I thought of something the other day about the reference to Lake Wissota in the movie, and wanted to run it by everyone here to see what you thought. Actually, the thought came to me while reading one of the other threads about the dialogue, where someone had said that because the story was told by Rose in the 1990s, it would have 1990s slang. Now, I'm sure everyone here knows about the Lake Wissota blooper; Jack tells Rose he went ice-fishing there as a kid, but it's really a man-made lake that wasn't constructed until 1917. Well, here's my thought: Rose was 101 when she told her story to Brock and the others, having kept it a secret for 84 years, right? So maybe her memory for minute details wasn't so great, and not being able to remember the exact name of the lake Jack went ice-fishing on, substituted another. What do you think?

-- Melissa (mfreed@rollins.edu), April 06, 1998

Answers

I think you're reaching for straws there, but in an attempt to justify the historical error it's a start. How can anyone get on Cameron for this one? I mean, lakes aren't usually made so how would he know anyway?

-- Dave Phillips (Sonitus@USA.net), April 06, 1998.

You can look at it this way if it helps...Here on Cape Cod, we have the Cape Cod Canal, which divides Buzzards Bay to the southwest and Cape Cod Bay to the Northeast. This canal is man-made and is maintained by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. But, before the canal was built, there was a body of water there. So, maybe there was a body of water of sorts(fishing hole, whatever)at that site before lake whatdayacallit was "built"!

Regards, Peter

-- Peter Nivling (pcnivling@capecod.net), April 06, 1998.

Peter, I was thinking today the same way when I read the message posted in this thread. There is always some geological precondition for the people to intervene. You know, the theory goes the same way for the Great Sphinx in Egypt. If there are weathering patterns and the rocks might be 20,000 years old, maybe there was a formation out of which the ancient Egyptians (presumably) had carved the Sphinx and added around more rocks. So the same might go for this lake. Precipitations in the fall can accumulate and form a minlake that would freeze enough to allow ice-fishing (who cares about the fish, anyway?). And by summer the water might be gone.

-- Dan Draghici (ddraghic@sprint.ca), April 06, 1998.

Yeah, I realize I was reaching for straws, but it was still a nice thought, don't you think?

-- Melissa (mfreed@rollins.edu), April 07, 1998.

Who cares, if it was a mistake? Melissa, I'm not arguing at all. I totally see what you are saying. But people, not Titanic fans have been saying this for quite some time, in order to undermine the writing and the film, and it gets on my nerves! No other movie has been dissected this much. It seems that the non-fans need to find SOMETHING to complain about, and when it comes down to it, a few years off on the lake thing is hardly substantial.

Melissa, I'm not at all talking about you, by the way. I was just raving about the non-fans and how they get on my nerves about this subject. (I REALLY like your explanation of it! And Dan's!! )

=)

-- jodi (jodiscott@msn.com), April 07, 1998.

I'm not sure if it's the non-fans who are finding bloopers. I'm one of the biggest fans, and I've found a few errors too, which I'd like explained, but even if they are confirmed as errors, my love for this movie will go on.(C.Dion) The first "error" is Leo's accent; it's modern. But, his acting more than compensated, such that I didn't notice this until after a couple viewings and someone pointed it out. The second error, which I saw only many viewings later and not while watching the film but seeing a clip on TV, was that the preacher did not have digitized breath the way others did. I'd be interested in hearing Cameron's explanation for that (as well as Leo's modern accent) because he was a perfectionist with so many other aspects.

-- Bob Gregorio (donthave@sorry.net), April 07, 1998.