100 Years Ago

Memory Eternal

The British ocean liner Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank less than three hours later claiming more than 1500 lives. Taking out the two world wars, the Titanic disaster was probably the single biggest news story of the twentieth century until President Kennedy was assassinated. This is being reported on and discussed all over the place so I'm not going to belabor it here. For anyone (is there anyone in this category?) who may not be familiar with the story I recommend the book A Night to Remember by Walter Lord, an eminently readable history of that tragic night.  The movie of the same name remains the gold standard for those seeking an historically accurate film treatment of the shipwreck. 

While the special effects are excellent, I really can't endorse James Cameron's 1997 film.  The plot is so far fetched it strains the bounds of credulity. And of course Cameron presents the same cartoonish caricatures of those in First Class and the passengers in Steerage that one finds in almost all films within the genre.  Beyond which it plays pretty fast and loose with historical detail and "dramatic license."