Titanic

[tarotgal]

Okay, so the Titanic challenge isn't exactly something I'd normally enter (especially since that week of April means a lot more to me than that part of history) but I thought, what the heck, a tiny little story about the character my snugglishous Craig Kelly (QAF UK, Helen of Troy, etc.) plays would be fun to write.

Okay, so then I started researching, right? I read the script (been a while since I've seen the movie. I find it much too painful to watch, honestly- there are very few movies that do that for me) and I was thinkin "Damn, I hope he doesn't die. Wouldn't that be depressing? Writing a sneezefic about a person who died so horribly?" So I started more research about the wireless company and about him in general. He didn't die. He wrote books. And he was the one who said "Nearer My God to Thee" wasn't the song the orchestra played (which is fine by me, it's never been a favorite of mine, LOL) But he wrote a book. And survived. Or, at least was alive. He didn't die on the Titanic, I mean. He died in 1956 at the age of 66. He was Titanic's "Surviving Wireless Man"(which is part of the name of his book on the subject). Which makes it worse for me, actually. I have a really bad problem with Real Person stories. I get a little scared that somehow people related or the person themselves will read them. And I get really, really, extremely nervous about portraying them incorrectly. When I write about characters, I try to adhere to canon as much as possible. But there's nothing I can do to research and get a person I'd never met compltely right. Especially when writing a story like this. Gah...

Maybe I'll just write a brilliant, extensive disclaimer. Gah. I hate trying to write real person stories... especially when they involve live people. But Bride is SUCH an interesting guy... seems a pity not to write something... gah...

Fuck. I'm crying now. See. This was not a good idea. I get way too emotional when it comes to this incident in history. Spent the whole bloody second half of the movie in tears and I can't watch a documentary without feeling sick to my stomach. But, damn. This guy. Fucking incredible he is:
Bride was holding on to a oar lock of Collapsible B when a giant wave came and washed him off the sinking Titanic. He found himself underneath the now capsized boat--bumping his head on the seats and gasping for air when he could. After being trapped under there "for what seemed like forever," he dived down and swam clear, clammoring aboard, and being the last man they "invited" aboard.
"The assistant wireless operator, Harold Bride, was lying across, in front of me with his legs in the water, and his feet jammed against the cork fender, which was about 2 feet underwater. . .He helped greatly to keep our hopes up. He told us repeatedly which ships had answered his CQD, and just how soon we might expect to sight them. He said time and time again, in answer to despairing doubters, 'The Carpathia is coming up as fast as she can. I gave her our position. There is no mistake. We should see her lights at about four or a little after.'. . . .We had to lift Harold Bride. He was in a bad way and, I think, would have slipped off the bottom of our over-turned boat, if several of us had not held onto him for the last half hour."

Sobbing now. Damnit. Knew I shouldn't have gone and gotten attached. To go through all that at 22... gah... and I know all these cute stories about his childhood and all now. Damnit.

Well, we'll see. I'll probably end up writing it... with massive headers that are bigger than the story themselves. *makes beeline for tissue box*

Comments

[eowyngreenleaf.livejournal.com]

oh, see, im totally different...i can easily watch Titanic over and over again just because i adore the love story between jack and rose so much--though i get teary during the second half also, esp. at the end when Jack dies. :( they always kill the good guy! *pout* wants to kick cal in the shin when i see him on the Carpathia. but yeah, Titanic is definitely one of my favorite movies out there. i just had a thought--Pirates of the Caribbean is the first movie where the bad guy actually dies and the guy the main girl loves survives! *smirk* or at least one of the first movies ive seen like that ;) hehe. maybe i should consider doing a potc challenge next...but id really like to see how this titanic one turns out--im glad you're thinking of writing for it, even if it isnt really a character id have thought of reading about. *g* im srue it'll be great either way! <3333

[tarotgal]

Yeah... see, I never really cared much about Rose and Jack. Their love story is nice, but it wasn't really a high point in the movie for me. I thought of it more as a symbolic/representational relationship. I was sad when he died, sure, but I cried over the situation and the other characters much, much more. The parts you say you laugh a little at. I like Rose and Jack, don't get me wrong. They just don't move me the way other things in the movie do. To me they were just the distracting plot device invented to get people more emotionally invested in the plights of the different sorts of people on the ship. And I didn't need that to feel emotionally invested in the incident.

As for movies where the bad guy dies and the hero and heroine live... I have to say that's one of the most overdone situations out there- especially when it comes to movies. I have a hard time naming more that don't fit that pattern. The recent rash of movies that break the pattern is Holywood's attempt at trying not to be like the other billion movies that came before it and have a sappy happy ending. Literally, the hero's quest playing out to a noble victory where he kills the baddie and gets the girl, yeah, everywhere.

[eowyngreenleaf.livejournal.com]

ha--shows how many movies ive watched lol. im just taking on two that i really enjoyed where my favorite character perishes...namely Titanic and Pearl Harbor.

ive always had a thing for the love stories in movies--esp. the main stream love stories that is. plus, jack has always gotten under my skin...ive always had a thing for him. lol. but that's just me--i guess im just a romantic or something.

