‘Titanic’: Was Jack Dawson an Actual Passenger on the Real Titanic?
Few historical dramas have the shelf-life that 1997’s Titanic still has 23 years later. The film, which took the big-budget sensibilities of James Cameron’s other films, such as Terminator, and brought them to a grounded, real-life stage, was a crucial moment in cinematic history. However, just because it was historically-based, it does not mean that everything in the film, which follows the journey through the eyes of a young couple named Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, was from real-life.
‘Titanic’ is based on real events
The premise of Titanic is predictable — even those who have never seen the film likely know of the historical events surrounding it. The titular ship was supposed to embark on a Transatlantic journey in a triumph of engineering billed as unsinkable, reports History.com. As history has shown us, however, such a claim can prove dangerous.
The ship hit an iceberg on its way to the destination, killing 1,500 of the ship’s 2,240 passengers. It was one of the deadliest disasters in modern history, and tales of its tragic journey have been fodder for retelling since it sunk in 1912. However, while several hit films, plays, and books cover the subject, few had the gravitas of Cameron’s.
From an all-star cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet to its groundbreaking depiction of the ship’s sinking, Titanic was a benchmark whose place was secure after its domination not only at the box office but in award shows across the world. Cameron made sure that while the film was filled with fictional stories and anachronistic features, it was the closest thing to the real sinking as possible.
In the case of DiCaprio’s Jack, however, the historical basis was a little bit murky.
‘Titanic’ can be categorized as fictional history
Cameron never claimed to set out to make a definitive, documentarian version of the tragedy. Instead, he used it as the backdrop to a Hollywood romance with all the class-differences and drama of a Jane Austen novel.
In the short time between departure and the ultimate demise, Jack and Rose go from perfect strangers to an ideal couple who cannot be together due to his place as a pauper.
Ultimately, Jack lays down his life to save Rose in an oft-parodied finale in which he freezes in the water while she floats atop a door from the ship’s wreckage. Many fans have questioned that death, but according to Cameron’s comments in The HuffPost, Jack served a narrative purpose more than a historical one. His comments on the death confirm this.
“Obviously it was an artistic choice, the thing was just big enough to hold her, and not big enough to hold him,” Cameron said. “Had he lived, the ending of the film would have been meaningless… The film is about death and separation; he had to die. So whether it was that, or whether a smoke stack fell on him, he was going down. It’s called art, things happen for artistic reasons, not for physics reasons.”
While Jack Dawson was Cameron’s creation, several allegations that he’s not entirely made up have swept up throughout the years since its release.
Was there really a Jack Dawson?
Cameron claims that any similarities between Jack Dawson and real-life passengers are little more than coincidence. However, this hasn’t stopped people from trying to find real-life counterparts. Several documentaries and books have noted that a man with the initials J. Dawson passed away on the Titanic, although this Dawson, born Joseph, was a crewmate who went down with the ship.
The story took a bizarre twist in 2017, reports TMZ. A man named Stephen Cummings, who worked on yachts, claimed he was frequented by Cameron in the late 1980s. Cummings contended in a lawsuit that Cameron stole the Jack and Rose love story from a tale he told about two relatives. Cummings sought $300 million of the film’s multi-billion dollar earnings, although the case never went anywhere.
Jack Dawson was a fictional creation based on real-life people with similar, albeit true stories. This is what happens when a fictional account of a real event occurs.
People can go to town on criticisms about the film’s historical accuracy, which Cameron himself has gone on to correct in the future. Still, Jack and Rose were simple creations for a classic Hollywood love story. However, the fact that he seems real is a testament to the film’s lasting legacy.
