James Cameron’s Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet went on to become one of the biggest blockbusters in Hollywood and an iconic film that garners love and appreciation even after 25 years. The film which showcased the doomed romance between lovers Jack and Rose amidst a sinking ship captured the hearts and minds of audiences.
The set design, the costumes, and the look of the ship itself were all practically designed and constructed under Cameron’s supervision, and the technical brilliance of the film is something people still marvel at.
Cameron went to great lengths to authentically portray the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic. He extensively did a lot of research and talked to many experts in order to film and depict the tragedy. Recently, on the 25th anniversary of the film, Cameron talked about how much the film got right in terms of authenticity and technical accuracy after talking and testing out various activities with experts.
James Cameron Says He Got The Sinking of the Titanic Half-Right
James Cameron recently appeared in a National Geographic special titled Titanic 25 Years Later with James Cameron. In the special, he extensively discussed the extensive research and experiments that he conducted in order to shoot and portray the sinking of the Titanic as authentic to the real-life incident as possible. He also tested out whether the sinking scene in the film accurately portrayed what happened in real life. He said, (via Entertainment Weekly)
“The film Titanic depicts what we believed was an accurate portrayal of the ship’s last hours. We showed it sinking bow-first, lifting the stern high in the air, before its massive weight broke the vessel in two. Over the past 20 years, I’ve been trying to figure out if we got that right. We found out you can have the stern sink vertically and you can have the stern fall back with a big splash, but you can’t have both.
So the film is wrong on one point or the other — I tend to think it’s wrong on the ‘fall back of the stern’ because of what we see at the bow of the wreck. I think we can rule in the possibility of a vertical stern sinking, and I think we can rule out the possibility of it both falling back and then going vertical. We were sort of half right in the movie.”
The fact that Cameron managed to get the task half right is itself a huge accomplishment as it is a near impossible task to perfectly recreate the sinking of the vessel. His hard work and commitment are shown on screen and the particular scene is still magnificent and shockingly visually beautiful to look at.
James Cameron Almost Died While Filming The Abyss
James Cameron recently made an appearance at LA’s Beyond Fest where he screened the special edition version of The Abyss. He talked extensively about the making of the film and also revealed that he almost died while filming. He said (via YouTube),
“The safety diver gets to be about ten feet from the surface and he sticks a regulator in my mouth that he didn’t check. It had been banging around the bottom of the tank for three weeks and had a rip through the diaphragm — so I purged carefully and took a deep breath… of water. And then I purged it again, and I took another deep breath… of water.
At that point, it was almost check out point and the safety divers are taught to hold you down so you don’t embolize and let your lungs overexpand going up. But I knew what I was doing. And he wouldn’t let me go, and I had no way to tell him the regulator wasn’t working. So I punched him in the face and swam to the surface and therefore survived.”
Cameron is currently working on the three Avatar sequels which are in various stages of production. They are currently scheduled to release in theaters on December 19, 2025, December 21, 2029 and December 19, 2031 respectively.
Sources: Entertainment Weekly, YouTube
