A quarter of a century after the movie "Titanic" .. the most dangerous confession from James Cameron
Canadian director James Cameron made one of his most dangerous confessions about his famous movie "Titanic" on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its release in cinemas.
Cameron, 68, succeeded during his busy career in directing three of the four highest-grossing films in the world, including the famous "Titanic".
Cameron admits that he would have portrayed this drama in a different way had he been able to anticipate the audience's angry reaction to the tragic death of Jack, one of the film's protagonists.
He jokes, "Based on what I realize today, I would have chosen a smaller float, so that Jack's fate would not be questioned!"
More than a quarter of a century after the movie, the controversy still exists among his fans, as many insist that Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, should not have died after the ship sank, as he had only to climb aboard the floating stage alongside his beloved Rose.
But instead of taking this step, Jack decided that the door on which Rose floated, the character played by Kate Winslet, could not accommodate two people, so he preferred to sacrifice himself to save her from the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
The ongoing controversy over Jack's death is just one example of how the film's story "was never over for audiences," Camron said at a press conference ahead of the release of "Titanic" in theaters this week.
He adds, "Much more tragic events took place after the sinking of the Titanic" following its collision with an iceberg in 1912, such as the two world wars, stressing that "the story of the Titanic has a somewhat romantic and mythical nature."
And he continues, "I think that the matter in Titanic is about love, sacrifice and death," pointing to "the men who refused to take lifeboats to save women and children."
On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the film, which began showing in December 1997, the director decided to test the point of view of fans of the work through an experiment in an icy water pool, in which two specialists participated in performing dangerous scenes, while a replica of the door was used. that was used in the filming of the movie.
During the experiment, which was completed for a National Geographic documentary, the two people who took on the role of Rose and Jack were equipped with several thermometers, to measure the speed at which their bodies would experience a drop in temperature. Experience showed that Jack's tragic fate was not inevitable.
The first test in which the participant held the door without climbing over it, similar to the events of the movie, confirmed that he was destined to die due to hypothermia. However, the second test, in which the participants were able to balance on the door to keep their upper bodies out of the water and their organs alive, indicated that Jack could have survived.
Based on this scenario, "Jack might have been able to hold out until one of the lifeboats arrived," says Camron. "The final verdict is that Jack could have survived, but that depends on a lot of variables."
The version, which is expected to be released in cinemas a week before Valentine's Day, does not include an alternative ending to the original. And the adoption of the end itself should not be an obstacle to the work achieving great revenues, after the $ 2.2 billion that it won at the global box office, thanks to which it became the third most profitable movie of all time after “Avengers: Endgame” and another work of Cameron is “Avatar”.
And taking into account the revenues that the second part of “Avatar” (“Avatar: The Way of Water”) has achieved to date, which has exceeded that of “Titanic”, Cameron has achieved through his three films $ 7.25 billion, which is equivalent to the gross domestic product of Bermuda .
"One hundred million dollars was returned at the box office for Leonardo DiCaprio's magical effect on teenage girls," the director jokes.
Aside from the huge sums achieved by the work, the three-hour "Titanic" established another idea. Cameron adds, "Before Titanic, it was common that a feature film was unable to generate large revenues."
And "Titanic" came to prove the opposite, paving the way for the first part of "Avatar", the three-hour sci-fi movie that won the admiration of movie fans. Cameron says that the second part of the film was "three hours and twelve minutes long, and despite that it was a great success."
