(Los Angeles) At 68, James Cameron has few regrets as a director: his career has led him to give birth to three of the four biggest hits in world cinema, including the essential titanicwhich celebrates its 25th anniversary.
But on the eve of the return to the big screen of this blockbuster, in an anniversary edition, the Canadian confesses that he would have conceived this drama differently, if he had been able to foresee the indignation of the admirers, outraged by the tragic death of the hero, Jack, at the end of the movie.
“Based on what I know now, I would have made a smaller raft, so there’s no doubt!” “, he laughs.
A quarter of a century after its release, debates are still raging among fans. Many insist that the chilled lover embodied by Leonardo DiCaprio should never have died after the sinking of the liner. All he had to do was get on the improvised raft to save his sweetheart, Rose.
Instead, the sweetheart decides that the door that Kate Winslet’s character is floating on isn’t big enough for two, and sacrifices herself to save it from the freezing waters of the North Atlantic.
The ongoing controversy surrounding his death is just one example of how the story of the titanic “seems to never stop for audiences,” Cameron said at a press conference ahead of the film’s return to the big screen this week.
“There have been far greater tragedies since the titanic and his shipwreck caused by a collision with an iceberg in 1912, he adds, mentioning the two world wars that mourned the 20th century. ” But the titanic has this kind of enduring, almost mythical, romantic quality.
“I believe it has to do with love, sacrifice and death,” adds the director, pointing to “the men who did not board the lifeboats so that women and children could survive.”
Full-scale test
For the 25e anniversary of the film, released in December 1997, the director tested the theory of admirers, thanks to a life-size test in a pool of icy water, with two stuntmen and an exact replica of the door used for the filming.
During this performance, performed for a documentary made by National Geographic, the two extras taking over the roles of Rose and Jack were equipped with several thermometers to measure the speed at which they would be victims of hypothermia.
Experience revealed that Jack’s tragic fate was not inevitable.
A first test where the wanderer clings to the door without climbing on it, as in the film, confirms that he would have died of hypothermia. But a second test, where the stuntmen manage to balance on the door to keep their torsos – and therefore their vital organs – out of the water, suggests that Jack could have been saved.
In this scenario, “he might have been able to hold out until the lifeboat arrived,” admits the director. “Final verdict? Jack could have possibly survived. But it depends on many variables.”
For its return to theaters a week before Valentine’s Day, this tragic love story does not include an alternative ending.
This should not prevent it from adding to its dizzying revenues: with 2.2 billion dollars at the worldwide box office, titanic is the third highest-grossing movie ever in cinemas, behind the superhero film Avengers: Endgame and another juggernaut by James Cameron, Avatar.
By including the second part of the saga, “Avatar: the way of the water”, currently in theaters and whose receipts will soon exceed those of titanicMr. Cameron reaped $7.25 billion from his three biggest films, the equivalent of Bermuda’s GDP.
Figures that the director strives to put into perspective. “I grant you that 100 million from our box office (on titanic ) is due to Leonardo DiCaprio’s charm on 14-year-old teenage girls,” he jokes.
Beyond having made his fortune, titanic and its three hours above all left another legacy.
” Before titanicthe doxa […] wanted a long film not to be able to make money,” notes Mr. Cameron.
The blockbuster proved otherwise, paving the way for the first “Avatar” and its acclaimed three-hour eco-fable. The second part of the saga now lasts “three hours and twelve minutes”, underlines Mr. Cameron. “And he’s been very successful.”