Titanic: rich people, bad luck, and ever-increasing hugenes w/ Joe
09/01/20 • 99 min
Costly! The costs of vising the wreck twelve times for research and footage, not to mention the cost of the film production overall. The extreme profitability of this film and James Cameron in general.
ClassismFirst, second, and third class on the same ship. Titans of industry. Runaway capitalism. The class divide and point of view before The Great War. The modern “royalty” by virtue of their wealth.
TechnologyThe pace of technological development in industries, especially intercontinental travel by steamship. Comparing the early 1900s to other periods of technological progress like the 1980s and 1990. Noting the nature of the automobiles in the film: literally the design of a “horseless carriage.” The cutting-edge wireless technology aboard the ship.
The shipThree engines! Of two varieties. Steam-driven piston engines and steam-driven a turbine. Note: you cannot reverse a turbine. Peak power: 46,000 horsepower. 600 tons of coal daily. An anecdote about Mr. Diesel.
A collection of small problemsThe nature of many disasters, probably including Titanic: a series of small problems, adding up to a catastrophic failure under the rigt (wrong) circumstances. Rich people hogging the Marconi wireless. Out of date lifeboat regulations. Loading lifeboats (badly). The reality of “women and children first.” Avoiding chaos until it’s too late.
JudgementsThe inquiries from shortly after the event, and the great surprise you may experience when realizing that the company men consistently pushed blame back up the chain of command. Modern evidence changing our conception over time. Actually ultimately coming to the consensus that this particular ship on this particular voyage was mostly operated in a way that was totally normal in almost all respects and simply got very unlucky.
All told, it does seem that Titanic was really really well-engineered and did remarkably well under the circumstances.
- [4K,60Fps,Colorized] Titanic, First and Last Voyage, April 1912 AI Recovery, added sound: YouTube
- RMS Titanic Survivors True Accounts of The Sinking: YouTube
- RMS Titanic: Fascinating Engineering Facts by the Engingeering Guy: YouTube
- Titanic - Alternate Ending: YouTube
Costly! The costs of vising the wreck twelve times for research and footage, not to mention the cost of the film production overall. The extreme profitability of this film and James Cameron in general.
ClassismFirst, second, and third class on the same ship. Titans of industry. Runaway capitalism. The class divide and point of view before The Great War. The modern “royalty” by virtue of their wealth.
TechnologyThe pace of technological development in industries, especially intercontinental travel by steamship. Comparing the early 1900s to other periods of technological progress like the 1980s and 1990. Noting the nature of the automobiles in the film: literally the design of a “horseless carriage.” The cutting-edge wireless technology aboard the ship.
The shipThree engines! Of two varieties. Steam-driven piston engines and steam-driven a turbine. Note: you cannot reverse a turbine. Peak power: 46,000 horsepower. 600 tons of coal daily. An anecdote about Mr. Diesel.
A collection of small problemsThe nature of many disasters, probably including Titanic: a series of small problems, adding up to a catastrophic failure under the rigt (wrong) circumstances. Rich people hogging the Marconi wireless. Out of date lifeboat regulations. Loading lifeboats (badly). The reality of “women and children first.” Avoiding chaos until it’s too late.
JudgementsThe inquiries from shortly after the event, and the great surprise you may experience when realizing that the company men consistently pushed blame back up the chain of command. Modern evidence changing our conception over time. Actually ultimately coming to the consensus that this particular ship on this particular voyage was mostly operated in a way that was totally normal in almost all respects and simply got very unlucky.
All told, it does seem that Titanic was really really well-engineered and did remarkably well under the circumstances.
- [4K,60Fps,Colorized] Titanic, First and Last Voyage, April 1912 AI Recovery, added sound: YouTube
- RMS Titanic Survivors True Accounts of The Sinking: YouTube
- RMS Titanic: Fascinating Engineering Facts by the Engingeering Guy: YouTube
- Titanic - Alternate Ending: YouTube
Previous Episode
1917: trenches, trench rats, and modern war w/ Josh
The movie
It was really good! One-shot gimmicks of the past and appreciating the technical complexity of what was done here.
PeopleThe demographic makeup of the British military. Young average infantryman age. “Pals battalions” and serving alongside your friends.
The Great WarThe scale of WWI versus what came before. Rising contemporary appreciation for the study of this conflict. How much was the war a “modern war” and how much did it help usher in the modern world? Horses and tanks.
Trench warfareThe shovel as a tool of war for millenia. How do we wind up with stalemate trench warfare? A hint of trench warfare in the American Civil War. Really impressive trench engineering. Tanks, tech, strategy, and the eventual end of trench warfare. Rats - yuck! Rats in the trenches.
TechnologyBarbed wire. Mechanized warfare. Horses in WWI and WWII. Tanks! Really slow and not very great tanks. Radio reliability. Hard-line comms. Sending messages by foot, radio, or... dropping it out of a plane? Medical infrastructure and what modern medicine owes to WWI.
- A Prussian Landwehrmann tanning rat skins in a dugout, WWI: Reddit
- Josh's show's on LSG Media: The X-Files Podcast (always)Science Fiction Film Podcast (sometimes)
- Gallipoli: Prime VideoiTunes
- They Shall Not Grow Old: iTunesAmazonYouTube
- They Shall Not Grow Old: film restoration, persistance of vision, and vfx: Decipher SciFi
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