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Titanic History Thursday, January 30, 2025 |
| 1854 - 1st class passenger Mr Arthur Webster Newell was born to Benjamin Newell and Susan Bennett Newell in Chelsea, Massachusetts, USA.
1867 - 1st class survivor Mr Walter James Hawksford was born. 1894 - 1st class survivor Mrs Mary Graham Carmichael Marvin was born to Frank Farquharsen and his wife. 1920 - 1st class survivor Mrs Mary Wick died at the age of 53. 2001 - 2nd class survivor Master Michel Marcel Navratil died in Montpellier, France at the age of 92. 1990 - 3rd class survivor Miss Anna "Annie" Mcgowan died in Chicago, Illinois, USA at the age of 95. 1958 - 3rd class survivor Mrs Beila Moor died at the age of 75. |
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British Film Institute: Modern Classics: Titanic
by David M. Lubin
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Review by: Copal
As a fan of the movie much more than a rivet-counter for the history, I've wanted in-depth analysis of the movie. The majority of what has been written about James Cameron's movie has been short articles in magazines, gushing praise written by Cameron himself or his colleagues, or vapid teen magazines saying nothing more than "Titanic is the best movie ever!" This movie has resonated in me to the point of sprouting an obsession, and I wanted to know why it changed me and so many people around the world. I would say that these people are just like me, but through the Internet I have met men, women, girls, and boys of varying ages and backgrounds who were all dramatically affected by this three hour movie. What is it about the tale of a first class woman and a third class man falling in love on a doomed ship? Lubin eloquently guides the reader through the entirety of the movie experience, starting with who went to see the movie. He chronicles the prejudices he came across in researching and writing the book for the British Film Institute. From the movie's golden opening scenes, Lubin illuminates the cultural surrounding all of us, the viewers, and how the story from so many decades ago relates back to us. There is a cinematic language we've all seen again and again, but with Lubin's insight, the movie turns into something you can turn in your hand, with depth and crevices you'd never noticed before. The whole film is new again. Just like when you are watching the frames go by, you cannot turn away from the comparisons to modern and classic paintings, films, literature, and popular culture. Lubin follows up a comparison to the screwball comedies of the thirties by recalling the movie It Happened One Night (1934) in which Peter (Clark Gable) teaches Ellie (Claudette Colbert) to dunk a donut. It is a necessity in a screwball comedy for one of the mismatched lovers to teach the other something, just like Jack teaches Rose to spit and she helps him through upper class dining. Later, as Jack draws Rose, it is pointed out how Cameron turned the cameras on elderly Rose's present day audience. By doing so, we ourselves are captivated by the gorgeous visuals and the sensuality of Jack's and Rose's unspoken gazes. So we exhale and laugh at ourselves just like they do on the screen just to continue with a deep kiss between Jack and Rose as he hands over the sketch. Rose's rebellion through giving Lovejoy the finger, not wearing a corset, giggling, and running about is "the sort of behavior that conservatives liked to point to when charging modern women with civilization's decline," Lubin writes. Rose's actions seem timed so that one might link her to the tragedy about to ensue, "steaming ahead far too fast and without proper lookout." This book also looks at the history of the ship and why Cameron went about it the way he did. Other movies about this same ship sinking into the Atlantic have skewed the audience's view so that they might blame the English (Nazi propaganda film), God for taking revenge on the claims that man had overcome Him, the greed and optimism of the time, and disorder and miscommunication (A Night to Remember). Cameron went the route of blaming capitalists without regard for human life, and most certainly not the lives of lower classes. Cameron's Titanic "preaches a doctrine of corporate responsibility toward consumers." If Cameron had all of the things Lubin realized in mind as he created Titanic, it truly is a masterpiece of the modern era. I'm not one to take statements like that lightly. Lubin extracts still more from Titanic to the very end, leaving the questions in my mind answered but also wanting there to be more books like this dedicated to this film. A film that now undoubtedly deserves it. (As a side note, the credits for the movie at the end of David M. Lubin's book lists the following uncredited performances: Man at dance (James Cameron), deckhand (Tony Kenny), Frederick Spedden (David Lynch), Man being combed for lice (Francisco Valdez)) |
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