Titanic Movie Mistakes: What They Got Wrong

Titanic from 1997 is a film that a lot of people on the internet just love to hate partially because it was probably so successful it's just one of those strange cultural phenomena where the more popular it gets the more people don't want to like it but if you've watched this channel in the past you'll know that I'm a big fan of it the reason for that is it's one of the films that got me really interested in Titanic in the first place this is mainly because it was done really well the film gets a lot right especially when you consider that this is kind of like the era where Hollywood was pumping out some uh dubiously historically accurate films which was still great but kind of played with history a little bit Titanic did its best thanks largely to the hyper focus and the energy of James Cameron his drive to get things exactly right Titanic did its best to do just that but there's a couple of times where the movie falls down in really weird ways there are certain parts of the film that I watch today and cringe a little bit so instead of blindly praising the film which is what I tend to do I thought today instead we'd look at some of the little Annoying details that Titanic got wrong ladies and gentlemen I'm your friend Mike Brady from ocean liner designs and these are some errors from the film [Music] Titanic so some of the errors in the film Titanic we can't actually hold against James Cameron code we've since learned a lot about the way Titanic sank and some of the things that happened so some of the commonly cited mistakes in the film I'm not going to harop on about and I think it's unfair to to attack the film for it because we just didn't know or at least James Cameron and his crew didn't know what we know today so one of those things has to do with the angle of the ship sinking and the angle of its breakup so in the film we can see it getting to this crazy 40 45° angle and then it breaks and we now know no that just couldn't have happened the hull failed a lot sooner on there was an analysis done in the 2000s close to 10 years actually after the film was made that showed that Titanic's Hull reached Peak stresses at around about the 23 through 30° angle Mark now that's a pretty extreme angle it from the lifeboats and from people in the water may as well have been 45° because we have something that big roaring up out of the water or as leis Bo in the film puts it finally she's got her whole ass is sticking up in the air thank you Louis rearing up out of the water sure enough it's going to look like it was 45° and that's probably how you'll retell it for the rest of your life but in reality it was probably a little less and certainly no less impressive and that's where Titanic broke her back now that's a knowledge Gap thing that we can totally excuse them for this other one is actually a deliberate mistake this is a little bit different in the film Titanic sinks on a very even kill you can see that right at the end as the ship is plunging into the ocean there's not much uh movement from side to side the ship is obviously going down by the head but it's very stable and Titanic did sink on a really stable even kill fortunately she flooded very evenly the ships engineers and crew spent time actually trimming the tanks and making sure that the ship would sink evenly instead of rolling over which is what ships tend to do when they sink as we leared relatively recently with the cost of Concordia but the night Titanic sank the ship did sink on an even kill but not that even there was still a little bit of a list the list is what you get if a ship is uh down on one side left port or right starboard so Titanic we know alternated her list as different parts of the ship flooded through the night now right at the end the list did stabilize out the ship did sink on a fairly even kill but throughout the night it alternated between five maybe 10° from one side to the other now Cameron and his team knew this but they ignored it and the simple reason for that was that in filming a Hollywood production Cameron and Co decided to use a almost life-size reproduction of the ship now this set is one of the most epic ever produced for any Hollywood production in my opinion and I've covered it in some more detail on the channel but simply put dropping this set down by one side and then changing the list and then trying to make sure it was um the same across different scenes and there W weren't any major discrepancies would have been a huge huge Challenge and for the production it would have added heaps to the budget and obviously they just decided to ignore it and again this one of those things that when it comes down to historical authenticity we can give them a pass because hey they built like a 90% scale replica and sank it and it shows like Titanic holds up really really well in my opinion it looks fantastic so okay yeah it doesn't have the list from side to side but we can excuse them for that what I'm not going to excuse is this the ship's too big with too small a Rudder doesn't corner with a dam this is one of those pervasive myths that exist to this day partly because of things like the film Titanic so let's unpack this for a minute how do we know Titanic did not have two smaller Rudder wasn't a bad turning ship first of