History YMMV / Titanic1997

** Oddly enough, many viewers who complain about the wooden doorframe being large enough to save both Jack and Rose blame James Cameron for this. While Cameron was the screenwriter and director, it wasn't his design to give the doorframe its shape. In fact, he never specified during production just how big the doorframe should have been, especially since he has stated that he wrote in the script that Jack and Rose couldn't both fit on the wooden piece without it partially submerging into the frigid water. As discussed by WebVideo/ScreenJunkies, if there is ''anyone'' who could be blamed for this "error", it would be the prop department who actually designed and made the doorframe.

* {{Misblamed}}: The scene where Murdoch shoots a passenger and then turns his gun on himself is often believed to be purely an invention of James Cameron, thanks to the controversy the scene caused with Murdoch's family and hometown. This was based on the testimony of three survivors whom historians typically give little-to-no credibility. None of them accurately described Murdoch, whom more reliable testimony points to having been killed in the forward funnel's collapse. They were possibly referring to Fifth Officer Lowe who ''did'' fire warning shots during the actual disaster (Lightoller was also rumored to have done the same). Cameron didn't pull the scenario out of his ass just to add some drama to the film -- in fact, the previous year's miniseries ''Series/Titanic1996'' depicted Murdoch doing the exact same thing.[[note]]The video game ''VideoGame/TitanicAdventureOutOfTime'', which was also released the year before this film, likewise had a passenger shot during the evacuation, but by the ship's fictional third officer rather than Murdoch.[[/note]]

** Let's also not forget Music/CelineDion's "My Heart Will Go On", a beautifully sad but bittersweet song that wraps up the film nicely, and one of the most successful songs in the history of mankind. For many, this song even become associated with the historical RMS ''Titanic'' herself, despite being written and recorded more than ''eight decades'' after her sinking.

** A more extreme version of this theory holds that Rose not only made up Jack Dawson, she was never even on the ''Titanic''! The entire 1912 sequence which makes up the majority of the film is told by an old Rose to Brock Lovett and his crew in the FramingDevice, with even Rose's granddaughter initially doubting her claim to be the woman in the picture. Thus, some viewers conclude that Rose Calvert is just a senile 100-year old woman with an overactive imagination and Rose [=DeWitt=]-Bukater is a different person who actually died on the ship. The scene with an elderly Rose dropping the heart into the Ocean was likely put there just to dispel this notion.
*** A ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk1r9nlnl3U skit]] parodies this theory as well, with members of the original cast reprising their roles. It turns out that old Rose just wanted to ride on a helicopter before she dies, and the crew violently assault her for wasting all of their time. The skit ends with James Cameron telling the audience that he only made the film because he wanted to see a "really old lady get beat up".

** The hankie-grabbing reputation of the film guarantees that pretty much everyone knows that Jack dies during the sinking.

** Could be applicable to Charles Lightoller. He is particularly nasty towards the male passengers in preventing them from boarding the lifeboats, but the fact is his life was impacted by many tragedies before and after the sinking. Start with his mother dying shortly after giving birth to him, going to sea age 11 and dealing with fierce conditions, compounded by the life or death struggles he faced, and topped off by two of his sons dying in World War II. All of which cause him to suffer several bouts of depression over the course of his lifetime.

** Not to mention the hordes of teenage fan girls who watched the movie only to see Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio.

** Cal Hockley crosses it when he decides to frame Jack for stealing the Heart of the Ocean. This was around the time the ''Titanic'' hit the iceberg too, and so Jack would have drowned in the brig if it weren't for Rose saving him. When Cal tries to redeem himself (in Rose's eyes at least), it is still shown he wishes to leave Jack to die. When Rose ultimately refuses to leave the boat without Jack, Cal attempts to shoot them both, in '''public''' no less. NotGoodWithRejection much?
*** Given that, it's still possible that Jack might have been allowed to leave the brig... if Cal had not specifically ordered Lovejoy to sock him in the gut and leave him there.
*** In an earlier version of the script, Cal actually murders Fabrizio in cold blood by beating him to death. In the final cut, however, [[spoiler:Fabrizio is killed by the ship's falling smokestack]].

*** Ironically, in real life Victor Gaitan Andrea Giglio made the choice of his own recognizance to stay behind. After his death, multiple friends and acquaintances stated they were unsurprised, and that he would have willingly given his life to save others, including his high school principal who explicitly stated Victor would have "Met death bravely and even willingly rather than take the place of someone else in the lifeboats."

* TheWoobie: It is not hard to feel sorry for Jack. He is an orphan since he was fifteen years old and homeless, not to mention his harsh, brutal death in icy water. He noticed Rose when she was at her most vulnerable (trying to kill herself) and was willing to listen and care about how she felt when no one else would.
** Any child victim in the sinking really counts, especially those who died.

