Since nineteen hundred and twelve the Titanic has been a cultural icon, inspiring popular films, books, television and stage productions, even poems and songs. In fact since the year the Titanic sank; there have been no less than twenty-eight films and television dramas about the famous ocean liner.
The Titanic made her maiden voyage from Southampton in the UK on the 10th April 1912. She was heading for New York but sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on the 15th April after colliding with an iceberg. The sinking of the Titanic caused the deaths of over 1,500 people and was major international news, as she was the largest ship afloat at the time and considered unsinkable.
The Titanic's memory has been kept alive by people like movie director James Cameron who was inspired to create his masterpiece movie – Titanic – by the story of her ill-fated voyage.
"The funny thing was that I wasn't a big fanatic about Titanic and then when the wreck was found in 1985 that was really exciting but it wasn't until later when I started to explore the idea that I really realized what a great story it was, what an amazing historic epic novel Titanic is, except it's not a novel, it really happened."
James Cameron's original version of the film 'Titanic' was released in 1997. It won 11 Oscars and was an enormous box office success.
Cinemas in Beijing began screening the Titanic in the spring of 1998 and Chinese movie-goers flocked to see what was then the most expensive film ever made.
It took two hours and forty minutes for the Titanic to sink, but our fascination with the ocean liner has been with us for one hundred years. Perhaps it's a story that, like the song, will go on.
For CRI I'm Jules Page.
