How many people survived the "Titanic"? This question comes to almost everyone's mind.  Most of us have seen 1997 film "Titanic", since it is the second highest grossing box office movie in history. This movie contains the elements of fiction. James Cameron, the film's director researched the pictures of Titanic, life during early 20th century and made the actual ship wreckage to portray many of the true events of the 1912 disaster. However it is a historical fiction, a mix of facts and fiction, but the director states this is not a bad thing as it has the educational purpose to the viewers.


            The love affair between Jack Dawson, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Rose Dewitt played by Kate Winslet, did that really happen? The answer is "NO". These characters are fictious and it is stated that during that time period in the early 20th century, the relationship between first class and third class passengers never happened. The director has showed this in the movie to entertain the viewers. Besides Jack and Rose, other characters were fictitious too, such as Rose's mother and fiance and Jack's friends. But some were based on passengers that were actually on the Titanic on that night, such as Margaret "Molly" Brown, and the head shipbuilder, Thomas Andrews. 

One of the most disturbing or chilling points of the film was when the gates were locked and guarded to keep third class passengers from rushing to the decks when first class passengers were boarding the lifeboats. According to the book, there were no such barricades for the third class passengers. Apart from that it was shown in the movie that the gates were constantly closed, not just when the ship began to sink, but from the beginning because the third class passengers were not allowed to frequently go on the higher decks at any time. Another point, "The Heart of Ocean", the jewel that elderly Rose drops into the ocean at the end of the movie, is no way related to the true Titanic story.
 
In addition, lifeboat operators held flashlights to see if anyone floating in the water was alive or not, actually no lifeboats were equipped with flashlights.

                  Secondly,  One specific scene portrayed an actual character in original Titanic in 1912, was officer William Murdoch according to the book. In the movie, he accepts a bribe to let someone on a lifeboat ahead of others, he shoots two passengers and then shoots himself. No proof exists that any of the scene's events actually took place, they just came out of Cameron's imagination. 
 

                   On April 14, 1912, the Titanic collided with a massive iceberg and sank in less than three hours. At the time, more than 2200 passengers and crew were aboard the Titanic for her maiden voyage to the United States. Only 705 survived. According to the builders of the Titanic, even in the worst possible accident at sea, the ship should have stayed afloat for two to three days.  At the time of construction, the Titanic was the largest ship ever built. It was nearly 900 feet long, stood 25 stories high, and weighed an incredible 46,000 tons.  The damage caused by the collision and the water flood six of the sixteen major watertight compartments. As water rushed into the starboard side of the ship's bow, the ship began to tilt down in front and slightly to the right. By midnight, water in the damaged compartments began to spill over into others because the compartments were watertight only horizontally and the walls extended only a few feet above waterline. By 1:20 a.m., water began flooding through anchor-chain holes. Around 2:00, as the bow continued submerging, the propellers in the stern were lifted out of the water. Flooding progressed until, at about 2:10, the bow of the ship was under water and the stern was lifted out of the water almost 45 degrees. Because of the tremendous weight of the three large propellers in the stern of the ship, the stresses in the ship's midsection increased immensely as the stern was lifted out of the water.   

                                 I like the movie "Titanic" because of the entertainment purpose and apart from that the educational purpose for all the viewers. Titanic is an amazing movie in my eyes, and in many eyes of others as well. But to others they might have a different opinion about this great movie. Some people hate this movie because it makes them realize their emotions too much for them to handle and that they are afraid to let themselves become one with the characters. According to my opinion the director of the movie never wanted to hurt people's emotions.