Question: How did Cal manage to get into a lifeboat with the child that wasn't his? All the crew seem to know who he is so shouldn't have been fooled into thinking the child was his?
Answer: Not every crew member would have known him. He was in first class, the crew were lower deck officers, and there was so much confusion about, that nobody was paying close attention to who he was, just that he was a man with a baby.
Answer: While they probably did know that to be the case, they had to consider the possibility the child had already lost their parents. By refusing Cal onto the boat, they could easily have been sentencing the child to death. At least with an adult the child stands a chance of survival. Hence the hesitation by the guard. Let Cal in with a child that's not his and save the child or refuse him and the child and let them fight for survival. In that guard's position I know what I would do.
Question: What did they do with the model of Titanic after they were done filming?
Answer: There were many different "models". There were many miniatures, CG models and the full scale model down in Rosarita Beach, Mexico. The full scale model was disassembled by crew. Many other "regular folk" who knew about it, went to Mexico to grab what was left. Occasionally, various pieces come up for auction on EBAY.
Question: What made Rose change her mind about marrying Cal? Jack talks to her in the gym. It then goes to a scene of Rose at dinner with her mom and two other women. What happened that made her change her mind?
Answer: When Rose is sitting with her mother and the other two women, she stares at a nearby table, where a woman is correcting her daughter's posture and movements. I think Rose imagined the future. Did she want to be like that woman in ten or so years? Married to Cal, and shaping her own daughter into a socially acceptable young lady?
Answer: Not loving or having any feelings for him in the first place, combined with it being very obvious from the start that her mother only arranged it to get Cal's money, plus the fact that he is possessive, ignorant, emotionally abusive, and violent, combined with her reawakened sense of self and determination inspired by her meeting Jack. She put on a veneer of being committed to Cal and the marriage, and got defensive when Jack called her out on it, because she was trying to do what she was "supposed" to do. Gradually, however, she realised that it was possible to be with someone who valued her and made her happy (Jack), and that she shouldn't submit to marrying Cal just out of financial and societal pressure.
Some viewers think that Cal actually loved Rose and basically treated her well until she got involved with Jack. He only "snapped" because of the way she changed during the voyage. Of course, we can speculate that he would end up "snapping" someday, no matter what. Even if he and Rose proceeded with their marriage as planned.
Question: How can Jack carry around a case of drawings without them rubbing together, and smudging the graphite or charcoal? Many modern artists will spray those mediums with hairspray or art fixative, but I don't think those were available in 1912.
Answer: Artists at that time could use fixatives to protect graphite or charcoal drawings. I had a small foldable metal sprayer for my drawings. The small metal tube is inserted into a bottle of fixative. The hinged top of the sprayer is bent at a 45-degree angle. As the liquid is wicked up through the tube, you blow through the bent part and it sprays the fixative onto the paper. It's a little hard to explain, but it works. There were also hand-pumped misting sprayers and atomizers (like the old-fashioned perfume bottles). Artists made their own fixative with shellac and isopropyl alcohol and also used clear casein (made from diluted egg whites) to paint over drawings.
Question: Is this true that Kate Winslet almost drowned when working on this movie?
Question: Once the iceberg was spotted, was there another course of action or anything Titanic could have done (other than hit it, obviously) that would have led to a better outcome? Like - turn the engines off? Hit the iceberg front on instead of on the side? Would these, theoretically, have been better options than what actually happened?
Answer: Some have suggested that going full speed ahead through the ice would work because the Titanic was designed and built for that, but the results would just be speculation. Another course of action suggested is not to have slowed down and remain at full speed to be more maneuverable when turning. I don't remember how the film depicts the scene, but the First Officer in charge ordered "full astern" (reverse) once the iceberg was spotted. Then waited to see if they'd miss the iceberg. Once it was determined it wouldn't, he ordered the ship to turn. If he had turned at full speed, it might have not been hit. Also, the SS Californian could have responded to the flares the Titanic shot, but the captain (who was asleep at the time) dismissed the warning. Although it was later determined the Titanic lay further away than where it was thought to have sunk and the Californian probably wouldn't have made it in time.
