!

BTW I expect the first copy... and a healthy cut of the movie rights!

[Kenny Bunk]

Certainly my solutions require swift action and efficient utilization of man hours, both of which were sorely lacking in the first half hour or so after the strike...

Admit it. You're the dude who wrote "The Hardy Boys and Their Electric Yacht." I'd recognize that prose anywhere. I frequently gave Hardy Boys stories to FrPR when he was a stripling youth, to instill in him the manly virtues and much mechanical knowledge.

Alas, he fell under the sway of that dratted Frank Merriwether series, went to an Ivy League school, and now sails about the quiet waters of the Bay listening to Strauss operas on a wind-up Victrola, while sipping a green tea latte.

If you are not too busy, I suggest you fire up the old Remington Desk Calculator and estimate the weight of sea water that flowed in through the 300' long gash in the Titanic's hull. Use 8#/gal. Cautiously assume 500,000 gal/min.

Latest research shows that the iron alloy plates used to build the Titanic became very brittle in cold water. When she hit, she popped her rivets, many far from the site of the damage. It's the iron equivalent of a wooden boat shivering her timbers upon impact with a solid object. "Shiver me timbers!" She had no chance, laddy. Although I grant you, running about the deck shifting cargo and other ipedimenta would have kept the passengers warm, and those trampled in the inevitable melée would have made room in the life boats for others.

My orders to you and FrPR:

"Have the band play a polka
and give every man jack of the passengers free drinks. don't spare the ice.
Marconi the Coast Guard,
And maybe Dial-a-Prayer.
Throw that Leonardo DiCaprio passenger overboard
and his girlfriend with him"

that would lighten the ship enough for me.

[Kenny Bunk]

Next, the Titanic took time to slow down and travel a fair distance from the berg after the strike. The berg was also moving along its own path. Now, the lifeboats were only oar powered, so finding the berg, moving passengers and supplies to the boats (all while the Titanic is sinking and listing further and further down into the water), then rowing there and back more than once would again be hampered by the time frame of less than two hours.

First-rate mind, that Bender fellow. Bit of a pessimist, though.
As far as the movie goes, I'm all for it. Although I never watch any film that does not feature Steve Buscemi, or Harvey Keitel. Preferably both. If Leonardo diCaprio is to be cast in this epic, may I suggest an early demise? Kate Winslett may live.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

the plotline of 1953's Titanic was better and rather daring for the times. Also the acting of Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Thelma Ritter, Robert Wagner, Richard Basehart, Brian Aherne, etc was much better IMHO.

There are two stiff-upper-lip lines in that version that I always remember. Two gentlemen on the deck are looking at the situation and one says to the other, "It looks like we might be having sand for supper." In the other, an officer goes down to the boiler room to ask to stokers to keep the fires going as long as possible, in order to keep the lights on and the radio going. He says to the burly head stoker, "I suppose you know you might not get out." The stoker calmly replies, "Well, that's the way of it sometimes."

[Bender2]

Re: Two gentlemen on the deck are looking at the situation and one says to the other, "It looks like we might be having sand for supper." In the other, an officer goes down to the boiler room to ask to stokers to keep the fires going as long as possible, in order to keep the lights on and the radio going. He says to the burly head stoker, "I suppose you know you might not get out." The stoker calmly replies, "Well, that's the way of it sometimes."

That was Clifton Webb's line, "We may be having sand for supper."

And, sniffle... sniffle! Norman got to finally wear long pants!

And on a serious, tearful moment:

Second Officer Lightoller: [He turns to see an old woman standing next to him] Alright, Mrs Straus.

Ida Straus: Please sir, no.

Second Officer Lightoller: [Looking confused] But Mrs Straus this is the last lifeboat!

Ida Straus: Please Sir, I have been with Mr Straus most of my life, and I will not leave him now.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Clearly you’ve seen it more recently than I have. It’s that stoker that I remember best.

[blackie]

"Ida Straus: Please Sir, I have been with Mr Straus most of my life, and I will not leave him now."

I remember that line.

Speaking of the 90's version: Is there something wrong with me - I can't stand Leonardo DiCaprio?