* MemeticLoser: Rose's SecondLove that she married some time after arriving in the US is often ragged on ''a lot'' for what appears to be Rose having never truly moved on from Jack. This is especially the case when the film's ending heavily implies that the older Rose finally passed on to the afterlife, and that her version of Heaven was finally reuniting with Jack aboard the Titanic. Not to be with the SecondLove that she was married to and lived out her life with for many years, but instead chose to be with the guy that she only knew for a few days on an ocean liner.

* MemeticLoser: Rose's SecondLove that she married some time after arriving in the US is often ragged on ''a lot'' for what appears to be Rose having never truly moved on from Jack. This is especially the case when the film's ending heavily implies that the older Rose finally passed on to the afterlife, and that her version of Heaven was finally reuniting with Jack aboard the Titanic. Not to be with the SecondLove that she was married to and lived out her life with for many years, but instead chose to be with the guy that she knew for a few days on a cruise ship.

* {{Misblamed}}: The scene where Murdoch shoots a passenger and then turns his gun on himself is often believed to be purely an invention of James Cameron, thanks to the controversy the scene caused with Murdoch's family and hometown. This was based on the testimony of three survivors whom historians typically give little-to-no credibility. None of them accurately described Murdoch, whom more reliable testimony points to having been killed in the forward funnel's collapse. They were possibly referring to Fifth Officer Lowe who ''did'' fire warning shots during the actual disaster (Lightoller was also rumored to have done the same). Cameron didn't pull the scenario out of his ass just for the sake of giving Murdoch a HistoricalVillainUpgrade -- in fact, the previous year's miniseries ''Series/Titanic1996'' depicted Murdoch doing the exact same thing.[[note]]The video game ''VideoGame/TitanicAdventureOutOfTime'', which was also released the year before this film, likewise had a passenger shot during the evacuation, but by the ship's fictional third officer rather than Murdoch.[[/note]]

** It was the first Western-made film to succeed at the Indian box office, owing to its similarities to UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}.

** The [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} VHS]] release of the film splits into two cassettes and Tape #2 picks up a little after the ship actually hits the iceberg (specifically, with the scene with Cal slapping Rose and then the steward coming in to tell them to put lifebelts on), so you could have just started from there if you wanted. (When the VHS tapes were released, video stores were only allowed to show the first tape on in-store televisions, to avoid showing the nude scene.) At least one UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} release also has two discs with this same deal.

* {{Misblamed}}: The scene where Murdoch shoots a passenger and then turns his gun on his himself is often believed to be purely an invention of James Cameron, thanks to the controversy the scene caused with Murdoch's family and hometown. This was based on the testimony of three survivors whom historians typically give little-to-no credibility. None of them accurately described Murdoch, whom more reliable testimony points to having been killed in the forward funnel's collapse. They were possibly referring to Fifth Officer Lowe who ''did'' fire warning shots during the actual disaster (Lightoller was also rumored to have done the same). Cameron didn't pull the scenario out of his ass just for the sake of giving Murdoch a HistoricalVillainUpgrade -- in fact, the previous year's miniseries ''Series/Titanic1996'' depicted Murdoch doing the exact same thing.[[note]]The video game ''VideoGame/TitanicAdventureOutOfTime'', which was also released the year before this film, likewise had a passenger shot during the evacuation, but by the ship's fictional third officer rather than Murdoch.[[/note]]

* UnconventionalLearningExperience: While the film certainly [[ArtisticLicenseHistory takes several liberties with the actual event]] for the sake of the story, it is still an incredibly accurate recreation/representation of the Titanic itself; everything from the bridge, the Grand Staircase, the decks, down to the furniture and even the silverware. It also serves as a window into the general attitudes, fashion, practices, and mindset of TheEdwardianEra. And finally, unlike previous movies depicting the event, the film really goes out of its way to show how much of a chaotic disaster the actual sinking really was, including being the first film to show that the Titanic actually broke in half as she sank. Indeed, while he admitted to approaching the film as a filmmaker rather than a historian, Creator/JamesCameron put A LOT of effort into portraying the ship [[ShownTheirWork as (reasonably) accurate as possible, and it shows]].

** The Heart of the Ocean (the blue diamond) was with Rose the entire time and she drops it into the sea at the end. Even funnier is that this was only ever ''perceived'' as a twist, as Cal outright says that Rose has the diamond right after trying to kill them, it's just easy to miss or forget on a first viewing.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Although it's considered one of the biggest visual effect achievements of the late 90s, it still had few instances of this.

** Let’s also not forget Music/CelineDion's "My Heart Will Go On", a beautifully sad but bittersweet song that wraps up the film nicely. For many, this song even become associated with the historical RMS ''Titanic'' herself, despite being written and recorded more than ''eight decades'' after her sinking.