Question: Would everyone have been saved if the lifeboats had been filled to capacity properly? Mr Andrews yells at one of the officers about the boats not being full and how they were tested with the weight of 70 men, so won't buckle under the weight of only 15 or 20 people. So since women and children don't weigh as much as men would, if they had filled the boats properly, would everyone have been saved in the actual tragedy?
Answer: Not everyone, no. Even with all the boats at full capacity they still couldn't hold all of them. It had 20 lifeboats in total that could carry a maximum of 1178 people, at full capacity. The ship was carrying 2208 people (passengers and crew). Even if you would cram as much people in them, you still couldn't fit them all in and there will be risk of sinking. The 2 major problems were that they measured lifeboat capacity in cubic meters rather than number of people, if the ship was in full lifeboat capacity (64 instead of only 20) it could take everybody twice over. Secondly it wasn't considered necessary according to the safety regulations to have more lifeboats because of the tonnage of the ship, regulations that maxed ships at 10,000 tons (whilst the Titanic was over 46,000 tons). Eventually only 710 people were saved, because of incompetent evacuation procedures and panic. Almost all first and second class women and children were saved, third class and crew were not so lucky.
Answer: In a word, no. More lives would have been saved, but as an earlier scene points out (and accurately reflects what happened in real life), there was only enough lifeboat capacity for roughly half the people onboard, even if they were filled to capacity.
Answer: There were not enough life boats for all passengers, and it was because it was never believed everyone needed to be in them at once during an emergency. While it's true that cruise lines didn't want too many boats blocking passengers' view, their intended use was to ferry passengers in turn from a stricken vessel to a rescue ship. After the disaster, new maritime regulations were enacted, including enough lifeboats for all passengers.
Answer: Also, even if there were enough boats, there was not enough time to get all the boats filled and lowered.
Yes there was. It took over 2 hours for Titanic to sink. Plenty of time to get everyone on the lifeboats, if they had known the urgency.
In one of James Cameron's documentaries that he did after making the movie, they timed him lowering a lifeboat, and it took him twenty minutes to get it swung out and lowered while it was empty. Add additional time to actually fill them would bring launching one to at least 30 minutes. So no, even if they had enough lifeboats, there wouldn't have been time to launch them all. They didn't even launch all the ones that they did have.
They weren't launched one by one, you know.
Question: Is the footage right at the beginning of the film (black and caramel-ish colour) real footage of the ship from 1912 or just made to look like real footage from 1912?
Answer: Its part of the filming that's made to look older. If you notice later on you will see the same footage in black and white, but mirrored.
Question: Does anyone know if during filming the cargo hold scenes, did they use a real Renault car or was it just a prop made to look like one?
Answer: Online sources indicate that the 1912 Renault Type CB Coupe de Ville seen in the film was an exact replica vehicle that James Cameron had specially built. It is a copy of the one that was known to be in the Titanic's cargo hold.
Question: Pardon me for asking a "what if" question, but this confuses me: what did Rose intend to do *before* the ship sunk? She had changed her mind about Jack, choosing him instead of Cal. However, she and her mother needed the security from Cal. They were in debt. Jack was poor. If Rose married Jack, Cal and his family would be offended by the broken engagement. They would not help Rose's mother. Would Rose just marry Jack and abandon her financially-burdened mother in New York?
Answer: Rose was strong-minded and determined but was thinking "in the moment" and had no real plan or idea about what to do if she'd left with Jack, had he survived. It's unknown if they would have stayed together and married. Rose had only told Jack she was going with him. At some point she might reconnect with her mother. Cal Hoxley probably would be so humiliated by Rose deserting him for a penniless artist, that he would have hushed it up and invented some story about the broken engagement. He likely had already paid off the DeWitt Bukater debts to clean-up any lingering complications or embarrassments before marrying Rose. He probably would also have made some minimal financial arrangement for Ruth, not from compassion but for appearances sake. As we saw, Rose faired quite well on her own once she did escape Cal and her mother.
