This Day in Pop Culture for December 19

1997: This ‘Titanic’ Didn’t Sink

Written and directed by James Cameron, Titanic is based on real-life events that happened aboard the luxury ocean liner, RMS Titanic that sank after it struck an iceberg. The movie also contains fictional characters and events as well. Cameron did extensive research to make footage of the ship’s interior historically accurate as possible.

Titanic settles mostly on a romance between two people that shouldn’t have been. Young Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) boards the boat with her wealthy fiancé, Cal Hockley (Billy Zane) and his mother Ruth (Frances Fisher). However, she is not a happy bride-to-be and contemplates suicide as an escape. She is stopped by Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a poor artist. The two start up a friendship and soon, they are on the love boat … that hits an iceberg and sinks.

Titanic also starred Kathy Bates, Bernhard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. It cost $200 million to make and it became the highest grossing moving in history.

The movie was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won 11 Oscars for Best Picture, Art Direction, Cinematography, Visual Effects, Film Editing, Costume Design, Sound, Sound Effects Editing, Original Dramatic Score and Original Song (“My Heart Will Go On sung by Celine Dion). Cameron gave an embarrassing “I’m the king of the world!” speech when receiving the Oscar for Best Director. (Image: TVDB)

1843: The Many of Versions of ‘A Christmas Carol’

Charles Dickens published the first edition of A Christmas Carol on this day in 1843. It is said that it was Dicken’s own humiliation of a poor childhood that inspired him to write the story. The story was written in six weeks and since his last three books had been flops, his publishers refused to print it, so he had to self-publish the book.

The very first movie based on A Christmas Carol (known as Scrooge or Marley’s Ghost) was made in 1901. Since then, many filmmakers have created their own versions of the story. In 2011, The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol was created for home video. Dickens was not pleased. Other odd versions of the famous story include: Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962), Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol (1979), Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983), Scrooged (1988), The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), Alvin’s Christmas Carol (1993), A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994), A Sesame Street Christmas Carol (2006), Barbie in ‘A Christmas Carol’ (2008) … you get the idea.

One of the more recent adaptations (well, at least sort of) is 2022’s Spirited which stars Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell.

1979: The ‘Kramers’ Go to Court

Directed and written by Robert Benton, Kramer vs. Kramer is based on Avery Corman’s novel of the same name. It starred Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry, Jane Alexander and JoBeth Williams. The drama centered on breaking up of a family and how much pain that a divorce can affect everyone involved.

The film was praised in that it challenged the notion that child is always better off living with their mother rather than their father in a divorce situation and showed different points of view.

Kramer vs. Kramer was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won five Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Hoffman), Supporting Actress (Streep), and Adapted Screenplay.