Doubtless it is these childhood memories that give me such a visceral connection to the this sad moment in history. If I close my eyes, I can still "feel" what it was like aboard those ships. It's very sad in itself that the days of the great liners have passed. The floating hotels/theme parks that are modern cruise ships actually work very hard to negate the experience of being aboard a huge ship.

Or are you tossing us some "righteous indignation" of your own?

Spoilers:

INVISO TEXT (Click or highlight to reveal): The family rented Titanic shortly after its release on video. I had no interest in seeing it so I went to bed. I woke up and stumbled out into the living room and the film was still running. Molly Brown was standing up in a rescue boat shouting for the pilot to come about and go back for more passengers. In that uniquely misogynistic fashion of his, the spirit that made possible the lengthy humiliation of the wife in True Lies, Cameron has the pilot shout her down, telling her to sit down and shut up. Which she does. So much for Debbie Reynolds.

INVISO TEXT (Click or highlight to reveal): Soon after, Leo manages to find a piece of floating wreckage to put his ladylove atop, but finds that it is too small and flimsy to support him as well. He takes a moment to assess and accept this. She wakes, he tells her to never let go (a recurring line from the film I'm guessing) and she, holding his hands, loses conciousness again. When she reawakens, Leo has frozen to death. She sobs, but wait! What's that? Something shiny!! She pushes her frozen, no-longer-useful boyfriend off her makeshift raft, watches him spiral down, and then plunges into the water herself like a raccoon to retrieve the shiny whistle from around the neck of a dead crewman. What part of "Never let go" did she not understand?

INVISO TEXT (Click or highlight to reveal): Much later, as an old woman, she chucks the gigantic blue jeweled necklace she had saved in the disaster back into the ocean, rather than, y'know, sell it and donate the cash or something stupid like that. No. It is a poetic tribute to the incomparable destructive power of the sea or something... I remember saying out loud, "Lady, if the sea had wanted it, it would have taken it back then."

INVISO TEXT (Click or highlight to reveal): Then she dies, and her spirit flies from her body, zips around for awhile, zeroing in on that exact spot where the ship went down and follows it to the bottom of the sea where it briefly explores the rusting hulk before the entire scene comes magically back to life with the ghosts of all those who had died onboard. Her soul rushes up that famous staircase to find Leo, looking splendid, having apparently been allowed out of steerage, waiting for her in a wonderful tux. The long-separated lovers re-unite... I would have given a lot in that moment if Leo had just said, "I wasn't dead yet."

That is an awful lot of dumb for just a small sliver of the film. There are lots of reasons not to see Titanic aside from the fact that its lead couple are contrivances. It is an exceptionally stupid movie.

People assure me Avatar is better. I haven't given it a go yet.

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In the sense that being poked in the eye with a dull stick is "better" than being poked with a sharp one.

I've seen the 1953 TITANTIC and the UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN movies on TV more times than James Cameron's version.  Only came upon A NIGHT TO REMEMBER on TV a long time ago, and the one thing that stays in my mind about that was Patrick Macnee's character going down with the ship.

And, as for possibility of a TITANTIC sequel from Cameron...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR4TD6lgcCU

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Doesn't that simply require seeing one of her OTHER movies? I remember at the time, there was a joke going 'round that most actresses insisted on a non-nudity clause in their contracts, while Ms Winslet insisted on the reverse.

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I understand the reasoning behind having a couple of fictitious characters and fashioning a stars-crossed love story into the larger story. It is the plot device to allow showing various aspects of the ship, the contrasts between the haves and have-nots.

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The Titanic doesn't serve as a great enough metaphor on its own -- Cameron had to shove in his!