Monday, March 18, 2013

Titanic (1997)


The plot of the movie is a typical romance, rich girl falls in love with poor boy and everyone disapproves.  I did enjoy the special effects. It really did look like the ship was sinking. I watched a tv special on how they made the movie and it was very interesting.  However, there are too many anachronisms to count in this movie. I'll mention a couple.


  • Jack tells Rose that they can go to Santa Monica Pier and "ride the roller coaster until we throw up". Curious, I read about the history of the Santa Monica Pier. It turns out that not only was there no roller coaster back then, but no part of the amusement park was built until after 1915. The roller coaster wasn't added until later. 
  • When the bad guy officers are looking for Jack and Rose, the flashlight they use has a bright white light instead of the normal yellowish ones. This kind of light didn't exist in flashlights back then.
  • If you'll notice the pipes and propellors, several shots show that they were welded, which was not the normal practice and was definitely not perfected back then.
  • Rose talks about Freud's ideas about the male preoccupation with "size" (you know what I'm talking about). However, these ideas were not published until 1921 (Beyond the Pleasure Principle). He did write about penis envy, which is focused towards women, in the years 1905-1908 so I can kind of see the confusion.
  •  Jack also says he went ice fishing with his dad at Lake Wissota. Now we know that the Titanic sunk in 1912.  Lake Wissota is a lake in Wisconsin that was formed by the construction of a hydroelectric dam in 1917.
I know that there has to be more, but that's all I'm going to include for now. Titanic is a lesson in anachronisms. Lesson is: don't do them, instead do some actual research before making a movie. The Titanic sunk on April 15th, 1912, and I was born on April 15th, 1986.  That's how I remember the exact date. It doesn't mean I want to see things from the '80s in this movie. Movie gets 4/10 because the special effects do not make up for lack of research.

1 comment:

  1. High five for not enjoying this movie. This movie makes my eyes bleed.

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