SEATTLE (MCT) — We all know how it ended.
No one alive has first-hand memories of the sinking of the Titanic, which will have its 100th anniversary on April 15. The last survivor, Millvina Dean, died in 2009 — and she was an infant at the time of the voyage. But all of us have an image of it; perhaps from James Cameron’s 1997 movie “Titanic,” perhaps from earlier movies like 1953’s “A Night to Remember,” perhaps from reading one of the multitudes of books published about the disaster, perhaps simply from recognizing the tragedy that set the events of “Downton Abbey” in motion. (The wildly popular British miniseries kicked off its first season with news of the sinking of the Titanic — and thereby the death of the estate’s heir.)
We’ve heard the stories of heroism and cowardice; of unpreparedness and panic; of not enough lifeboats; of a moonless night and calm, icy waters. And we may know the chilling numbers: approximately 2,200 people on board (estimates of passengers and crew vary), bound from Southampton to New York, of whom more than 1,500 died.
The story has always held fascination for many — and now, with the anniversary looming like an iceberg (let’s just get that metaphor out of the way right now, shall we?), interest is stirred up even further. Titanic is, it seems, everywhere. Cameron’s multiple Oscar-winning film, starring the young Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, is back in theaters; this time in remastered 3D. Julian Fellowes, creator of “Downton Abbey,” has scripted a “Titanic” miniseries, airing on ABC next weekend and telling the story of the disaster from the perspective of a number of different characters. New documentaries about the remains of the Titanic have begun airing on the National Geographic Channel; new and reissued books about the disaster abound.
The appetite for all things Titanic seems insatiable and a little unsettling. While the currently booming Titanic industry is hardly the first to benefit from a tragedy, it does give us pause to remember that there wouldn’t be much money, or much of a legend, if everyone on board had survived. The stories of Titanic require us to get attached to characters who we then see die; to watch them entering a beautiful ship with bright optimism, as those real people did a century ago, that turns out to have been terribly misplaced. And while these characters are often fictionalized for the screen, the story is no less real for the changing of names: people’s husbands and wives and mothers and fathers and children died on that icy night, and you wonder why we’re so drawn to reliving it.
Perhaps it’s because the Titanic’s fate seemed to be a sort of snowglobe of humanity: the best and the worst of us, brought out by disaster.
Jack and Rose, from the movie, are fictional — but surely Titanic contained a few real-life Jacks and Roses, who fell in love on the ship and were wrenched apart by tragedy. A century later, we still remember, gazing at their faces onscreen; wishing, only, that we could somehow change the ending.
_____
• TITANIC 3D: A newly remastered 3D version of the 1997 film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio is now playing in theaters, including several in IMAX.
• TITANIC: A new television miniseries will air at 8 p.m. EDT Saturday, April 14, and 9 p.m. EDT Sunday, April 15, on ABC.