all Harland and Wolf the ship Builders knew their stuff like they've been building ships a very long time and they' built hundreds of them and they knew very well what a maneuverable ship should look like should include Titanic's Rudder was like five six stories tall it weighed around about 100 tons it was a monster of thing it was extremely powerful it had a set of steering engines which were miniature steam engines at the top of it that could actually control the steerage and it could get hard over from one side to the other in a fairly quick amount of time it's not necessarily about the size of the rudder for a ship's maneuverability but its relationship with the propellers having the wash of water over them you don't need a massive Rudder you actually just need a slight diversion in the uh the flow of water over the rudder to actually get the ship turning so the two pieces of evidence we can put forward to know that Titanic did actually have a large enough Rudder for a ship of its size is first of all on the night of the sinking the ship's Lookouts Fleet and Lee spotted the Berg with about 500 y or so to spare and they rang down and they alerted the bridge the bridge probably spotted the iceberg at around about the same time and actually already knew what was going on and so had initiated the turn they struck the burg around about 35 to 40 seconds later and it wasn't a head-on collision they had spotted the Berg and the Berg was essentially stem on to the ship like you see in the film like perfectly perfectly in front of the ship from the time it took for that 35 seconds to elapse Murdoch on the bridge the first officer had either been alerted to the iceberg or spotted it himself telegraphed down to have the ship's engin stopped and slowly Titanic's bow began to turn away from the iceberg but suffice it to say they almost made it we know that because the damage was so slight we know the damage was actually not a big deep gouge it was really like a bumping grinding motion that opened up some of the the plate seams and then allowed water in they almost almost got out of the way so in 30 seconds thereabouts Titanic's crew were able to spot the iceberg and turn their ship almost out of the way almost we're talking centim but they didn't quite get it and unfortunately yeah they had that bumping motion around down the side of the ship and the uh the Berg opened up the plates now that is a very impressive response time considering they almost got their ship out of the way that 30 40 second amount of time if you just count that off right now in your mind and say say gee do you think you'd be able to get a ship that big 45,000 tons doing top speed you know 22 knots out of the way of an iceberg like that it had to have been quite maneuverable Titanic's maneuverability had already been tested uh during her sea trials she was put through a series of tests and her turning was found to be quite satisfactory at the the test they threw the wheel hard over One Direction at another and sure enough the ship could turn just fine and another piece of evidence that tells us that Titanic's Rudder was fine is her sistership Olympic Olympic had a long and very successful career in fact Bertram Hayes who was Olympic's wartime Commander during the first world war praised Olympic's maneuverability and said she was one of the most maneuverable ships he ever had the pleasure to command so that speaks to the maneuverability of Titanic indirectly as well so was this a film mistake it could just be a character error this is Brock L it after all explaining things the way he sees it but annoyingly to this day people still think Titanic's Rudder was too small Titanic is also guilty of portraying actual historical people in unfair ways and one person that Springs to mind straight away is Bruce Isme Bruce Isme was the president of the white Starline Titanic's uh parent company the owner and he was also heavily involved with the international mertile Marine which was the a large conglomerate that essentially controlled a number of Shipping Lines including the White Star Line and he is always portrayed as this mustache twirling Dick Dastardly style villain and that is a very long story to unpick and we've actually got a video coming out about him this week I think on the on the channel uh midweek so you might want to check that one out but in the film something happens that's very important you might miss it if you kind of blinked but it's this conversation so you've not yet lit the last four boilers I would prefer not to push the engines until they've been properly run in now this is based on a real piece of testimony first class passenger Elizabeth lons was sitting in the reception room and overheard Bruce Isme and Captain Smith having a conversation now she related to the inquiry that Isme was discussing Titanic speed and the possibility of putting more pressure onto the boilers now this has been interpreted as Isme himself actually putting pressure on Captain Smith to speed the ship up to make it into New York ahead of schedule they were meant to arrive when morning and the theory goes that Bruce Isme wanted to make record headlines and get in on the Tuesday night but there's actually a lot of evidence that suggests Isme really wasn't that Keen on the idea at all so first of all in