12 letters from readers on Titanic

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WSWS : Correspondence : Art & Culture

12 letters from readers on Titanic

Posted 24 March 1998

Finally! A critic with some sense who is unafraid to speak his mind. This has to be the first intelligent review of Titanic I have read. It was an unexpected pleasure to read your review.

SF
4 March, 1998

Some 30 odd years ago I went to sea on the Cunard Liners, the company that purchased the White Star Line and every time we had boat drill the stories of the Titanic would emerge. These stories had been passed down from father to son and the depiction in the film of how the crew were treated was mild. The stories go that the crew was misled and ordered to stay at their stations under the barrel of the gun, or locked into various parts of the ship so the first class passengers could get away safely. Those that were in the water had their hands smashed trying to get into boats even though there was plenty of room. Many were murdered on that night more than the picture depicted.

Some other points: today there are still many boats with rusty defective launching gear, and there are still ships with not enough boats and the timber is dry rotted. Many of these would not last an hour in an angry sea.

The officers came out of a privileged upper class life style and talked down their nose at the crew often referring to the crew as worthless bastards, this is how they saw the crew, that is why they did not care whether they would survive. They saw them as expendable.

Another point I would like to point out is the non existing role of the unions who were supposedly representing the crew but in reality they were representing their backpacked and the bosses. They often got free cruises for suppressing any troubles, and we only ever saw them on pay off day when they came to collect their dues. With their considerable knowledge they knew there were no boats for the crew, and they know it still goes on. Still on the treachery of the unions, they allow workers to remain virtual prisoners on many ships who have no papers, they virtually get no pay and they are locked up with no shore leave ever! They get bashed regally and sometimes sexually mistreated. They have no rights, they cannot do any of the simple ordinary things. Sometimes they jump over the stern of the ship to end it all. Sometimes they try to escape by trying to swim ashore and drown or get eaten by sharks.

JC
9 March, 1998

A classic case of a reviewer who is more full of himself than anything else. I don't even know where to begin, but bottom line is that reviewers who try to find clever ways to talk about just how bad they thought a movie was, will just come out looking STUPID and OUT OF TOUCH when they find nobody is sympathetic to their jokes.

Furthermore, the review stinks of a backlash, in the way the budget is criticized, and the way the reviewer spends a fairly large portion of the review (unsuccessfully) coming up with reasons why a "bad" movie is this successful... STICK TO REVIEWING THE MOVIE!

DI
9 March, 1998

Wow. After that disparaging assessment I have to admit I'm somewhat less curious about this film. It's funny how people are so lame that they'll just jump on the band wagon for the latest "film of the year". Personally I'd trade a few million in effects for some real emotion.

ML
13 March, 1998

I can answer the question of "why have so many members of the "elite" corps of New York film critics thrown their lot in with this film": For the same reason that all we hear about on TV and radio "news" is how Clinton is going to be indicted for lying about Monica Lewinski -- these people have nothing to do and believe that nothing is really important except going along with those individuals and groups who they perceive as having the power and money! Duh!

KB
14 March, 1998

Thank you for an honest review of an incredibly awful movie. Film critics must remember that their job is to tell the truth, and not to make money for a trashy film no matter how expensive. Let's hope this film serves as a symbol of an ending age of characterless film making.

HI
16 March, 1998

"The present generation is not to blame for their tastes"????? Gee, you really don't think too highly of the "present generation", now do you? Well, let's get the facts straight, we aren't too impressed with you either. Any sympathy that you may have isn't addressing real problems. We are not eagerly awaiting to be spoon fed more crap, we are just waiting for the "boomers" to stop force feeding us crap. The only problem the "present generation" has is that it's been spiritually robbed and kept on the back-burner until the "middle-aged steamrollers" are finished finding themselves. Considering your agenda, logic tells me that you simply didn't like Titanic because you can't. Your innocence is lost, and the spiritual depth in Titanic will never be attainable to you. Curl up with your Woody Allen collection, you might relate more.

