With the Weill Center for the Performing Arts hosting a showing of Titanic this evening, we reached out to Caitlin Zant with the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary to see how well the film holds up.
She joked that the Hollywood parts of the film were strictly fiction, as Jack and Rose were made up for the film, and Lake Wissota near Chippewa Falls wasn’t created until five years after the ship sunk.
However, Zant did praise Director James Cameron for the research he did for the film.
“A lot of the components of that movie, they actually did really good historical research,” she explained. “Obviously it is one of the most talked about vessels, so there is a lot of information out there.”
However, since the film was released, some new information has come to light.
Zant tells us that during the 100-year anniversary expedition in 2012, researchers were able to create more accurate computer models of the ship, and discovered that it didn’t quite sink like it was depicted.
“Before Titanic breaks in half, they have the aft end of it going really high up, so it was a very steep slope with the scenes where everybody was sliding down,” Zant said. “That happened, however, they calculated it out (and learned) the ship would have broken much sooner than that.”
This means the slope wouldn’t have been nearly as extreme as it was in the film.
Once he learned this, Cameron went back and re-edited the film to depict the new information.
Additionally, the couple that is seen lying in bed together as the ship sinks are actually based on New York Senator Isidor Straus and his wife Rosalie.
The showing at the Weill Center, located at 826 North 8th Street in Sheboygan, will begin at 6:30 p.m. with tickets selling for $8 apiece.
You can get a ticket in advance at WeillCenter.com.
