Titanic 3D

[gruesomebrat]

Am I the only one who finds it distasteful that James Cameron is not only once again trying to upstage the anniversary of the Titanic disaster on it's anniversary, but he chose to do it on the centennial?

I mean, you know that most people are going to be all abuzz about the re-release of the Titanic movie, and completely miss the fact that the 100th anniversary is only a couple days from now...

 

[Jennywocky]

Hmmm. I thought it only made the anniversary more promiment in the news, rather like cross-marketing and free advertising.

I was more disturbed to see comments by teens on Facebook and elsewhere revealing that they didn't realize the Titanic movie was based on an actual historical event. Crazy.

 

[gruesomebrat]

I was more disturbed to see comments by teens on Facebook and elsewhere revealing that they didn't realize the Titanic movie was based on an actual historical event. Crazy.

WHAT???? Please tell me you're joking...

If not, where can I find these comments to see the idiocy for myself? What the hell is wrong with our educational system in North America that people don't know that a popular movie had it's basis in a real-life disaster that resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives...

 

[Melkor]

I don't care to be frank. I'm sick of hearing about it.

I'd say a thousand times more people are killed yearly by famine, exploitation and other invisible, unjust murders than a single glamorised accident.

Oh, and being from belfast, the place that birthed the Titanic I've had to hear twice as much about. One literally can't watch the news, television or read the papers without hearing about it.

They recently opened a massive Titanic museum here, and there are several tv programs on British/ irish television covering every aspect of the whole debacle.

There's dramatisations of the event, documentaries on the schematics or 'building of' there's even a drama about a court case after the titanic and I shit you not a documentary about the life of the ICEBERG that sank it.

It's a money maker, pure and simple.

 

[Cognisant]

To be fair that has been bugging me ever since I saw the movie, I mean we find out about what happens to the ship and the people aboard it in great detail, but what happened to the iceberg?

I want to know if the iceberg lived happily ever after or if being sucker punched by a gigantic iron ship in the middle of the night left it traumatized for the rest of it's icy life.

 

[Jennywocky]

I don't care to be frank. I'm sick of hearing about it.

I'd say a thousand times more people are killed yearly by famine, exploitation and other invisible, unjust murders than a single glamorised accident.

Oh, and being from belfast, the place that birthed the Titanic I've had to hear twice as much about. One literally can't watch the news, television or read the papers without hearing about it.

They recently opened a massive Titanic museum here, and there are several tv programs on British/ irish television covering every aspect of the whole debacle.

There's dramatisations of the event, documentaries on the schematics or 'building of' there's even a drama about a court case after the titanic and I shit you not a documentary about the life of the ICEBERG that sank it.

It's a money maker, pure and simple.

Bolded is true.

I wouldn't say "just" a money maker, although it makes money and a lot of it. I think people authentically feel some sort of emotional connection over it. However, it's more in a fairy-tale kind of sense ... living out a vicarious tragedy experience a century ago by complete strangers. Kind of the glamorization and packaging of someone else's pain for public consumption.

I would also not downplay and say it wasn't a tragedy for the people involved and their families. Their grief was real. But nowadays, it seems that our culture is 'piggy-backing' off that grief to create some event by which we can invest emotionally since the tragedies in our own lives are boring and trivial.

it's become more of a "cultural legend" that resonates emotionally, than something that people can actually respond to. As you say, there's some pretty horrid things happening nowadays that we do have power to change but that are not being changed, which is a tragedy in itself.

 

[Melkor]

Well...
My philosophy has always been that we should stop fussing over wars that happened a century ago and start concentrating on the ones happening now.

I always found it a strange paradox that we bemoan and are intrigued by past tragedies and
events while blatantly ignoring the ones on our doorstep.

And I don't know if anyone can have true emotional investment in a hundred year old event. I mean, it's not like you'd know anyone from then or have any memories of it. Unless it's on a scale such as the holocaust (of which few events are comparable) I don't think it's really valid.

I don't know my great great grandparents and frankly whatever they experienced is more or less irrelevant unless they were prime scientists or elaborate, contraversial figures. Sure I wouldn't be here without them, but that would have made little difference to the world and I'm sure they gave little thought to my existence or anyone elses when they bonked.

Anything else is most likely just fanciful romantic inklings or the most dreadful of mind poisons, patriotism. XD