Twenty-five years on, ‘Titanic’ feels like a prophecy

HE WAS king of the world. The late 1990s were an age of hubris, and James Cameron, the director of “Titanic”, earned his.

Launched 25 years ago, his film was the most expensive ever made – beset, before its release, by doubts about its minor stars and the glum storyline. Effortless sinking-themed headlines awaited. It became the first movie to earn US$1 billion and won 11 Oscars. At the awards ceremony – which, in those days, people still watched – Cameron crowned himself world king in an exultant line from the screenplay.

There have been many adaptations of the Titanic story, before and after this one. A silent short came out a month after the disaster in 1912, starring a real-life survivor. A lunatic Nazi propaganda version was shot during the war on Joseph Goebbels’ orders. “A Night to Remember”, a poignant effort of 1958, overlaps with “Titanic” in scenes and motifs – the heavy-handed ironies, a game of ice football on deck, a child gazing at distress flares as if they were fireworks. In both, the band’s musicians play on, say their farewells, then play on again.