** Among those who were aware it was real, some assume that the band playing as the ship sank was a dramatic touch made up for the movie when in fact survivor accounts attest [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicians_of_the_Titanic that really happened,]] although opinion is divided as to what their last piece of the night was.
* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The TroubledProduction made many, including Creator/JamesCameron himself, expect the movie to sink just like the real-life ship itself. According to Creator/VictorGarber, many of the cast and crew thought of ''Film/{{Waterworld}}'', which famously bombed two years earlier, and they thought they would be next. Instead, it became the highest-grossing movie ever (until Cameron broke his own record with ''Film/{{Avatar}}'') and won eleven Oscars, tying ''Film/BenHur1959''.

** Rose's mother gets at least some form of sympathy from fans and historians who understand the complications of what women could or could not do in 1910s society especially if they were women of high society.

** Rose's mother gets at least some form of sympathy from fans and historians who understand the complications of what women could or could not do in 1910s society.

** Among those who were aware it was real some assume that the band playing as the ship sank was a dramatic touch made up for the movie when in fact survivor accounts attest [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicians_of_the_Titanic that really happened.]]

** Among those who were aware it was real some thought the band playing as the ship sank was a dramatic touch made up for the movie when in fact survivor accounts attest [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicians_of_the_Titanic that really happened.]]

* AluminumChristmasTrees: A significant number of people are/were under the impression that the ''Titanic'' was not a real ship and was only invented for the movie. This misconception revealed itself twice in 2012 due to separate occurrences. The first was the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster Costa Concordia disaster]] in January, which ''Series/EntertainmentTonight'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IFdWBPRrxo described]] as a "[[AnalogyBackfire real-life]] ''Titanic''". Additionally, the 100th anniversary of the ''Titanic'' disaster in April brought with it [[https://twistedsifter.com/2012/04/people-who-didnt-know-the-titanic-was-real/ a number of tweets]] from people who previously didn't know that it was a real boat which really sank.

** Let’s also not forget Music/CelineDion's "My Heart Will Go On", a beautifully sad but bittersweet song that wraps up the film nicely.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Near the end of the film, Rose tells her granddaughter and the others that Cal "married of course and inherited his millions", implying that Cal's father may have been giving him an inheritance if Cal married and started a family. This would mean that if Cal and Rose married, they ''both'' would have benefited financially from the arrangement. Is Cal's obsession with Rose and determination to have her motivated by a desire to acquire his inheritance? Or simply wanting to have a beautiful wife and conform to society's expectations? Or some twisted form of actual affection (see JerkassWoobie entry below)? Or all three?
** Made possible for everyone but Jack and Rose when you watch the extensive deleted scenes. The Strausses' refusal to part, a joking-in-the-face-of-death J.J. Astor, the grim parting later between him and Gugenheim (something Cameron even had to create, as no one witnessed such an exchange and survived to tell about it), a shell-shocked Ismay's known dressing-down by Lowe and Ismay's apology, Ismay later entering his PTSD phase on the ''Carpathia'', Lightoller balancing survivors on the upturned collapsible, Cal's frantic response to the woman he thinks is Rose, her shell-shocked mother looking into the faces of mothers and children and clearly hunting for her own daughter... Basically, there's a whole other set of characterizations on the cutting-room floor. Though in fairness and as Cameron himself points out, part of the reason why the scenes were cut was because it was already a really long movie.
** Many viewers have pointed out that, if you really think about it, Old Rose could be seen as a major {{Jerkass}}. The survey ship is on an expensive and dangerous mission to recover a gem that Rose has in her possession despite having no claim to it (it was intended to be a wedding present, but Rose and Cal never got married). And after regaling the crew with her story, Rose simply tosses the diamond overboard. Then (if you subscribe to the theory that Rose dies at the end of ''Titanic'') upon reaching the afterlife, the first thing Rose does is go to Jack, a guy she spent a few days with when she was a teen, rather than the husband she was married to for years and who fathered her children.
*** On the other hand, one could argue that Old Rose's claim to the Heart of the Ocean may have been weak, but still far stronger than Brock’s. He wanted information and she had it, but that doesn’t mean she had to give him everything.
** Some have taken Cal's line "You are my wife in practice if not by law" to mean that he and Rose may have slept together already. It's also been noted that Rose is far more sexually forward than Jack; it's her idea to be sketched nude (and the fact that she intends for Cal to find a nude drawing of her suggests that it's not the first time he's seen her that way). In the sex scene in the car, Rose takes control and lets Jack rest his head on her, suggesting that she's more sexually experienced.
** Rose's mother may have been a bitch, but do you really feel sorry for her when Rose leaves her, or do you think she deserved it? And as we never learn her fate after the ''Titanic'', did she die broke and penniless or perhaps throwing herself at the mercy of her society friends? Or did she remarry and end up living a comfortable life after all? There's also whether she was right to put the entire family's future on Rose marrying an abusive jerkass; since she was a name herself, there was nothing stopping her from trying to remarry an older bachelor in the first place.
** There are some who think that Rose herself is mentally unstable instead of being a RebelliousPrincess. Those who agree with this think that leaving Cal, her mother and her riches was a very selfish act. Rose's mother and Jack himself even lampshade this opinion: the former calls her selfish while the latter calls her a "spoiled little brat". Then again, this ignores how both Ruth and Cal were willing to trap Rose in a loveless and abusive marriage just to secure their own financial future.
** Is Cal an abusive {{Yandere}} who is cruel and controlling to Rose, or is he a loving guy who is adhering to the social values of his time, and angry because his wife is basically fooling around with a random stranger? While this certainly doesn't '''excuse''' him from shooting Rose and Jack, someone who finds themselves cuckolded can sympathize with Cal's anger.
** Before boarding a lifeboat, Ismay takes one final look around him. Is it to make sure no one is looking at him or to see if no one else would be needing his help?
** That little kid who Jack and Rose unsuccessfully try to rescue before his father retrieves him and they both die. Was he crying because of the situation and/or because the man who took him to his death wasn't his father? Cal was shown to snatch a little girl and pass her off as his daughter in order to escape, so who says that Cal was the only one who got this idea?
** Was that guy who grabbed on to Rose a jerk trying trying to drown her to get her life vest, or was he just your typical drowning victim, panicking and trying to grab on to anything in order to stay afloat without realizing that he's endangering the other person? There's a reason lifeguards are trained to subdue as well as rescue people--any of them can attest to a victim trying to do this.

