The Impact of James Cameron’s Titanic on Historical Memory
The Famous Film
James Cameron’s (1997) Titanic told the story of two fictional sweethearts on board the famous ship as it struck an iceberg and disastrously sank. The film, released 85 years after the disaster itself, was an enormous and unprecedented success that touched audience members from around the globe. 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 is an event that is widely known and discussed. While the Titanic is not the deadliest maritime disaster, it is certainly the most famous, especially in modern times. It is likely that the widespread fascination with the 1912 disaster can be largely attributed to Cameron’s film, although the exact extent to which is unknown. 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.
Famous Titanic film scene. Wallace, Merie. 2014. Digital Image. “Leonardo DiCaprio on ‘Titanic.’” Entertainment Weekly.
Gaylyn Studlar published a review of the Titanic movie in 2003, and he discussed its impact on “cinematic presence and monumental history,” and analyzed how particular scenes in the movie served as symbols for the greater historical context of the disaster. He stated, “This projection could be denigrated as a process that almost inevitably involves a perversion of history, for viewers’ historical recognition becomes conflated with or replaced by emotional allegiance or psychological identification with fictional characters,” (Studlar, 2003, 100). 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. Instead, emotional investment can further one’s connection to the event, even if one were not present at the time. This has enabled people to continue to envision, study, and reflect on the disaster over a century after it took place.
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. For example, in the Titanic film, Jack and Rose are star-crossed lovers and the viewer watches their doomed romance play out throughout the film. The opening scene shows the real Titanic in its final underwater resting place, signaling to the viewer that its premise surrounds a real-life disaster. 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. 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. 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. 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. This is something that a newspaper article or interview could never do justice (Cameron, 1997).
“You Jump, I Jump, Right?” Scene
Historical Context
While the film is not a “source of historical instruction” (Studlar, 2003, 100) it provides visual representations of the historical context at the time which stretch beyond the movie or even the disaster itself. These scenes and moments reflect the social milieu that inevitably contributed to the devastation of the event. For example, in the midst of the chaotic rush to lifeboats, Cameron’s 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). There is contestation surrounding the accuracy of this scene in particular, as survivor’s stories (such as that from Beesley, 1912, for example) do not recall third-class passengers being gated off from a chance at survival. However, there were certainly differential effects that took place on the Titanic. 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). 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. This is important for the idea of disaster memory because many disasters share similar characteristics, such as the presence of disproportionate effects. The memory of the Titanic disaster would not be fully complete without the differential treatments based on class, and in this case, Cameron’s movie allowed these effects to be on display for the world to watch and learn from.
Lasting Impact
According to Cameron, the film sparked lasting effects in terms of how the disaster is remembered. In a 1997 interview, he stated, “The great lesson of Titanic for us, going into the 21st century is that the inconceivable CAN happen. Those people lived in a time of certainty; they felt they had mastered everything—mastered nature and mastered themselves. But they had mastered neither. A thousand years from now Titanic will still be one of the great stories,” (Elbert, 1997, 3). The sense of invincibility to disasters has not been unique to the Titanic, but rather the idea that man can conquered all has prevailed into modern times, especially with growing technological advancements. Cameron’s film stands as a humbling reality that disaster can strike anyone, anytime and anywhere, regardless of how prepared one may feel. 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. The film, therefore, has made for a particularly salient way of remembering the Titanic’s sinking, because it blatantly showed the implications of invincibility. This has and will remain relevant for future generations to be wary of all possible disasters, no matter how impossible they may seem.
The depiction of the Titanic disaster in Cameron’s 1997 film has furthered fascination and engagement with the disaster over one hundred years after it took place. 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. 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. 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.