"Shadow of the Titanic" by Andrew Wilson (2011)

I have always wondered why they made that film about the Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio in it. I did finally see it; about 10 years after its release. It was pretty good, too. But I still wonder about the need to fictionalize something which was so dramatic to begin with.

Spielberg’s “Lincoln” is a perfect example of what can be done with the reality of great events, without the need of adding fictitious characters and events. If you do that, then you get stuff like “Gone with the Wind”, which is a great movie; but the burning of Atlanta was even more intense in terms of real life stories and drama. And, quite frankly, Scarlett annoys the hell out of me.

Andrew Wilson has done something with this book; released in 2011; which I had thought impossible. He has written a book about the Titanic from a new perspective. While most films and books dealing with the Titanic end when the good ship Carpathia docks in New York; this one is just finding its land legs.

 

Rather than just mining the memories of the survivors about the sinking itself, he has gone into the area of how the sinking of the great liner affected their lives after. The answer is a surprising mix of good and bad; as are most things.

My own love affair with the Titanic began when I was about 4 years old and saw the British film version of Walter Lord’s iconic book “A Night to Remember.” The scene where the sea is swirling up the ladder from the engine room is etched forever in my mind. The story of how they staged that movie; using a ship which was about to be cut into scrap; is a great little bit of information. Because the scrapping of that ship had already begun on one side, they used mirrors and backwards letters on the lifeboats to film the scenes of the passengers boarding them.

After a brief recap of events; along with some stories the reader may not have heard before; the book heads straight into the lives of the survivors after the dust of the affair had settled and the waters of emotions were calmer. Well, at least on the surface.

Renee Harris was one of the First Class passengers who lost her husband, but went on to become America’s first theater manager and producer; only to lose everything through over indulgence and stock market losses, relegating her to a life of poverty.

John Jacob Astor; one of the wealthiest men in the world at the time; was on a cruise home from his honeymoon with his 19 year bride, who was 5 months pregnant. He was 54 and went down with the ship. Her life afterwards was marred by a will which forbade her to remarry. Predictably, she lost the inheritance and her home when she fell in love with a man whom she had known as a child. When that marriage failed she tried again with an Italian boxer who used her for practice.

Robert Williams Daniel survived the sinking and married another passenger, Eloise Hughes, whose husband went down with the ship.

But the most intriguing story of all is the one of Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, who allegedly bribed the crew of his lifeboat into not going back to pick up people in the water. He even had his photo taken on the deck of the Carpathia handing 5 pound checks to the crew who had rowed the boat he was in.

The whole incident was probably blown way out of proportion. Sir Cosmo had overheard the crew talking to his wife, who was lamenting the loss of some personal items. One of the crew remarked that it was okay for her, she was rich. But the crew’s pay stopped the moment the ship sank and there would be no money to compensate the crew for their lost possessions. This prompted Sir Cosmo to offer 5 pounds to each of them to help them get started over.

When the newspapers heard the story at the inquiry it was trumped up and ruined Sir Cosmo life and reputation forever. His wife, the irrepressible Lady Duff Gordon, went on to use the events of that night to further her own career as a fashion designer.

J. Bruce Ismay, one of the owners of the White Star Line, was unhappily married at the time of the sinking. His own conduct also came under question for having survived. He was labeled a coward and spent the rest of his life living as a virtual ghost. His hair turned white overnight after being rescued; from the shock of the sinking. He could never crawl out from under the fact that he was the one who decided on having fewer lifeboats than necessary. Although he was following the law at the time, he had been advised not to decrease the number of boats, which he did anyway. In his behalf, it should be noted that he had been engaged in loading the boats on the starboard side, and only boarded after he saw no more women and children aboard.

One of the strangest stories involves a stewardess named Annie Robinson. She had been on a ship that struck an iceberg once before. She then survived the Titanic disaster only to throw herself into the sea one foggy night from a ship that was about to dock in Boston. The fog horns were a reminder of pulling into New York on the Carpathia and drove her mad.

Silent film star Dorothy Gibson was another passenger who survived the Titanic, only to have her life become a series of missteps and mistakes. She spent time as an American citizen in a German concentration camp, only to survive that ordeal and die in a Paris hotel in 1946.

There were 2 children aboard that night. They were being kidnapped by their father, who died in the sinking. The boys were returned to their mother, making the father’s death all the more useless.