** There are [[Series/DoctorWho two]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty other]] pairs of characters close to each other named Rose and Jack.
** And there is yet [[Series/DowntonAbbey another]] curly-haired RebelliousPrincess called Rose who has an InterclassRomance with an American called Jack and has a rift with her snobbish mother.

** The two Swedish men whom Jack beat at a game of poker are named [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 Olaf and Sven]].

* UnconventionalLearningExperience: While the film certainly [[ArtisticLicenseHistory takes several liberties with the actual event]] for the sake of the story, it is still an incredibly accurate recreation/representation of the Titanic itself; everything from the bridge, the Grand Staircase, the decks, down to the furniture and even the silverware. It also serves as a window into the general attitudes, fashion, practices, and mindset of TheEdwardianEra. And finally, unlike previous movies depicting the event, the film really goes out of its way to show how much of a chaotic disaster the actual sinking really was, including being the first film to show that the Titanic actually broke in half as she sank. Indeed, while he admitted to approaching the film as a filmmaker rather than a historian, Creator/JamesCameron [[DoingItForTheArt put A LOT of effort]] into portraying the ship [[ShownTheirWork as (reasonably) accurate as possible, and it shows]].

** The issue with the floating door was never that there wouldn't be enough room, but that it wouldn't be able to stay afloat under the weight of two people. Funnily enough, Cameron actually cut a bit of dialogue where Jack spells this out, figuring the brief bit where it tips over when they both try to get on would be enough for people to get the idea.

** During the deep sea dive to the ''Titanic'' wreckage, treasure hunter Brock Lovett casually mentions the sheer depth and immense pressure his submersible is currently in and how if any part of the submersible gives way, he and his three-manned crew will instantly die in less than a second from the implosion. In 2023, this became eerily prophetic of what happened to the [=OceanGate=]'s ''Titan'' submersible, which suffered a catastrophic implosion and killed all five people onboard (including [=OceanGate=]'s CEO, Stockton Rush) in a few milliseconds. Even worse, that said-submersible was diving for the ''Titanic'' wreckage.

*** A ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk1r9nlnl3U skit]] parodies this theory as well, with members of the original cast reprising their roles. It turns out that old Rose just wanted to ride on a Helicopter before she dies, and the crew violently assault her for wasting all of their time. The skit ends with James Cameron telling the audience that he only made the film because he wanted to see a "really old lady get beat up".

** During the deep sea dive to the ''Titanic'' wreckage, treasure hunter Brock Lovett casually mentions the sheer depth and immense pressure his submersible is currently in and how if any part of the submersible gives way, he and his three-manned crew will instantly die in less than a second from the implosion. By 2023, this becomes eerily prophetic of what happened to the [=OceanGate=]'s submersible, which suffered a catastrophic implosion and killed all five people (including [=OceanGate=]'s CEO, Stockton Rush) in a few milliseconds. Even worse, that said-submersible was diving for the ''Titanic'' wreckage.