What can I say…I love documentaries and I love films. So when I was offered a documentary about a film I jumped at it! Especially when the film in question is a genuine record breaker. The first film to make over a billion dollars, winner of 11 Oscars out of 14 nominations, and top of the box office for 15 consecutive weekends. Obviously, I’m talking about 1997’s Titanic. Yes, the one with James Cameron doing a Ron Howard and making an exciting, edge of your seat film out of a story that everyone knows the end of.
And it’s not just a film that everyone has heard of. It’s one of those films with an extremely devoted fan following. It’s in the same league as films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Sound Of Music, and Mamma Mia! to name but a few. Fans who seem to tip over from admiration to obsession. The ones who embody the fact that “Fan” is a shortened form of “Fanatic” which comes from the Latin “fanaticus” meaning “insanely but divinely inspired”. These are people who saw Titanic in the cinema dozens of times…and that was before RunPee had been invented!
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Have You Been In Anything I’ve Seen?
So, we have a documentary feature about James Cameron’s Titanic. What is it actually about? Well, in short, it is a collection of cast members reading their diaries from the time of the shoot and talking about how things have turned out since then. Before we get too carried away, this doesn’t feature Kate Winslet or Leonardo DiCaprio talking about their experiences on set. In some ways this is much more relatable and interesting. These are people playing characters like Mother At Stern (Rebecca Klingler), 3rd Class Irish Woman (Linda Kerns), Steward No. 4 (Mark Capri). Some characters had names but can you remember Baker Joughin (Liam Tuohy), 3rd Officer Groves of the Californian (Peter John White), or Trudy Bolt (Amy Gaipa)?
Ultimately though, that’s not a problem. There are stills, clips, and pencil sketches showing their performances and they do a good enough job of poking the old grey matter into placing them in the appropriate settings. Perhaps more interesting than just remembering the relatively few frames that the various cast members appeared in were the variety of anecdotes about being cast, the set stories, and tales from the seemingly infamous “Two Hour” happy hours! Similarly, the smallness of the parts are in no way reflective of the talents of the cast. A quick look through their IMDb pages shows that they all have been in a lot more than just Titanic.
Uh, Yeh…I Was In Titanic
But, as we know, IMDb doesn’t tell the whole story. Mark Capri was in a theatrical performance of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. He was obviously worried about missing performances, despite his agent saying “that’s what your understudy is for”, especially when the day’s extra work on a film in Playas de Rosarito, Mexico started to overrun. Another poignant anecdote is that of Peter John White who made his acting debut as 3rd Officer Groves of the Californian, a ship that watched the Titanic sink without realising it was in distress. I won’t spoil it for you but it was quite sad!
But two more names need to be mentioned. First a brief shout out for Charli Mackie whose music was simply delightful. Secondly the driving force behind Ship Of Dreams: Titanic Movie Diaries is writer, director, and 1st Class Woman…Alexandra Boyd. I’m sure that is a description as well as her role! She has quite a résumé as an actor, producer, director, and writer. However, I have been listening to her for years without knowing about it. She has been the voice of Governor Elaine Marley in the Monkey Island series of video games! Ship Of Dreams: Titanic Movie Diaries will be released on 31/03/2025 by Miracle Media.
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