The book follows the last survivors through the original “A Night to Remember” activity in the 1950’s; and the through the craze engendered by the location of the ship in the 1980’s, as well as the Leonardo DiCaprio film of the 1990’s. At that time there were only 3 women left alive who were aboard the ship the night it sank. They were all little children at the time, with almost no memory of the event. The last survivor was Millvina Dean, who died in 2009 at the age of 97.

No matter how much you think you know about the Titanic, this book will surprise you. The approach taken by the author; to trace the lives of the survivors after the disaster; lends a whole new perspective to the events of that night so long ago, when the sea swallowed up the unsinkable Titanic.

Titanic - A Timeless Tragedy - Repost

This poster was my first encounter with the Titanic. It was in 1958 and my parents took me to see the film. I was awestruck at the luxury of the ship and the wealth of the travelers aboard her. It was, I believe, the start of my lifelong love affair with ships and all things nautical.

Today marks the 98th anniversary of the sinking of that great ship. The Titanic went down on a cold, moonless night in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. The belief that she was "unsinkable" did her no good. And with lifeboats for less than half of the passengers aboard, the loss of life was tremendous.

At 4 years old I was already familiar with the ocean, having been born less than a mile from the Atlantic Coast in Brooklyn, New York. The fact that the Titanic's survivors had been taken to New York aboard the Carpathia only made those waters more holy to me. I would stare out to sea at night, trying to decipher the meanings of those red and green lights called "bouys" and wonder what lay beyond. Eventually I would find out.

The Titanic was one of those grand affairs conceived at the end of the 19th Century and built in the early years of the 20th Century. It was built with the notion that we were now the Masters of our fates. There was no undertaking that man could not achieve. There was a belief that there was no element which we, as human beings, could not conquer.

Sailing from Southampton on her maiden voyage, she left on April 10th, 1912 for New York City with 2,207 passengers aboard. The ship would never arrive and only 700 or so passengers ever made it to their destination.

I remember watching the film and the scene in which the water comes up the ladderways from the mailroom still leaves an impression upon me. My parents made a lesson of that film, instilling in me that nothing is ever a sure thing. There are forces that are constantly working against us. False pride, greed, visions of grandeur are always lurking and waiting to take us down, just as they did the Titanic.

Through the years, much has been written; and filmed; about this fabled ship and her untimely demise. Some of the stuff is quite informative and lends an even deeper meaning to the tragedy of that cold and fateful night. Some are fictitious versions of the event. It took me almost 10 years before I would even see Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in "Titanic." It seemed so silly to attempt a dramatization of such a powerful and true event.

The stories of the sacrifices made that night are legendary, but well documented. This book, "A Night To Remember" by Walter Lord was first published in 1955. Most of the survivors were still alive and Mr. Lord interviewed them all in preparation for the book. This paperback copy was a gift from my parents when I was 11 years old. As you can see, I still have it. Inside are news clippings from over the years, each one documenting the death of yet another survivor. Morbid; perhaps; but my fascination with this event has shaped a good portion of my life.

The sinking of the Titanic marked the first use of the new wireless distress code "SOS." Ships as far away as Cape Race heard the call. Some attempted to assist in the rescue - others, such as the California, less than 10 miles away, merely watched her sink. The rockets, flares and wireless messages all went unheeded. Only the Carpathia made it, although she arrived after the Titanic had sunk. Plucking the remaining survivors from the water, she raced back to New York. From there the crew was taken to a hearing in Washington D.C. before the Maritime Safety Committee. A separate inquiry was later conducted upon the crews return to England.

As a result of these hearings changes in safety regulations were made; all ships would henceforth carry twice the number of lifeboats needed. This is necessary because when a ship lists too far to port or starboard, half of the boats are incapable of being launched. The number of lifebelts required was increased. Ice warnings became the normal procedure, rather than the exception. The use of the wireless, and mandatory wireless "watches" were also instituted as a result of the Titanic’s loss.

But of all the stories told from that night, none has stayed with me in the way that the story of Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Straus has. They had risen from the ashes of the Confederacy to found a small China business in Philadelphia. From there they went on to make Macy's the world's largest department store.When she was told by her husband to get in the lifeboat along with the other women and children she answered, "We have been living together many years. Where you go, I go." When Hugh Woolner tried to persuade the aging Mr. Straus to get in the boat with Mrs. Straus, he replied, " I will not go before the other men." They were last seen lounging side by side in deck chairs, confusion reigning all about them as they sat, calmly awaiting their fate.

