>Here's a Florence King article from the 12/96 National Review, in which she >compared several versions of The Titanic. Judging from Richard Grenier's >comments about the latest movie version (below), the downward trend she >described is continuing. > >MOB > >"The Titanic is one of the two things that make me cry (the other is "La >Marseillaise"). It's also the only thing that can make me knock off work >and ignore a deadline. Whenever the 1952 movie starring Clifton Webb and >Barbara Stanwyck comes on TV, I drop everything and prepare to dissolve.... >As I write this, I have just seen the latest Titanic movie, the CBS >two-part miniseries starring George C. Scott as Captain E.J. Smith. Scott, >of course, was superb, and so were the navigation scenes, but I didn't shed >a tear, and frequently yelled at the TV with the choleric abandon I usually >reserve for network news. > >"A comparison of the various Titanic movies reveals more about our current >cultural confusion, spiritual brittleness, and artistic mediocrity than the >endless symposia on values emanating from conservative think tanks. The >1952 movie with Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck is a personal drama with >a nautical backdrop. Webb plays a rich American expatriate and bon vivant >who married poor-girl Stanwyck and made a fashionable lady of her--but at a >price. His cold sophistication and sharp tongue have hurt her once too >often, and she has gotten even by making him rock another man's >cradle. Norman, the 13-year-old son he adores, is not his child. > >"Stanwyck has left Webb and is taking Norman and his older sister back to >America on the Titanic, but Webb books passage at the last minute and >demands custody of Norman. In the bitter argument that ensues, she blurts >out, "He is not your son." She immediately regrets it, but it's too late. >To her guilty horror, Webb takes it out on the boy, changing overnight from >a loving father to a snarling stranger. > >"On the night of the disaster, Norman is put into a lifeboat with his >mother and sister, but longing for his father and conscious of wearing his >first pair of long pants, he gives his seat to a woman and returns to the >ship. As the lifeboat rows away, the band on deck begins to play "Danny >Boy." Stanwyck, looking around in panic, realizes her son is not in the >boat and gives a despairing scream. Up on the foundering ship, Webb finds >Norman and tells a crewman to put him in a lifeboat, but the last one has >just left. The lesson of "the sins of the fathers" could not be made clearer. > >"The movie ends on the theme of "Greater love hath no man than to give up >his life for a friend." Gazing worshipfully at his father, Norman says, "I >thought we could make a swim of it together, sir." Webb embraces him and >replies, "I've been proud of you every day of your life, but never so much >as I am at this moment. I feel as tall as a mountain." As the band plays >"Nearer My God to Thee," Webb and the boy, their arms round each other, >sing the hymn with the stranded passengers--John Jacob Astor, Mr. and Mrs. >Isidor Straus, men in white tie and coal-blackened stevedores--until the >end comes. > >"The 1958 British documentary A Night to Remember is an excellent film, but >it contains the first hint of something that was destined to get >worse. Once again the band plays "Nearer My God to Thee," but instead of >the melodious church version heard in the earlier movie, they inexplicably >play the complex choral arrangement. Not surprisingly, the passengers do >not sing. > >The made-for-TV R.M.S. Titanic came out in the late Eighties and starred >Donald Sutherland. Told from the viewpoint of liberal academics in second >class, it was predictably political, and had the Countess of Rothes, who >displayed such courage in the lifeboats, fondling herself in the Turkish >bath. It was also factually off: the ballroom dances were surreal >slow-motion shots completely unrelated to the lively turkey trots and bunny >hugs of 1912. > >This movie had no "Nearer My God to Thee" at all. The band played a dreary >dirge called "Autumn." Here we have a curious arbitrary bow to historical >accuracy. At the inquiry held after the disaster, some survivors testified >the band played "Nearer My God to Thee," while some said it was "Autumn," >described in several Titanic books as an "Episcopal hymn." I never heard of >it, but I do know the difference between spring and fall. Why would the >band, playing on an April night for people about to die, choose the >mournful "Autumn"? They were playing without sheet music--could they >possibly have known this obscure number by heart? > >The new CBS miniseries also gives us "Autumn," along with a band that has >been reduced to a string sextet whose thin efforts are barely audible. The >emasculation of this scene over the years is a perfect example of the movie >industry's conscious refusal to let people have their cultural myths. We >needn't look far for the reason. If I can respond emotionally to a >full-throated rendition of "nearer My God to Thee" with every atheistic >fiber of my being, imagine the effect it would have on millions less >warped. The resulting spiritual rejuvenation would bankrupt the >sex-and-violence business overnight. > >The CBS miniseries also tries to down-play first-class passengers and give >equal time to steerage, but it doesn't work. Tragedy is supposed to >discriminate. Audiences have always been more interested in the high and >mighty because they fall farther and harder: it simply makes for better >theater. As Aristotle said in his rules for the classical drama, tragedy >is what happens to the best people; melodrama is what happens to the rest. > >The CBS Titanic is more faithful to the rule laid down by Oscar Wilde: "One >would have to have a heart of stone to read Dickens's account of the death >of Little Nell without bursting out laughing." > >*********************** >Writing in Christian News, March 9, 1998, Richard Grenier said, "As Titanic >wallows in its 14 Academy Award nominations, I want to make clear that this >is the most abominable artistic adaptation of a historic event that I've >ever encountered." Titanic has the rich seeking to bribe their way to >freedom, the poor deliberately prevented from reaching safety, and the >nobility of Christian sacrifice minimized, ignored, and, at times >ridiculed. The truth is that Titanic's men willingly gave up their seats on >lifeboats for others. A monument was built in Washington, D.C., with the >inscription: "To the brave men who gave their lives that women and children >might be saved." This is a biblical principle, that the strong suffer for >the weak, the groom dies for the bride, and there is no greater expression >of love than to give one's life for another, as Jesus did. "The men aboard >the Titanic recognized their duty because they had been raised in a culture >that implicitly embraced such notions. Only by returning to this foundation >can we ever hope to live in a society in which men will make the >self-conscious decision to die so that women and children may live. The >alternative is not anarchy G.I. Jane. It is barbarism." >Christian News, 3/30/98, 3277 Boeuf Lutheran Rd., New Haven, MO 63068 > <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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