Titanic

Having listened to all of the episodes on ‘The Rest is History’ podcast on the Titanic, which took the listener through its building for White Star lines in the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding yards in Belfast to its sinking when it hit a iceberg in April 1912,

I then decided to watch – or possibly rewatch as I could not recall seeing it – the 1997 film directed by James Cameron, starring Leonardo diCaprio and then 22 year old Kate Winslet.

There are major gaps, discrepancies and errors between the podcast and the film, which is a fictional account of the love affaire between drifter Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and posh girl Rose Duwitt Ducater (Kate Winslet), unhappy in her engagement to the ruthless financier Cal  Billy Zane).

The podcast stated that US Immigration insisted that the ship classes should be divided by barriers to avoid infection and this was not as in the film where it was a class divide separating third from first class.

Lord Ismay, owner of White Star, might have insisted that the vessel went faster but this was not unusual at the time, nor was the proportion of lifeboats to passengers. Lord Ismay did escape in a life boat but not till the end.

In other respects the film was true to the facts: the bulkheads did not reach the ceiling of 6 state rooms, which was why they filled so quickly with water which over flowed from one to another.

It was the film that made Kate Winslet who delivered a convincing performance.

In one scene Jack Dawson sketched her naked except for the Heart of the Sea Diamond pendant and I could not but see she has a big bum.

This sort of comment can now get a male critic into trouble, but it’s actually meant as a compliment. Kate Winslet is no Garboesque beauty but she is a fine actress with great range of rôles and – typically playing headstrong passionate women – is worth watching in any film or TV series

Leonardo diCaprio was already big box office and two reliable British actors – Bernard Hill as the ship captain and David Warner as Cal’s enforcer – contributed fine performances too.

112 years on the Titanic sinking is still a huge event.

It took over 2 hours to capsize after striking the side of the iceberg (had it ploughed through it, the ship might not have sunk), which was the length of the film.

Towards the end, when old Rose recounts the story to those in a vessel seeking to locate the jewel, it seemed to take ages to end.

Old Rose throws it in the sea in an identical ending to the book “All the Light you cannot see“.

The film cost some $200m to make but did eventually show a profit.