Titanic – a letter to James Cameron

An open letter to James Cameron

Dear Mr. Cameron,

while I appreciate your movie ‚Titanic‘ from 1997 a lot (otherwise I would not have seen it approximately – and without exaggeration – 200 times, eight of those times in the cinema!) from cinematographic, historical and personal view, I have one question for you.

Why, for heaven’s sake, did you let us wait eight years for the ‚alternative ending‘, which is shown together with cut scenes on the new extended DVD?

See, I could have lived on peacefully without knowing (or, rather: Seeing, after having read the original script years ago!) that…

• …Cal would still be the ‚first one‘ for Rose.

• …the mystery being solved why Rose looks like this…:
  
  …in one scene and just a second later like this:
  
  in the original movie (for those who can’t remember it – note that she’s wearing her hair up and a necklace in the first picture, and the hair down with no necklace in the next scene) – I, just as probably many other people, already knew from the script that this:
  
  scene in which Rose completely freaks out in her cabin after being unable to open her dress by herself and realizing what her life would be like in the future originally existed; and after all, for those many years, we, the admirers of ‚Titanic‘, already knew this single and unsharp picture:
  
  of this scene which was published.

• …Rose would visit the third class, Fabrizio would deepen his non-existent relationship to Helga, and Rose declaring that she would like to become an actress or artist (an taking an immediate chance to do so when seeing a camera nearby)…
  

• …not seeing Jack and Rose taking a stroll on deck after the steerage party, happily chanting ‚Come Josephine‘ (which is sung twice in the original movie, anyway…) and looking at the stars…
  

• …Rose punching a punching ball in the gymnasium…
  

• …or seeing countless other people do what they do when the ship is hitting the iceberg, starts sinking / is sinking / has sunken; such as Molly Brown asking for more ice for her drink while the iceberg is passing outside the windows in her back, or Mr. J. J. Astor talking to Mr. Guggenheim, or Ida and Isidor Strauss, unwilling to part – not to speak of little Cora’s dreadful end…
  

Those scenes were all interesting, but I agree that the movie could live without them.

The one scene that the movie, in my humble opinion, could not live without, is the already mentioned ‚alternative ending‘.

Mr. Cameron, I’m asking you openly:

How on earth could you cut a scene which would result in costing Gloria Steward the Academy Award for the Actress in a Supporting Role, for which she was nominated?

To see Rose talk to Lovett, Bodine and Lizzy; to see the spirit of young Rose sparkling in her eyes and voice when she talks, to hear her giggling and laughing after she had finally told her secret to someone – anyone! – would have made the original Titanic movie even greater, and I’m certain that the movie would have won one more Academy Award.

I’ve read the original script, in which this particular scene / alternative ending was also included. However… reading the script and actually seeing the great acting of Gloria Steward on screen are two entirely different things.
For all those years, when knowing this scene just from the script, I didn’t think it would have been necessary; but now, after actually seeing it, I’m totally captivated by Mrs. Stewards art of acting – and I’m writing ‚art‘ because I mean it.

The ‚old‘ Rose seemed somewhat lifeless, old, apathic during the whole original movie (one exception, when Lovett mentions that the diamond should still be on board, one can see a sparkling in her eyes which is just marvelous and she looks as if she would like to object…):

And now compare this image to the following screenshots of the ‚alternative ending‘, for which Titanic Fans had to wait eight years. Rose / Gloria is glowing in that scene – and that’s most definitely not just a matter of makeup or lightning – it’s acting at its highest standard, it’s the art of a brilliant actress.

I would like to end this open letter to James Cameron with a line of Bodine, which he, according to the original script, was supposed to say in the original movie:

„Aww! That really sucks, lad(d)y!“

And with this I mean that I am really, really, disappointed that this ‚alternative ending‘ was cut from the original movie.

Best wishes,
Naergi