this film Isme is very clearly putting pressure on Captain Smith what a glorious end to your final Crossing if we were to get into New York on Tuesday night and surprise them all good man but that's not what Lin said she heard she said this now that's a very distinct difference this can be read a number of different ways to my mind this sounds like Bruce Isme is actually just making an observation hey we're actually doing really well the engines working the boilers are working fine we can put more Steam on gee at this rate we'll probably even beat Olympic into New York that's it not go out with a bang a EJ big difference there's actually even more evidence to suggest that Isme was averse to the idea of an early arrival famously Isme actually saved his own life by getting into a Lifeboat and to be fair the film actually shows it in a realistic way it was at a point of the sinking according to Isme and others around him where there weren't many people around there certainly weren't any women and children around and so he stepped into the boat and got away from the ship and as the film also shows he didn't watch it sink because he couldn't bring himself to see his his creation go down but ism's fatal error was in making an enemy out of William Randolph Hurst who controlled much of the media over in the United States who then created a global smear campaign against Isme now we're talking some really ridiculous stuff famously there was one newspaper spread that showed names of the Dead the famous and the wealthy like John Jacob Aster and others who had died on Titanic and then under the name saved just put ism's name and it worked to this day is May is remembered as the villain the one who essentially drove Titanic to her Doom but those quotes actually reveal a guy who probably wasn't really that way inclined yeah he was definitely a businessman and he was very proud of what he and his company had accomplished but it seems to me that he always would prefer to defer to the captain's judgment rather than put pressure on them in any way and even pushed back on his colleague suggestion to to get Olympic into new New York earlier so he seems to me to be a guy who really isn't sitting there kind of twring his mustache and just trying to save a buck or get his ship in early to try and make headlines necessarily more so a guy who's just very proud excited about what's going on and it's a little bit annoying to see the film that a lot of people look to to kind of get their information on Titanic understand the the history of what's going on to betray him this way as a villain I don't think he was a villain I think he was just a excited businessman now another one of these unfair characterizations is first Officer William Murdoch in the film he could be seen doing stuff like this wom [Applause] children now again this is a real person this is a guy that actually existed he was a white Starline veteran he' done very well to get himself to this position as first officer on Titanic and in fact he was going to be the ship's chief officer so he knew his stuff he was no incompetent but the film kind of makes him out to be either easily distracted when he is watching Rose and Jack instead of keeping an eye out on his duties he's accused of shooting passengers at one point he even kind of seems to take a bribe and then the film right at the end even postulates as to his death but we don't know that any of this is true especially not the first few things there there's no evidence of Murdoch doing anything else that night other than trying to save as many lives as he could Murdoch was in charge of the boats on the starboard side of the ship and from the moment that Smith gave the order to put women in Children First into the boats he did it he followed that order to a te filled boats with women and children and then allowed male passengers to join them whereas on the other side of the ship on the port side Second Officer Charles Li Haller was only allowing women and children all men had to stand back and that the boats were lowered half sometimes even less than half full Murdoch died with the ship and he died a hero he'd spent the entire night getting as many people away as possible and it's really unfair to see him characterized this way this again was a real guy and I know for a fact that his family who still exists his descendants are really unhappy with the way that Murdoch was was portrayed thanks to accounts from passengers like Eugene Daly or George Reams we get the impression that there probably was uh gunshots and you know passengers potentially being frightened away with guns or even actually being shot at if they were trying to rush the boats there are even hints of an officer actually shooting themselves and testimony to that effect from a number of passengers but all of the details are conflicting and we certainly can't level a finger and say who it was that actually did it and so I think that by showing Murdoch doing these things and painting him to be a certain way I think is uh is is pretty unfair because again films and media are the way that people consume history and learn about it so I think this is this is a really unfair characterization lastly and this is a really pervasive one as well are the final moments of Thomas Andrews the ship's chief designer now