Many of us have seen the script floating around the Net. Based on that, which scenes that were in the script but that didn't make it into the final movie would you have liked to have seen included, and which scenes that didn't make it into the final movie were ones that you were glad weren't there?

To start the proverbial ball rolling, I would have liked to have seen the scene where the ship transitions from the current day to 1912, when Rose is walking the decks (as shown in the Fox TV special), followed by the scene where she invites Jack to walk with her (prior to her thanking him for saving her from her suicide attempt).

Scenes that I'm glad weren't there were the entire sequence of Daniel and Mary Marvin filming that silly movie!!

What do the fine denizens of this forum think?

ml

-- Mary Lynne Nielsen (m.nielsen@ieee.org), February 20, 1998

Answers

I have to agree with you I would have liked to see more of the scene where Rose goes into steerage to fetch Jack. I'm also glad that he kept out the novice filmaker. But most of all I'm so happy that these scenes we kept out: Cal finding Rose on the rescue boat, but there was one line in that scene I loved - Cal "What do I tell your mother" Rose "Tell her that her daughter died with Titanic" The way Cameron chose to end it with Rose and Cal is much better in the film. Also the scene where Brock discovers Rose with the Heart of the Ocean and tries to persued her not to throw it overboard. Like the new ending much better. But I do wish we had been able to see the developement between Fabrizio and Helga a little more than in the final cut. I guess I just wish that the movie had been 10 hours long!

-- Beth (Klindu1@aol.com), February 20, 1998.

Responce to scripted scenes that weren't in the final movie

I dissagree. I would have liked to see the part with the filmmaker. I also think that the part with the telegraph guys would have been interesting and more informative. :)

-- Laura Pliner (pliner98@hotmail.com), February 20, 1998.

I would like to have had the scenes where the Californian tries to give its ice warning and gets cut off by wireless operator Phillips. It would help drive home the point that there was no good reason for hitting the iceberg, only carelessness and lack of forethought. (This doesn't mean I hold Phillips and Bride primarily responsible for the disaster.)

The bit where Mrs. Strauss refuses to get into the lifeboat without her husband would be nice; it would help explain the scene later where they lie in bed together waiting for the end. (I guessed who they were the first time I saw the movie, but many people I've talked to had no idea that they were real figures from history.)

I have not seen an actual script, including scenes that were not included, but from descriptions on this forum I feel pretty confident in saying that I'm glad the confrontation between Rose and Cal on the Carpathia didn't make it. The confrontation version isn't as powerful as the version in the film, where Rose rejects Cal (and, by extension, her former life) completely by ignoring him, refusing to deal with him at all.

The same goes for any alternative version of the scene where old Rose drops the Heart of the Ocean off the salvage ship at the end. Nothing I've read comes close to the quiet dignity and radiant finality of the film version. As it stands, the scene is Rose's last act of reverence, both for Jack's life and her own. Aesthetically, that moment has to be private. Any other person's presence would be a desecration.

-- Thomas Shoebotham (cathytom@ix.netcom.com), February 20, 1998.

The one thing that I really wish had been included in the final version were the parts with the shooting stars. I just think it would have made the ending so much sadder (if that's even possible) to have Rose see a big, bright shooting star before she sees the boat coming back and tries to wake Jack up. As for scene I am glad was left out...that would have to be the scene where Rose is getting ready to drop the Heart of the Ocean into the sea, and Lovett and her granddaughter catch her. I think it was much better that she got to do it without being disturbed.

-- Melissa Freed (mfreed@rollins.edu), February 20, 1998.

I would like to see the scenes when the Carpathian arrives in New York and there is a media circus and Rose escapes. And old Rose talks about never needing to use the Heart of the Ocean to survive financially. I would much prefer to see more scenes between characters than all the expensive special effects scenes. Cameron could still have won all the nominations and had the film only cost $100 million, because the acting scenes are so excellent. The carnage scenes go on ad nauseum. But, I guess he had to justify the expense to his v

-- Carla Rieger (crieger@rogers.wave.bc.ca), February 20, 1998.

If I have any say in this matter, I would have kept all the scenes that have been cut. But I especially like the shooting stars and at the end when old Rose throws away the heart of the ocean. The things she said were very powerful. It was meant to bring the whole thing together. Maybe Cameron left it out because he wants us to figure things out by ourselves.

-- Rose (rose364@earthlink.net), February 20, 1998.

I'd have to agree with Tom. The final ice warning from the Californian and Jack Phillips' famous brush-off ("Shut Up! I'm busy!"), and Ida Strauss' decision to stay with her husband (one of the ***real*** love stories of Titanic), are so much a part of the Titanic story that it seems almost sacreligious to leave them out. Those two scenes wouldn't have added more than 3 to 5 minutes to the film.

One scene I'm glad **didn't** make it into the final print was the extended chase scene (during the sinking) with Lovejoy in pursuit. Cameron came real close to going overboard on Jack and Rose slogging through those flooded corridors belowdecks.

Cheers!

-- Kip Henry (kip-henry@ouhsc.edu), February 20, 1998.

Close, Kip, but not quite overboard. You're probably right though: any more would have been tiring and repetitive.

I had heard about the Lovejoy (what a mis-named creature, yes?) chasing Rose and Jack sequence. I read somewhere that it was in some of the test screenings. Either it must have gotten low marks, or Cameron himself saw that it was overkill. In any case, it's another scene I'm glad didn't make it in the final cut.

-- Thomas Shoebotham (cathytom@ix.netcom.com), February 21, 1998.

I would have liked to see the scene included where Captain Smith is yelling through a megaphone to get the lifeboats to return, and Molly Brown is arguing with the crewman in the boat. That scene would have both heightened the sense of Captain Smith's disentegration as a commander, and shown how Molly Brown had a more active part in trying to save more lives than what the final result depicted.

-- Laura (lrc@usit.net), February 21, 1998.

Another thing I would have liked to see included in the movie was an inference about how close the Californian supposedly was and did nothing-it makes the tragedy of the loss of life far worse that a boat may have been close enought to save many more people and did nothing!

-- Laura (lrc@usit.net), February 21, 1998.

I have been thinking of one scene that I would have written and filmed if I had the magic power to add to 'Titanic'. It would involve a slight tampering with history, but, I think, to good effect.

In 1906 Captain Smith commanded the White Star liner Adriatic on her maiden voyage. At the time, she was one of the largest ships on the ocean, around 20,000 tons if memory serves correctly. Smith was asked by someone about his opinion of these new, large ships, and the possibility of an accident. He said, "I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that." The comment gives a great insight into the mind of Captain Smith, emphasizing just how complacent he had become.

It would have been effective to hear him say that on the Titanic, perhaps over dinner with some of the passangers one evening. Even if the dates are tampered with, they are his real words, and certainly such a scene would be an accurate reflection of the man who did so much to put Titanic where it is today.

-- Thomas Shoebotham (cathytom@ix.netcom.com), February 21, 1998.