INTRODUCTION
The film ‘Titanic’ is based on the one and only voyage of RMS Titanic in 1912 and highlights the
continuing fascination with this tragic episode in history. This new film joins a list of other films and
television dramatisations and documentaries, as well as a large number of books, on the fateful maiden
voyage of the Titanic.
In 1986, Dr Robert D Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Massachusetts found the site
of the wreck of the Titanic (a reconstruction of the survey and exploration of the wreck forms the
opening sequence of the film). This find added fuel to the interest in the fate of the Titanic but also
added one more controversy to its short life.
From an historian’s point of view, one could be cruel and say that the sinking of the Titanic could only
really be looked on as a footnote in the history of the pre First World War period. Yet its entry into
popular culture and history has meant that we should look closely at why this should be. We need also
to look at how the history of that fateful night of April 14
th
, 1912 has been handed down to us and the
ways in which James Cameron, the director of the film has used this historical event to create a film
narrative.