James Cameron Apologizes to Titanic Officer's Family

[Sequoia]

Film director James Cameron has apologized to the family of a Titanic officer he portrayed as a coward in his award-winning epic.

First Officer William McMaster Murdoch is depicted taking a bribe from a passenger desperate to get into a lifeboat in the Oscar-winning movie before committing suicide after accidentally shooting some third-class passengers dead.

However, eyewitness reports of the disaster insist Murdoch was a hero during the desperate hours before the liner sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in 1912.

And now Cameron has issued a public apology to Murdoch's furious relatives, who had contacted him twice to complain about the script before the movie was released in 1999.

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http://www.kfty.com/entertainment/story.aspx?content_id=0DDF8A07-4E58-49B1-AC23-E9F8EBEE5BC3

[slappypan]

1. when is he going to apologize

for using that goddamn Celine Dion song?

[Lavender Brown]

2. Why didn't he give this invented character a fake name?

Since everything in the movie is not historically accurate anyway. :wtf:

[calico1]

4. I agree

Movie makers sometimes forget that even though a person may have been dead for a long time, they might still have some relatives living that don't appreciate how they are depicted. You would think they would check first. No one will ever know the whole story of what happened on the Titanic but every movie made of it has taken some liberties with the facts.

[lazarus]

5. in the article

he mentions that, in retrospect, that's what he should have done.

His ego's fairly big, and let's face it, that was a HUGE production to oversee, so he likely was getting tunnel vision about the whole thing.

I'm one of the minority that really likes the film, despite its flaws. I thought it captured the spirit of the era and the disaster quite well.

[markses]

3. Not to be nitpicky, but that's some pretty shoddy reporting

Titanic was released in 1997, not 1999.

I mean, yikes!

[trumad]

6. And,,, Didn't the guy end up throwing the money on the ground?

[edbermac]

7. Cameron could be correct...

I've read many books on the Titanic, in particular Walter Lord's sequel to A Night To Remember called The Night Lives On. I recall that he did discuss the fact that one of the officers did commit suicide that night and uses letters written by passengers at that time to bolster his claim. Also I believe that it was Officer Murdoch's watch when the Titanic collided with the iceberg and he may have felt his actions or inactions contributed to the sinking.

Never read anything about the alleged bribe though...

[Endangered Specie]

8. How about apologizing for the whole FUCKING movie?