Using the factual accounts of the sinking of the Titanic, compare and contrast how the directors of 'Titanic' and 'A Night to Remember' portray the events that occurred.

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Oliver Simpson

Mr Allenby

English Media Coursework

GCSE English Media Assignment

Using the factual accounts of the sinking of the Titanic, compare and contrast how the directors of ‘Titanic’ and ‘A Night to Remember’ portray the events that occurred.

On Monday April the 14th 1912, brought an event which was to change thousands of lives and change the course of history. The ‘unsinkable’ Titanic – the pride of the White Star fleet struck an iceberg and sank within hours causing a massive loss of life. This disaster has caught the imagination of many generations and has provided the source of many books and films both fact and fiction.

The Titanic was on its maiden voyage to New York. It was the largest and greatest ship of its age, it was said to be like a floating city that carried 332 first class passengers in absolute luxury, 276 second class passengers and approximately 708 Steerage class or lower class passengers that suffered most casualties over the hours Titanic sank.

The most famous films of the events surrounding the sinking of the Titanic are ‘A Night to Remember’ by Roy Baker in 1958 which was based on the true story of Titanic, and most recently the 11 Academy award winning film ‘Titanic’ by James Cameron in 1997 which is one of the most successful films of recent times.

‘A Night to Remember’ and ‘Titanic’ approach the telling of the story in totally different ways, but have very similar themes running throughout. ‘A Night to Remember’ is based on the book also called ‘A night to Remember’ by Walter Lord. The film follows a chronological order of events with the central character of Lightholler the 2nd officer who survived the disaster. It focuses on him from when he boards the ship to when the ship is sinking. He is portrayed as a calm well respected leader, this is showed even more so when he shows courage and intelligence through his actions in keeping control of events and helping save lives. He plays a huge role in bringing the film together as he is someone who the watcher can focus on.

The film highlights some of the mistakes that contributed to the disaster. It spends a large proportion of the time focusing on the radio room and how the operators where spending more time sending passengers personal business messages than listening to vital warnings from other ships of the danger of floating icebergs in the area.  Throughout ‘A Night to Remember’ the development of characters is very limited and many of them are focused on to show general scenes of passengers and crew and how they react to the events in different ways.  

In the opening scenes of ‘A Night to Remember’ Baker, combines real footage of the launching of the titanic with acted scenes, he accomplishes this as he was so committed to telling the true story. However Cameron uses fake footage of the people waving goodbye to their loved ones, he fools us into believing it is real footage by changing the color contrast to a yellow to make it look old and historic.

There are many stereotypes in the film, particularly the portrayal of the wealthy classes in first class, who appear to spend most of the film dressed in evening dress enjoying the splendor and luxury of the state rooms, and not realizing the severity of the situation when the ship strikes the iceberg.  Many of them show little respect for the crew when asked to move to the lifeboats, and many resent having to wear life jackets.  As the situation develops, and it becomes more apparent that the ships is really sinking then the mood changes and many develop an attitude of self protection.  This is particularly shown by the Chairman of the White Star Line – Mr. Ismay who sneaks onto a lifeboat before many of the women and children have had a chance to leave the ship.  This is noticed by Lightholler whose look of disgust shows his feelings towards his boss. Women in ‘A Night to Remember’ are portrayed as thick and stupid as they make comments such as ‘You won’t get back on board tomorrow without a pass’ when the ship is about to sink to the bottom of the Atlantic.

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Throughout the film, a lot is shown of the class difference between the first class passengers, living in luxury, and the steerage class passengers who are accommodated in very basic accommodation below the waterline, with many sharing overcrowded rooms.  Many of the gangways are locked during the sinking to prevent them getting on deck to have a chance of survival, as the crew know that the ship does not have enough lifeboats for everyone, and priority is being given to the first class passengers.  Most of these steerage class passengers appear to be foreign immigrants to the USA, and ...

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