A Titanic Ego

This week is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Now, we'll actually get into this anniversary a little more in a couple days, but in the mean time I have noticed the Discovery Channel has spent the last couple of days increasing their Titanic-centric programming to coincide with this event. One of the new shows they aired was "Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron". The point of this show was to thoroughly examine the wreck site, then go back and do the most accurate computer reconstruction of the sinking of the ship possible based on that data and hopefully answer a few lingering questions along the way. To make sure they were on the correct path with their theories and conclusions Cameron assembled a dream team of experts, among them a member of the Titanic Historical Society, ship architects, a deep-sea salvage expert and a Navy engineer. With that much mental firepower and experience at his disposal you might think Cameron would take a back seat in the discussion, act like more of a moderator and bow to their combined years of knowledge and expertise. That is not even close to what happened.

It is often said that the people who know the least about a subject try to mask their ignorance with the sheer volume of their voice. So, it should come as no surprise that Cameron tried to be the loudest voice in the room from the start of this thing. And, on the one hand you can understand why - his name was on the marquee and he was clearly the most famous person at the table, which is probably how the majority of panel discussions get decided in Hollywood. Also, as a director, he is used to calling all the shots and people ultimately doing what he wants no matter what. But, this isn't Hollywood, so just because he was at the head of the table it doesn't mean his opinion should be treated as if he is the smartest person, as if those two traits are somehow connected. It is one thing to let the crazy person talk - the mistake comes when you give their opinion any weight. I think of one the experts gave us a glimpse about what the experience of filming this show must have been like when he said, "James will allow you disagree with him as long as you can back up your argument." It is the first part of that statement which annoyed me. He'll allow you to disagree with him? When did this show become a dictatorship? I know Cameron made a few hundred million dollars bring the story of the Titanic to the masses, but that doesn't make him a Titanic expert, it simply makes him the best storyteller.

There was one exchange which I thought perfectly summed up Cameron's hubris in this situation. Towards the end of the program they had a segment in which the panel discussed what they may do differently if they could be transported back and take over as Captain immediately after the ship hit the iceberg. Some of them were debating making a run for a ship which was reportedly a few miles away, while some thought going for an ice pack also a few miles away was the better solution, since you knew for certain it was there. The question they were struggling with was whether the damaged ship would have been able to make it that far when Cameron chimed in with, "Why not just sail the ship backwards?" His thinking was that if the damage was in the front it couldn't be made worse by sailing backwards. At first a couple people asked him to repeat himself, because they couldn't believe he was being serious. You could tell that a couple of guys had smart-ass comebacks to this idea, but they didn't want to say them out loud because Cameron was probably footing the bill for this thing. Instead they all tried to diplomatically call his idea crazy by saying they would have to "respectfully disagree" with him. Cameron then followed his "sail the ship backwards" idea with the concept of getting the passengers to climb onto the iceberg itself, as that would be a better alternative to getting the in water. This time the panel didn't even ask him to repeat himself and laughed that idea off. Honestly, I was kind of sad they cut this segment short, because I wanted to know what Cameron's next insane idea was going to be.

Look, I'm happy James Cameron found a hobby which he is enthusiastic about. And believe me when I tell you I am fully aware of how fascinating a subject the Titanic can be. But enthusiasm does not equal expertise. Just because he has actually visited the wreck site on two occasions and spent a few months on a sound stage with a life-sized replica of the ship does not mean James Cameron knows more about this subject than the people whose jobs it is to do this kind of thing for a living. I'm an enthusiastic golfer, but you will never find me in a room with Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Michael Breed and Robert Trent Jones Jr. attempting to take over the conversation. I just would love to see how James Cameron would react if the situations were reversed and they were doing a panel discussion on movie making. Based on his reputation, I get the feeling Cameron is reluctant to listen to other filmmakers, so I really don't think he would appreciate the opinions of people from outside the industry telling him how things need to be done. After all, this is the same guy who once declared himself "King of the World" just for winning a few Oscars. I'm willing to bet that if someone told him to run his movies backwards not only would he disagree with them, but it also wouldn't be done very respectfully.