Readers Come to ‘Titanic’ Critic’s Rescue

I would like to voice my support for Kenneth Turan and his views on “Titanic” (“Capt. Cameron’s Solo Voyage,” Dec. 19, and Saturday Letters, Dec. 27). With all the hundreds of interesting true-life stories that could have been told, why did such a dopey, soap-box story have to take place? The dialogue between the two lovers was unbelievable, the chase scenes ridiculous. I began to believe that this was supposed to be a comedy with a dramatic backdrip (sic) of factual material.

The story was so big all by itself, I just can’t see why a fairy tale was made of such a dramatic, horrendous tragedy.

MADELINE SOLK

Los Angeles

Turan is right. With some of the lamest dialogue ever uttered on sea or land, and with the most juvenile love story this side of “90210,” James Cameron created a $200-million, three-hour-plus episode of “The Love Boat.”

Anyone arguing that “Titanic” is anything more than fantastic-looking has been watching far too much television.

ALAN FRASER

Long Beach

Turan was right on the money with his review. While the technical wizardry of Cameron’s work is something to be marveled at, since when did bad dialogue, one-dimensional characters, intense overacting and a laughable ending make a great film?

“The Sweet Hereafter,” on the other hand, is everything a rich moviegoing experience should be. A great script, layers of emotional depth and wonderful performances by an ensemble cast (especially Ian Holm and Sarah Polley) that float high above the surface where DiCaprio and company sink. It is by far the best film of 1997.

One thing I do applaud “Titanic” for, however, is its ability to elicit such a strong response among its supporters. The passion that they have for their film and that I contain for “The Sweet Hereafter” at the very least evokes the transcendent power of cinema.

TRISTAN THAI

Walnut

My only regret is that I was not in town to read Turan’s review first, which would surely have saved my wife and I from over three hours of sheer inanity. The hyper-melodramatic situations and cliches aside, it was the worst dialogue I believe I have ever heard in a major motion picture. By the end, we were laughing aloud.

MICHAEL DAVENPORT

Encino

Reader Rob Bradford claims that the Titanic’s band could not have played the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee” because Col. Archibald Gracie, one of the more than 700 survivors, happened not to hear it. Bradford stated that James Cameron “should have had a more discerning researcher on board.”

As the author of “Titanic--An Illustrated History” and as the official historian for the 6,000-member Titanic Historical Society, I was employed as a historical consultant on the film. Survivors recalled the band playing ragtime at first and later what one called “quietly beautiful” pieces. A number of the survivors recognized “Nearer My God to Thee” as being among them. However, the band was British and would therefore have played England’s version of this hymn. Gracie, an American who was preoccupied with helping to load women and children into the lifeboats, would not have recognized it. In the film, a version more recognizable to Americans is used intentionally, so that the audience can appreciate what the band is doing.

While Col. Gracie did state in his speech to the University Club, in his declining weeks before his death, that the band had abandoned their instruments half an hour before the ship foundered, he made no mention of this in the book he wrote about the disaster. Another witness, the ship’s surviving radio operator, claimed that the band played until the end. In either case, at no point in the film do you see water lapping at the feet of the musicians as they play.

DON LYNCH

Los Angeles

Several recent articles have discussed historical oddities and anachronisms in “Titanic.” In order to correct the record, I am providing verbatim dialogue that reveals the various errors:

* When Jack and Rose are on the bridge and looking at the stars, Jack says: “Someday, I hope they beam me up there.”

* Jack tells Rose: “When we get back home, I’m going to show you Milton Berle reruns.”

* Rose tells Jack at the party down below: “I like this music, it kind of goes rap, rap, rap.”

* Jack wonders what the reference to Freud was, and Rose says, “Forget Freud, my gestalt therapy last year was more interesting.”

* Jack comments on how snooty the people were at the dinner party: “Someday, I hope people will be judged not by the color of their money but the content of their character.”

* Rose asks Jack if he will escape from the ship, and Jack says, “The answer, Rose my friend, is blowing on the high seas.”

DONALD A. EISNER

Encino