[tarotgal]

I'm definitely a hopeless romantic. Always have been. All the books I read as I kid, I think, with true love and noble sacrifice and endless romance. *sigh* Somewhere, deep down, I'll always want that.

Jack and Rose... well, it just felt like the writer was trying too hard to get us to care. And I understand that it was important as a storytelling device to pull the watchers in, because not all are like me and have such sympathy and open hearts to nameless faces. I guess I just always considered them a plot device and not the point of the whole movie, and that's why I wasn't as attached to them as I was to the plight of the ship and all on it. I was certainly drawn into their romance at times, and they had some great moments I sighed and cried at. But not with the sort of strength and heartache and longing I've felt in other movies. Just because I viewed them as not the important part of the movie.

[eowyngreenleaf.livejournal.com]

i sometimes tend to be drawn to the mainstream romances in movies--though one movie where i loved either the nameless guys or the extras was Pearl Harbor...omg, the extra guys were great--wanted to kick them at certain points, but still--*giggle* i felt that movie was even more powerful than Titanic, because you really did feel for the other soldiers even moreso than the main ones. but still, Jack and Rose will always be a favorite pair of mine (even though my mom and i began counting how many times they say each other's name in the film--THAT gets a bit cheesy ;) and notice--Jack never tells Rose he loves her at all o.o *gasps*) but ahem, yep. though there were scenes in titanic that nearly killed me that didnt have them in it...when they find the mother with the baby dead in the water or the father and son being drowned in the hallway of the ship :( or the mother and her kids in the cabin when she's telling them a story as the ship's going down--those types of scenes do pull strings.)

[silverelf.livejournal.com]

Excuse me whilst I nudge in here for half a minute. *nudge, push, shove*

Pirates of the Caribbean is the first movie where the bad guy actually dies and the guy the main girl loves survives!

This is my opinion, and feel free to smack me for being silly, but... I don't think Barbossa was really a bad guy. I mean, if you look at it logically, yes he killed and plundered and cursed and drank. But... he was a pirate. That's what pirates do. And when you think about it, all he wanted was to live again. And if they had given him that chance, given his life back, and say... he went and did something horrible like blowing up the queen's ship or something, then sure. You can KILL HIM. But realistically, he was a perfect gentleman to Elizabeth, for the most part. He was just cursed. That doesn't make him a bad guy. I LOVED Barbossa, and was very sad when they killed him off. Especially when the last thing he said was how he felt cold. And he looked almost happy about that because hey, at least he could feel again right?

Wow, that was longer than I thought it would be. Heh. Ok, excuse me. *shove, push, nudge*

[tarotgal]

Good point!! I suppose Hermione should have used the word antagonist. That would have worked better, yes?

It is a Disney movie, though. People are never really bad in Disney movies. Snow White's mother was vain... Simba's uncle tricked his brother into getting run over... etc. He was as bad as you get for a Disney film- but you're right, that's because we're judging him based on what's "bad" in our culture. And you're right, he IS a pirate.
I thought of him as the bad guy chiefly because of the mutiny. But that's just because by then I'd sided with Jack and was sympathetic to him. I didn't like the idea of them kicking him off his own ship and deserting him on some island. Grrr!
As for Barbossa, though, I SO felt for him. That obsession with the apple really got to me. And his death scene- I had tears in my eyes. Truly. He reminded me of a character in second season Highlander- my favorite episode, actually- where this man has been immortal for so long he's forgotten how it feels to be mortal. So he does things to physically and emotionally cause pain and rushes, hoping that he will eventually FEEL something. But all there is is nothingness. It's a theme in a couple other Highlander episodes too, actually. How immortals desperately try to get back little parts of their mortality. I totally pitied the ghosts- they were trying SO hard to just be real again... normal... mortal. I cannot IMAGINE how hard it would be to live for years and years and not die, even when you want to, and not be able to enjoy the things you once took for granted. I don't think I LOVED him, but I really, really liked Barbossa. And his last words, especially. My heart really went out to him. But at the same time, it was a grudge between Barbossa and Jack. They *did* have to settle it. For the Pearl. And for their honor. And while I definitely wanted Jack to win, I was startled and sad when the gun went off.

So, yes, I totally see where you're coming from. He wasn't really a bad guy... I did feel some anger towards him about the mutiny(because that IS against the pirate code! And I don't like when people hurt Jack!) but I certainly felt pity for him. And for a Disney villan, he was bad. But Disney villans are notoriously tame by today's "bad guy" standards :-) And when it comes down to it, he would be classified as the "bad guy" for the kidnapping of a governor's daughter and ordering his men to go up on the ship and battle. But that's why pirates were hung back then. It all depends on your perspective.

[tarotgal]

hung... that should be hanged, yes? I can never remember that.