Titanic featured characters based on real-life passengers of the title ship, all of them from the first-class side, but it missed a chance at redeeming them through one particular character. Back in 1997, James Cameron left the sci-fi genre aside to tell the story of Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) in the disaster drama Titanic, which even though took the real-life tragedy of the RMS Titanic as its basis, its main story was completely fictional.
Titanic saw Rose and Jack meeting and falling in love over the course of four days, but their relationship was doomed to tragedy, and though they fought to save each other, Jack ended up becoming one of the many victims of the sinking of the Titanic. Through Jack and Rose, the audience met characters from the first and third-class sides of the ship, including characters based on real-life passengers of the Titanic, with most of the first-class characters portrayed as shallow and egocentric, but it missed a big chance to redeem them through the true story of one of them: Benjamin Guggenheim.
Titanic Movie Failed Benjamin Guggenheim’s Legacy
When Jack joins Rose for dinner at the first-class side of the ship, Rose gives him a quick introduction to some of the most notable passengers, among them Benjamin Guggenheim (Michael Ensign). Rose explained that Guggenheim was traveling with his mistress Madame Aubart, while Mrs. Guggenheim was “at home with the children”. Benjamin Guggenheim was an American businessman and member of the wealthy Guggenheim family. Guggenheim boarded the Titanic with Aubart, his valet Victor Giglio, his chauffeur, and Aubart’s maid, and after the ship hit the iceberg, he was helped with a lifebelt and sent along with Giglio, Aubart, and her maid up to the boat deck. Bedroom steward James Etches testified that Guggenheim and Giglio went from lifeboat to lifeboat ensuring that women and children were safely aboard, and they were of great assistance to the officers.
After realizing that the situation was a lot more serious than initially believed and they wouldn’t be rescued, Guggenheim and Giglio returned to their cabin and changed into evening wear, and according to survivors, Guggenheim said “we’ve dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen”. Titanic completely failed Guggenheim’s legacy by portraying him as a snobby man who only cared about looking good as the ship sank and everyone else ran for their lives. Even a deleted scene made him look like he didn’t care about what was going on, when in reality, Guggenheim is the reason why various passengers were able to get on a lifeboat and survive.
Why Titanic Left Guggenheim’s Efforts Out
Titanic’s main focus was the story of Jack and Rose, and even though other characters were introduced, there wouldn’t have been enough room to honor the efforts of those based on real-life people. Titanic also turned first-class passengers into the villains of the story, as they looked down on Rose and Jack’s relationship due to their different “social status”, mostly Rose’s fiancé, Cal, and her mother, Ruth, and it already had one good-hearted first-class passenger in Kathy Bates’ Molly Brown, so the rest had to be antagonists. Titanic didn’t fully honor those who died when the ship sank, and while it’s understandable as the focus of the story were Jack and Rose, it shouldn’t have tainted their legacy either by showing them as lacking empathy.