right at the end there's a quick interaction between Andrews and the main characters he's seen in the smoking room the first class smoking room at the stern of the ship now the first class smoking room was where uh gentleman passengers would gather from first class after dinner and play cards and Converse in very much the style of a uh of a English um gentleman's club now in the film Andrews is there kind of in a State of Shock and fair enough to I would be I'm sure all of us would be and he's even seen fixing the clock's time which is a cute little detail that alludes to his his eye for eye for Perfection but it's not really true it's not really the way it played out it's inferred in the film that that's the way Andrews died that he stayed there and was lost with the ship now this is actually based on some testimony from from a steward one of The Veranda Cafe stewards went on to say that he saw Andrews supposedly around about 2:00 in the morning maybe after 2:05 but according to the book on a sea of glass the truth is actually a little more interesting than that turns out that the quote attributed to this Steward and the time attributed to that sighting of Andrews is kind of a bit of a guess nobody really knows when Andrews was in the first class smoking room it seems likely that he actually went there at some point point maybe around about 1:40 in the morning to gather his thoughts until that point he'd been going around giving life belts out trying to help people into boats and doing his best to prevent a panic while evacuating his ship it seems that he might have gone to kind of take a break and maybe gather his thoughts but he didn't stay there in the film it shows Andrews right at the C of the ship away from the action Zone as the Titanic is sinking and the B's getting lower the AR boats have been launched and all that's left to do now is to lower the collapsable boats right at the towards the bow below the first funnel by putting Andrews right at the end away from the action Zone it kind of looks like he's checked out and he's accepted his fate and he's staying away from the from the drama of it all but there was a sighting of Andrews right at the very end and he was much closer to the action Mees Stewart William Fitzpatrick says that as Titanic took her final plunge and the bow disappeared beneath the ocean he saw Thomas Andrews and Captain Smith leap in into the ocean from near the bridge now this sounds much closer to Andrew's character he was somebody who was very keen to get people off the ship he had overseen much of the evacuation from different parts of uh the the ship he had given like I said life belts out he was very very keen to make sure that people were safe and it seems totally out of character for him to kind of check out and go into a days because there's no evidence at all that this guy was zoned out at any point in the sinking he might have taken a moment to go to the smoking room gather his thoughts and then move on but it seems much more likely that he was in the action in the heart of it trying to help where he could Evacuate the ship again by showing Andrew's checked out away from the action Zone it might be a little bit of an unfair mischaracterization of this guy you might walk away from the film thinking he did his best but then maybe he gave up but it's not true so there you go you guys know I'm more of a rivet counter kind of guy I'm not so much into the human Stories character kind of thing as far as the Titanic Story goes but these are some little errors that just irk me a little bit I think mischaracterization of Real historic people in a film that is largely based on history with a big fictional element is a little bit aside from being insensitive is a little bit irresponsible because this is kind of how we take history in this is kind of how we Now understand things to be not everybody has the time to read Big Dry books about this stuff it's probably why you guys are watching my YouTube Channel right now in the first place anyway I hope you've enjoyed this uh Curious look at some errors made in the film Titanic if you thought it was interesting let me know in the comments and if you can think of any other errors or funny things about the film you'd like me to check out also let me know in the comments as always stay safe stay happy and I'll see you again next time ladies and gentlemen it's your friend Mike Brady from ocean liner designs thank you so much for watching this video If you enjoyed it please leave a comment below don't forget to subscribe to the channel because we get new videos out weekly if you want to support my work and get really cool perks like behind the scenes and Early Access please visit my patreon in the link in the description below or sign up as a YouTube member come and join the crew as always stay safe stay happy I'll see you again next time

Channel: Oceanliner Designs

Views: 528,411

Keywords: great ocean liners, maritime history, ocean liners, famous oceanliners, ships documentary, history of ships, engineering, history, ships, documentary, origins explained, world history project, animated history, open educational resources, titanic, shipwreck, sinking, boats, ocean, disaster, tragedy

Id: gIN0cVLA4qU

Length: 20min 49sec (1249 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2024