{"id":51,"date":"2020-11-05T09:25:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T14:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-kmoyniha\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2020-12-15T15:12:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T20:12:34","slug":"your-choosing-ii","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-kmoyniha\/your-choosing-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Fame and Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Impact of James Cameron’s\u00a0Titanic<\/em> on Historical Memory<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Famous Film<\/u><\/p>\n

James Cameron\u2019s (1997) Titanic<\/em> told the story of two fictional sweethearts on board the famous ship as it struck an iceberg and disastrously sank.\u00a0 The film, released 85 years after the disaster itself, was an enormous and unprecedented success that touched audience members from around the globe.\u00a0 Over 108 years after the calamitous night which took the lives of over 1500 passengers and crew members on board, the sinking of the Titanic<\/em> is an event that is widely known and discussed.\u00a0 While the Titanic<\/em> is not the deadliest maritime disaster, it is certainly the most famous, especially in modern times.\u00a0 It is likely that the widespread fascination with the 1912 disaster can be largely attributed to Cameron\u2019s film, although the exact extent to which is unknown.\u00a0 Despite debate surrounding the accuracy of the movie, what is certain is that it has made an impact on the historical memory of the disaster.<\/p>\n

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Famous Titanic film scene. Wallace, Merie. 2014. Digital Image. \u201cLeonardo DiCaprio on \u2018Titanic.\u2019\u201d Entertainment Weekly.<\/p><\/div>\n

Gaylyn Studlar published a review of the Titanic<\/em> movie in 2003, and he discussed its impact on \u201ccinematic presence and monumental history,\u201d and analyzed how particular scenes in the movie served as symbols for the greater historical context of the disaster.\u00a0 He stated, \u201cThis projection could be denigrated as a process that almost inevitably involves a perversion of history, for viewers\u2019 historical recognition becomes conflated with or replaced by emotional allegiance or psychological identification with fictional characters,\u201d (Studlar, 2003, 100).\u00a0 While it is true that the film romanticized the disaster and added in fictitious elements to keep the modern audience engaged, emotional allegiance and psychological recognition are not necessarily negative feelings to have towards a retelling of a disaster.\u00a0 Instead, emotional investment can further one\u2019s connection to the event, even if one were not present at the time.\u00a0 This has enabled people to continue to envision, study, and reflect on the disaster over a century after it took place.<\/p>\n

A key impact of the film was that it gave people a sense of emotional connection to the disaster, which in turn, made it more memorable than disasters that are not depicted in popular culture.\u00a0 For example, in the Titanic <\/em>film, Jack and Rose are star-crossed lovers and the viewer watches their doomed romance play out throughout the film.\u00a0 The opening scene shows the real Titanic <\/em>in its final underwater resting place, signaling to the viewer that its premise surrounds a real-life disaster.\u00a0 The viewer follows Jack and Rose through their journey of love as they are aware of their ultimate fate, but the forbidden romance between the third-class man and the first-class woman remains engaging and heart wrenching, nonetheless.\u00a0 As the viewer takes on this journey with Jack and Rose, they bear witness to the tragically impossible decision that men and women faced in the disaster, where women were forced to choose between life alone or death with their significant other.\u00a0 As Rose boarded her lifeboat, she was overcome with the love she felt for Jack and decided she would rather be with him and risk her life than make it to safety alone, so she jumped out of the lifeboat and found her way to Jack once again.\u00a0 In this harrowing decision, the viewer feels the pain of the impossible choices that passengers were forced to face, lending themselves to tragic endings regardless.\u00a0 This is something that a newspaper article or interview could never do justice (Cameron, 1997).<\/p>\n

“You Jump, I Jump, Right?” Scene<\/a><\/p>\n

Historical Context<\/u><\/p>\n

While the film is not a \u201csource of historical instruction\u201d (Studlar, 2003, 100) it provides visual representations of the historical context at the time which stretch beyond the movie or even the disaster itself.\u00a0 These scenes and moments reflect the social milieu that inevitably contributed to the devastation of the event.\u00a0 For example, in the midst of the chaotic rush to lifeboats, Cameron\u2019s film depicted third class passengers locked behind gates and guarded by crew members, unable to even make an attempt at securing a spot on one of the boats (Cameron, 1997).\u00a0 There is contestation surrounding the accuracy of this scene in particular, as survivor\u2019s stories (such as that from Beesley, 1912, for example) do not recall third-class passengers being gated off from a chance at survival.\u00a0 However, there were certainly differential effects that took place on the Titanic<\/em>.\u00a0 Even if third-class passengers were not locked in the ship itself, their cabin locations and lack of access to information proved devastating for their chances of survival (Levinson, 2012, 151).\u00a0 The film depicted these class distinctions rather jarringly, which enabled the viewer to understand the social context of the time (which was one that was highly segregated along class lines), and clearly showed the tragic effects of class segregation in a time of crisis.\u00a0 This is important for the idea of disaster memory because many disasters share similar characteristics, such as the presence of disproportionate effects.\u00a0 The memory of the Titanic<\/em> disaster would not be fully complete without the differential treatments based on class, and in this case, Cameron\u2019s movie allowed these effects to be on display for the world to watch and learn from.<\/p>\n

Locked gates scene<\/a><\/p>\n

Lasting Impact<\/u><\/p>\n

According to Cameron, the film sparked lasting effects in terms of how the disaster is remembered.\u00a0 In a 1997 interview, he stated, \u201cThe great lesson of Titanic for us, going into the 21st<\/sup> century is that the inconceivable CAN happen.\u00a0 Those people lived in a time of certainty; they felt they had mastered everything\u2014mastered nature and mastered themselves. But they had mastered neither.\u00a0 A thousand years from now Titanic will still be one of the great stories,\u201d (Elbert, 1997, 3).\u00a0 The sense of invincibility to disasters has not been unique to the Titanic<\/em>, but rather the idea that man can conquered all has prevailed into modern times, especially with growing technological advancements.\u00a0 Cameron\u2019s film stands as a humbling reality that disaster can strike anyone, anytime and anywhere, regardless of how prepared one may feel.\u00a0 Viewers witness the shock, heartbreak and tragedy that followed the sinking of a ship that was a modern glory of its time, which served as a reminder of how man is not immune to future disasters either.\u00a0 The film, therefore, has made for a particularly salient way of remembering the Titanic<\/em>\u2019s sinking, because it blatantly showed the implications of invincibility.\u00a0 This has and will remain relevant for future generations to be wary of all possible disasters, no matter how impossible they may seem.<\/p>\n

The depiction of the Titanic<\/em> disaster in Cameron\u2019s 1997 film has furthered fascination and engagement with the disaster over one hundred years after it took place.\u00a0 Although it contains fictitious elements, the film has brought to life the tragedy of the event which has been an integral part of the way it is remembered.\u00a0 With the emotional connection that it has brought to viewers along with the rendering of the greater context in which the disaster took place, it has stood as a successful mechanism for remembering the fragility of human lives and technology.\u00a0 In the end, the film has helped people remember and connect with the disaster, which is necessary if lessons are ever to be taken from it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Impact of James Cameron’s\u00a0Titanic on Historical Memory The Famous Film James Cameron\u2019s (1997) Titanic told the story of two fictional sweethearts on board the famous ship as it struck an iceberg and disastrously sank.\u00a0 The film, released 85 years after the disaster itself, was an enormous and unprecedented success that touched audience members from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-51","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-kmoyniha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-kmoyniha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-kmoyniha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-kmoyniha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-kmoyniha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-kmoyniha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-kmoyniha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}