Avatar, but one of his biggest and most impressive projects is far from the sci-fi world: Titanic, a disaster drama movie released in 1997 and which gave Cameron the Oscar for Best Director, Best Picture, and many other awards.
Based on the s of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, Titanic tells the story of Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), two engers from opposite social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage. Over the course of four days, Rose and Jack found each other, got to know each other quite well, fell in love, and defended their relationship from everyone who tried to break it, mostly Rose’s fiancé, Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), and her mother, Ruth (s Fisher). However, they also came across some allies, most notably Molly Brown (Kathy Bates), who never saw Jack as someone inferior to them.
Molly Brown was a first-class enger of the Titanic who was looked down upon by other women from that same social status, particularly Rose’s mom, who described her as “vulgar” and “new money”. Molly was different from them in of her being open-minded, comprehensive, empathetic, and kind to everyone, not just those from first-class. Molly famously helped Jack get ready for dinner at the first-class dining saloon and lent him a suit that was for her son, and in the final act of Titanic, she did her best to convince the crew in her lifeboat to return to save more engers, but the crewman opposed. Molly Brown is one of the characters in Titanic who are based on a real person, and the real Molly Brown’s story is an interesting one.
Margaret Brown was an American socialite and philanthropist, but she wasn’t born rich. Molly married James Joseph “J.J.” Brown in 1886, and even though he wasn’t a rich man (something she struggled with at first), she married him because she loved him. In 1893, the Browns acquired great wealth when J.J’s mining engineering efforts turned out to be instrumental in the production of a substantial ore seam. Molly and J.J. separated in 1909 but continued to communicate and care for each other, and she received a cash settlement, possession of their house and summer house, and a monthly allowance to continue her travels and social justice work. Molly was visiting her daughter in Paris when she was notified that her eldest grandchild was ill, so she booked age on the first available liner leaving for New York: the Titanic. When the Titanic sank, Molly helped others board the lifeboats until she was persuaded to board Lifeboat No. 6, and for this and her efforts to make her lifeboat go back, she was called by historians “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”.
Once aboard the Carpathia, the ship that rescued the survivors, Molly organized a survivors’ committee with other first-class survivors with the purpose of securing basic necessities for the second and third-class survivors. In 1914, Brown ran for U.S. Senate but ended her campaign to return to to work with the American Committee for Devastated during World War I. In her last years, Brown was an actress, and she died on October 26, 1932, of what was later revealed to be a brain tumor, and in 1985 she was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. Molly Brown truly lived up to the nickname “unsinkable”, as she continued helping others even during the most tragic times, and she’s one of the most remarkable people to survive the sinking of the Titanic.
