"But why doesn't Jack get on the board with Rose?", "Of course they could both have survived", "My god, how selfish!"
Since 1997, everyone has commented on the tragic fate of Jack Dawson, the hero of
Titanic
.
Many fans are even convinced: there was enough room for two on the wooden door transformed into a makeshift raft and the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio could very well have survived if he had climbed on it with Kate Winslet.
Are they right or wrong?
To close the file once and for all, director James Cameron simply had the raft scene replayed by professionals.
An experience recounted in the documentary
Titanic: 25 years later with James Cameron
, which will air on National Geographic on February 5, 2023.
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Two professionals have taken on the roles of the heroes of
Titanic
.
Under the watchful eye of the filmmaker, they reproduced the smallest acts and gestures of Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, during the few minutes following the sinking of the liner.
And in freezing water.
"So we did exactly what they did in the movie, except we doubled the time for each step because our water wasn't as cold," says James Cameron in an excerpt from the documentary.
As in
Titanic
, the diver is then dragged underwater by a man who uses her as a buoy… before Jack comes to save her.
“The faster your heart beats, the faster the cooled blood coming from your arms and legs reaches your heart and lowers your temperature,” James Cameron analyzes, while an expert details the effects of hydrocution.
"Going into water at -2 degrees Celsius takes your breath away, the heartbeat accelerates, the blood vessels tighten, blood pressure rises immediately," notes the specialist interviewed in the documentary.
In video, the other end of
Titanic
imagined by James Cameron
A happy ending ?
But concretely, what about Jack?
Titanic
fans
will no doubt be disappointed, but it's impossible for Rose to survive if she shares the wooden board.
Evidenced by the experience of James Cameron for National Geographic.
In particular, we see the two professionals climb onto the makeshift raft, which sinks a few centimeters into the water.
Half in the water, the diver who assumes the role of Jack immediately begins to shiver and shake very hard.
And the same fate seems reserved for Rose: both would have died of cold.
Conversely, in
Titanic
, the wooden plank floats and allows the character portrayed by Kate Winslet to stay (almost) dry while waiting for help.
The
happy ending
which we would all have dreamed of was therefore indeed impossible.
“It would have changed”
Recently, Kate Winslet had shared her point of view on the question in an episode of the American podcast
Happy Sad Confused
broadcast on December 16.
“I have to be honest.
In fact, I don't think we would have survived if we had climbed that door together.
I think he could have landed, but it would have flipped... and it wouldn't have been a tenable idea.
So, you will have heard it here for the first time: yes, he could have put himself on this door, but it could not have kept us afloat.
The Oscar-winning actress revealed, on this occasion, another darker aspect resulting from these speculations of the public and the media.
When the film was released in 1997, Kate Winslet said that she had suffered inappropriate comments about her body and her weight because of this famous scene.
"Apparently, I was 'too fat'
(for this wooden door, editor's note)
", she declared, wondering: "Isn't it horrible?
Why were they so mean to me?
They were so mean... I wasn't even fat."
Fortunately, Leonardo DiCaprio's famous sidekick assures us: the way of talking about women's bodies has changed a lot since the end of the 1990s.
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