Anchors Away

Here’s revisiting the original blockbuster film Titanic as the ‘unsinkable ship’ RMS Titanic sets sail again on April 5 to theatres world over and this time in 3D

Date of release: December 19, 1997

Director: James Cameron

Writer: James Cameron

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Gloria Stuart

Titanic’s timeline

What: RMS Titanic, a passenger liner

Where: North Atlantic Ocean

Date: April 15, 1912

Route: Southampton to New York City

Passengers: 1,317,

Crew: 885

THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC: At 11.40 pm (ship’s time), lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the obstacle and the engines to be put in reverse, but it was too late; the starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline.

At the box office

At $200 million, the movie cost more than the Titanic itself. The cost to construct the ship in 1910-1912 was £1.5 million, equivalent to $7.5 million at the time and about $120 to $150 million in 1997. It is the most expensive movie to be filmed in the 20th century.

The most expensive first-class suite on the Titanic cost $4,350, the equivalent of about $75,000 today.

The film earned $8,658,814 on its opening day and $28,638,131 over the opening weekend from 2,674 theaters, averaging to about $10,710 per venue, and ranking number one at the box office, ahead of the eighteenth James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.

The film made double its domestic amount overseas, generating an international gross of $1,242,413,080 and accumulating a grand total of $1,843,201,268 worldwide. It became the highest-grossing film in history, and remained so for 12 years, until Avatar, also written and directed by Cameron, surpassed it in 2010.

Recognition and awards

This was the first movie to win both the Academy and MTV Movie Award for Best Picture.

One of three films to win a total of 11 Academy Awards, the others being Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

The film took home the Oscar for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography , Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song and Best Art Direction

Ranks first in the Academy Award Most Nominated Films list with 14 nominations, tying with All About Eve.

DID YOU KNOW…?

After completing Terminator 2: Judgment Day, James Cameron got the idea to do the film after watching A Night to Remember. He spent five years doing research on the Titanic and its fate.

The studios wanted Matthew McConaughey for Jack’s role, but James Cameron insisted on Leonardo DiCaprio.

James Cameron went on the dives to the real Titanic himself, and found it an overwhelming emotional experience to actually see it. He ended up spending more time with the ship than its living passengers did.

In the scene where the water comes crashing into the Grand Staircase room, the filmmakers only had one shot at it because the entire set and furnishings were going to be destroyed in the shot.

James Cameron drew all the pictures in Jack’s sketchbook. In fact, the hands seen sketching Rose wearing the necklace are not Jack’s but Cameron’s. Since he is left-handed and Jack right-handed, the shots were mirror-imaged in post-production.

After finding out that she had to be naked in front of Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet decided to break the ice, and when they first met, she flashed him.

Memorable quotes

It’s been 84 years, and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in. Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.

- Old Rose

I’m the king of the world!

-Jack Dawson

That’s the one good thing about Paris: there’s a lot of girls willing to take their clothes off.

-Jack Dawson

Rose: You have a gift Jack, you do. You see people.

Jack: I see you.

Rose: And?

Jack: You wouldn’t have jumped.

So this is the ship they say is unsinkable?

-Rose’s Mother

It is unsinkable. God himself could not sink this ship!

-Caledon Hockley

Take a look at some of the other films made in water

Waterworld: In the future, the Earth is engulfed with water when the polar ice caps melts, leaving the lands and civilisation beneath the sea. In Waterworld drifters sail across the waters of the world on their man-made ships, trading for supplies and salvaging what is left of civilisation, communities of survivors lives in towns called “Atolls” and a force of evil pirates “The Smokers”travel across Waterworld in search of a mythical island called “Dryland”. In this post-apocalyptic science-fiction film the hero is a mutant mariner who fights starvation, the Smokers and reluctantly helps a woman and a young girl find dry land.

Director: Kevin Reynolds

Abyss: An American nuclear submarine encounters an alien species, which coincidentally causes massive electrical and hydraulic malfunctions, causing the sub to crash into an underwater cliff and sink. The navy asks the workers of a nearby underwater oil rig who are joined by a number of navy Seals to locate and investigate the cause of the crash. As the crew embark on their mission, they encounter a number of difficulties and discover that they may not be alone. Most of the underwater filming took place in a half-completed nuclear reactor facility in Gaffney, South Carolina, including the largest underwater set in the world at 7 million gallons.

Director: James Cameron

Poseidon (2006): What set out to be a New Year party turns into a death trap for over 2,000 passengers and crew on board the huge cruise ship ‘Poseidon’ when it capsizes in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean! A small group of survivors find themselves unlikely allies in a battle for their lives. Preferring to test the odds alone, Dylan Johns ignores the captain’s orders to wait below for possible rescue and sets out to find his own way to safety. What begins as a solo mission soon draws others. As the unstable vessel rapidly fills with water each must draw on skills and strengths they didn’t even know they possessed, fighting against time for their own survival.

Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Perfect Storm: In October 1991, a swordfishing boat, The Andrea Gail, returned to port in Massachusetts with a poor catch. Desperate for money, the captain convinces the crew to join him for one more late season fishing expedition. They head out past their usual fishing grounds. At the height of their fishing the ice machine breaks; the only way to preserve their catch is to hurry back to shore. After debating whether to sail through the building storm or to wait it out, the crew decide to risk the storm. However, between the Andrea Gail and Gloucester is a confluence of two powerful weather fronts and a hurricane, which the crew of Andrea Gail underestimate.

Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Tags: 3D, blockbuster film, revisiting, RMS Titanic, Titanic, unsinkable ship

Category: Hollywood