MS
16 March, 1998

Sir,

I thought that your review was well thought out and honest. It was also well-written and organized. Even if one were not to agree with the points that you raise, the way in which you organize your arguments in a thoughtful, candid, authoritative manner makes it impossible to write you off. I do like the points you raise about the apparent shallowness of the film and its one-dimensional characters and how elements like these in any film do not bring about productive, critical thinking. I had not thought about the movie in this light before and I appreciate you giving me some mental fat to chew.

Sincerely,
AC
18 March, 1998

How can you say the movie is a cliché when a good portion of the film is real life accounts? You have removed yourself so far from the emotions, and the tragedy of the film you can't understand it. Since you can't understand you think everyone else is wrong. You have to open your heart and your mind to get the Titanic experience, if you don't you will miss out. I feel sorry for you, you missed out on one of the best movies of the century.

RB
19 March, 1998

How can you say Cameron has no imagination? I'd say you are jealous of the fact that he's created some damn good films. You can say that The Abyss wasn't imaginative? That's a crock! Aliens ,and Terminator are some of the best and most liked pieces of Sci-Fi around. You honestly think that hundreds of millions people are pathetic, misguided, shortsighted, and unintellectual? Cameron worked years to make Titanic realistic. It was never meant to be a deep, thought-provoking film that people would sit around and analyze to death. It's a simple love story. In this world of complexity there are still matters that deal with simple human nature. People relish that kind of stuff; that doesn't make it a bad film. Not everything is an independent, liberal, and over thought film.

"After years of being something of an outsider, the ‘art’ critic no doubt feels considerable external and internal pressure under the present conditions to conform, to pass from being a highbrow opponent to being one of the crowd, and he justifies this move with the argument that in acquiescing to the Titanic juggernaut he is merely becoming one with the great traditions of Hollywood film making…"

That's a load of B.S.

Cameron is a very smart, innovative, and imaginative person. I'd like to see anything you've done that even approaches his level of imagination. T2 not imaginative? Jesus that's such crap, I could puke. You’re a person that believes that they are witty, and intellectual, when all you really are, most likely, is an uninteresting, unimaginative person who regularly picks apart other people's work to build up their own ego.

BC
19 March, 1998

Dear David Walsh,

As you have pointed out, the most startling thing about the Titanic phenomenon is not that it is popular with the average movie-goer, but that somehow the critics I had previously admired have now failed to accurately see a movie for what it is. I thank you for having the courage to present an alternative viewpoint to the daily feed of pro-Titanic hype. I doubt that any mainstream media outlet would now dare publish anything about Titanic other than its box-office grosses or yet another fluff piece about DiCaprio.

What hurts me most about this situation is that the entire profession of film criticism has been tainted somehow, not because the majority of critics liked Titanic but because of the hyperbolic, over-dramatized, press release-like reviews that many critics have written -- Janet Maslin's being the most apparent. The integrity of film criticism has been damaged, and I believe it will take a long time for true film-lovers to recover.

Your insights into this puzzling and frustrating issue were welcomed by a fellow critic who has seen that the emperor has no clothes.

SM
20 March, 1998

David Walsh,

I haven't yet seen Cameron's Titanic (though, judging from his previous films--most of which I've seen--you're probably right). I think, however, that in puzzling out the popularity of the film you must take into consideration the immense hold that the Titanic disaster has had on the American (and British) public since 1912. A veritable cult has grown up around the incident, nurturing all manner of silliness as well as genuine historical research. Since the ship went down, it has become all things for all people -- a metaphor for just about anything. Many books, many movies (fictional and documentary), even a recent Broadway musical. A very good book I read last year, Down With The Old Canoe by Steven Biel, examines the cultural repercussions of the Titanic.

The appeal of the new film is that it plays into all this, but with amazing detail and special effects. I expect seeing it in a first-class theater with big screen and surround sound pulls you right in. You can participate in the sinking of the Titanic, but not drown. The next logical entertainment step will be a full scale model of the Titanic, at some Universal Studios-type theme park, on which you can be a passenger and experience the sinking -- in perfect safety. There is a thin line today between many movies and theme parks anyway.

MJ
24 March, 1998

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