Answer: That was her plan, assuming she would have been able to follow through with it. This would have left her mother high and dry, but that didn't seem to be a very big concern for her. However, in reality, between Cal, Lovejoy, and Ruth, Rose would find it very hard to even see Jack, much less marry him, if the Titanic had made it to New York in one piece. Women had very few legal rights in 1912, so once the marriage was performed, Cal could pretty much keep her imprisoned, for all intents and purposes, and Jack could do nothing about it, even if he wasn't a penniless vagrant...which he was.
Your last statement about Cal pretty much being able to keep Rose imprisoned has no factual basis. Women still had many legal rights, and while some states had more liberal divorce laws, by 1915, 1 in 7 marriages ended in divorce. By the 1920's, it had risen to 15%. Not to mention that in 1917, New York had given women full suffrage.
"Imprisonment" might be too strong of a word to use, but cultural norms at the time (such as those regarding marriage, the role of the wife/ homemaker, and divorce - taboo) didn't give women much freedom. Divorce statistics are notoriously inaccurate and, depending on the method used to calculate the number, percent, or rate, different figures are derived. Instead of 15%, the RATE of divorce (per 1000 PEOPLE) was 1.7 in the 1920s. Women's suffrage is hardly an indication of freedom, rights, or equality. [Just think how "effective" the 14th Amendment (1868) was in granting equal legal and civil rights.].
Regardless of any restrictions on "married" women, Rose was not yet wed to Cal. They were only engaged, and he had no legal right to impose anything on her at that point. If Rose wanted to walk off the ship with Jack, there was nothing Cal or her mother could legally do to stop her. If they tried to interfere, Rose could have the ship's officers or the White Star Line's personnel intervene.
Question: Rose and her mother need the financial security from Rose's marriage to Cal. What were they probably expecting after the wedding? Was Cal aware of Rose's father's debt? Did they think he would pay it off, or did they hope he would never find out? I would expect Cal, being from a stable, wealthy family, to have his choice of suitable (to him) women who did *not* come with the burden of debt.
Answer: Cal, who was quite rich and prominent, would have fully investigated the family's debts or other concerns. To avoid any social embarrassment, scandals, or lingering complications, he would likely pay off the remaining debts. Despite Cal's despicable character, he loves Rose, and that is the price of marrying her. In this era, women had many restrictions and few legal rights, so even as Cal's wife, Rose would have no direct access to her husband's money. She would probably receive a small monthly allowance and her expenditures would be closely monitored. Rose and her mother may not have had any money, but they are socially prominent and respected, and that would be an asset to Cal.
Question: How many scenes were removed from this film?
Question: When Jack is being arrested he tells Rose "I just borrowed it, I was gonna return it." Was he referring to the jacket or the necklace?
Answer: Jack admitting to stealing or borrowing the jacket is a vain attempt to show that it wasn't his and therefore the necklace wasn't his either. He can't explain away the necklace but he can sort of explain the jacket on a way that doesn't make him look as bad. Either way it all comes across as desperation. Rose seems to believe him a little but can't do anything about it, especially when a priceless necklace is involved.
Answer: I think she wanted people to stop focusing on this valuable necklace. She wanted them to care more about love, and the Titanic passengers who died.
Answer: The necklace is called "The heart of the Ocean." While in the middle of the ocean, Rose had her heart captured by Jack Dawson. Rose returned the diamond to the ocean in the exact place where her heart was taken by Jack. As she says at one point, "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets"
Answer: No, contrary to what movies lead us to believe now, it was highly inappropriate for intercourse before marriage until about after World War I.