So many stories abound from that night. For the best insight into this remarkable tragedy I can suggest no other source which is better than Mr. Lords' two books on the Titanic. The first is "A Night to Remember", which was filmed twice, the British version being the best. And his follow up "The Night Lives On", published in 1986.

This is Molly Brown, aka the "Unsinkable Molly Brown." A would be socialite from Colorado; she had been snubbed by all the women in her community. She was returning from Europe aboard the Titanic as a way to gain acceptance in the social circles of Denver. In the lifeboat when some of the inexperienced crew members were failing to do their duty, Mrs. Brown rose to the occasion and took command of the boat. When she returned to Denver she snubbed all the "fair weather" friends who now clamored for her company.

An interesting note on the collision is that the sinking was avoidable. Had the ship simply continued on course, rather than making that fateful turn to port in a futile effort to avoid the iceberg, the damage would've been limited to the bow section and the pumps would have controlled the flooding. She would have arrived late, but with all passengers and crew safe.

The other interesting note to this story is the fate of the Carpathia, which had rescued the survivors. At the outbreak of World War One she was pressed into service as a troop ship. She was torpedoed in 1918 enroute from England to Boston. An ignominious end to such an important piece of maritime history, but, such are the ways of the sea...

"Carnage" with Jody Foster and Kate Winslet (2011)

When two young boys come to blows in a Brooklyn Heights playground, the parents of the two children get together to discuss the incident and just who is responsible. What happens from there is both hilariously funny, and also sadly true.

The two boys are never shown, except during a longshot while the opening credits are rolling. It is apparent though, that one of the boys has hit the other with what looks like a hockey stick. The film immediately shifts to the living room of Penelope and Michael Longstreet; played by John Reilly and Jody Foster; he is a hardware salesman, and she is an activist as well as a writer. They are the parents of the boy who was injured in the fight. The other couple, Alan and Nancy Cowan; played by Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet; have agreed to come over and talk with the Longstreet’s about the incident.

What follows is the unraveling of the masks we all wear in order to justify our own views, as well as impress others. The two couples are very different, yet the problems they face in their marriages are somewhat similar, and may have colored their children’s behavior.

As the day turns into evening; and the bottle of scotch gets lower and lower; the true feelings of each couple come to the surface, and surprisingly they are not always in lockstep with one another. And when all is said and done, the children have gone on playing in the park, seemingly unaffected by the differences between the grownups at all.

Directed by Roman Polanski, this film is reminiscent of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, in that the interaction between the couples exposes the cracks in the facades of their seemingly “perfect” lives. 

"The Reader" with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes

With powerful and moving performances by both Ms. Winslet and Mr. Fiennes, this movie tackles some very tough, and sensitive questions.

After the Second World War, there were all sorts of trials in Germany, ranging from Nuremberg to the smaller "truth" type commissions. Germany, as a nation, was re-inventing herself, under the dubious guise that "nobody knew anything" about what was going on.

Caught in this post war web of political re-structure are Hanna Schmitz, a streetcar conductress, played incredibly by Kate Winslet, and a young boy of 16, Michael, who becomes Hanna's lover. He is in high school. But there is something about Hanna that he cannot penetrate, and as a result of this, and their disparity in ages, they drift apart. He becomes a law student.

When, 8 years later, in 1966, his class is involved in one of the "commission" trials, Michael learns that Hanna was a guard at Auschwitz, selecting, along with 6 other guards, who was to die each month, as more women arrived and there was no room.

This is an intense movie that calls to question where the line is drawn between individual responsibilty, and the madness of the society around that individual. The age old question of just who is responsible for not only giving the orders, but at what point we, as individuals, are willing to pay the price for standing upon our principles is explored.

When the grown Michael, Ralph Fiennes, becomes a Prosecutor, years later, in 1988, Hanna becomes eligible for release after 22 years in prison. Her only link to the outside world, and her freedom, is Michael. He, at first, refuses her letters, setting off an emotional crisis within himself, calling upon him to answer some very difficult questions, about his own motivations. By this time he is married and has a daughter of his own.

This is a difficult film to watch on certain levels, but an important one. In order to understand the future, we must all face our pasts. In the final analysis, we are all our own judges, and in many cases, our own juries as well, as we attempt to escape from our pasts. Sometimes, we are even our own executioners, unwilling, or unable to pardon the things that we have done. And although others can see us as human, there are times when we cannot see ourselves fully.

Excellent direction, staging and acting make this a film worth watching.