In this article, the author is chiefly concerned with the elaborate Victorian rituals of courtship which find prominence on the ship especially in the exchange between Rose and her would be husband who if made of money, is nothing but a brute and a rude tyrant. The author explains that the plot is made much more platable by the inclusion of Jack who coming from steerage would almost have never been allowed to dine at the table with the elite of Victorian society. However this inacurracy pales into insignificance when the witty exchanges between Jack and the old men during the dinner party add so much spice and interest to the film and discussion in question.
In your view, do the historical inaccuracies harm or help our understanding of past events and historical figures? Explain
Such historical innacurracies only help to understand the social mores of society in the past and also the nature of events. We are able to understand that unfortunately such whirlwind romances like Jack and Rose were definitely not possible in Victorian times as everything was regulated by strict social mores which were rarely deviated from. Also we can learn a lot from the humanism of those who lived a poor life and can also understand why the Titanic tragedy perpetrated itself, principally due to the fact that it was impossible for all those on the ship to make it to safety. Although we have a dramatized version of events, colour and imagination create a better understaning of the past as no one really knows what went on on that fateful night in April 1912
In your view, do the historical inaccuracies harm or help our understanding of the present (people or groups)? that is to say do directors use historical events and people to make a point about Americans today? Explain.
Directors have consistent liberty to portray certain messages in their films and James cameron in Titanic is obviously no exception. Although the film is rather loosely and faithfully based on those fateful events which occurred in 1912, the love story is actually the most important theme of the film. In it, Cameron provides a scathing critique of New York society at the time where couples were matched up not according to their love for each other but to the social mores and rigid expectations of those times. Thus it was important that money marry name so that the family would continue to grow in social prestige and importance.
Directors have consistenly made points about American society in other recent films such as ‘Jerry McGuire’ which ridicules the bubble that is sports and PR marketing and the thirst for money and social status. ‘Titanic’ is rather typical in that sense as it provides a subsntial social commentary on how lower class people were treated even if they were arrested as what ahppened to Jack when Rose’s future husband slipped a precious necklace into his pocket and he obviously wasen’t believed. The film is rich with all these nuances and commentaries and as such is one of the finest examples of historical commentary available to us.
