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I love Titanic!

By Candice Black - | Aug 16, 2021

Since my time with the News and Sentinel, the movie Titanic has come up a few times and I was shocked that at least three coworkers had not seen the movie. How people had not seen such an iconic and timeless movie was beyond me.

I thought I would share my thoughts on why everyone should watch Titanic at least once in their life. No, you don’t have to love it-you don’t even have to like it. But it sheds light on an important part of history and shares the story of the thousands of people who so tragically lost their lives.

And no, I’m not talking about Jack and Rose. While my coworkers had pretty good reasons for not watching the movie (other people’s obsessions had ruined it for them), I think it still deserves the near three hours it takes to watch.

When I was about nine, I became enamored with the Titanic. I’m not sure if it’s the time period, the culture or the tragedy that intrigued me-probably all of the above, but ever since then, I’ve been pretty obsessed.

Now, having said that, I can understand why it sometimes catches a lot of flack. Nobody seems to ever forget that Rose said she’d “never let go” before she literally lets go of Jack’s hand, sending him down into the Atlantic. But in reality, she was saying that she would never let go of the promise she made to him to survive and live a good and full life.

Anyway, let’s start with the setting. James Cameron literally built a smaller version of the Titanic to use for the movie with iconic sets like the grand staircase and promenade deck.

Surrounding the ship are people with the perfect outfits for the 1912 setting and let’s not forget the real-life characters mentioned such as: the “unsinkable” Molly Brown, J. Bruce Ismay, Captain E.J. Smith, John Jacob Astor and Ida and Isidor Strauss, among others.

Having read several books about the Titanic, it seems as though those characters were represented well in the movie and the actors did a good job portraying them. To me, that is the most interesting part of the movie; the historically accurate aspects of it.

Now on to Jack and Rose. If you didn’t already know this, Jack and Rose were not real people, merely characters made up to add a love story to the movie. While I didn’t much care for their romance, it was interesting to me to see the accident through the eyes of passengers-especially considering Rose was in first class and Jack was in third.

As the ship is sinking, you see how the third class people were locked below deck, unable to get up to the lifeboats and you watch as children wave goodbye to their fathers as they’re lowered down into the ocean in a lifeboat.

Perhaps the most haunting and humbling scene to witness is the true story of the Strausses who refused to be separated because only women and children were allowed into the lifeboats. The gutwrenching scene shows the couple holding each other in their bed with water coming up around them while the real-life band members played their last song before the ship went down, “Nearer, My God to Thee.”

That is what this movie is for; to pay homage to the thousands of people who lost their lives in such a senseless tragedy that could have been prevented. Having said all of that, taking the time to watch the movie and learn about the history behind the story is important.

However, do your own research afterward to find out what really happed and what Hollywood changed.

Candice Black writes for The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. Not only is she obsessed with the Titanic, she also decorates like it’s Halloween year-round and has quite a book collection.