‘Titanic’ Returning to Netflix, Some Say Too Soon After Titan Sub Tragedy
Are you ready to go back to Titanic? Or not quite yet?
Netflix is bringing back James Cameron’s Oscar-winning 1997 film this week. Titanic returns to the streamer July 1 in the U.S. and Canada.
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The announcement is making headlines given the Titan submersible tragedy that riveted the world last week and resulted in the death of four passengers and the sub’s pilot. In addition, the streamer put out a trailer for a documentary about freediving, The Deepest Breath.
Both titles are getting some backlash on social media, with some accusing the streamer of being insensitive.
“The timing is so wrong,” wrote one user of Titanic returning. “Netflix just couldn’t help themselves,” wrote another. “Netflix is overstepping the boundaries of decency on this timing,” wrote a third. “People died in a tragic accident at the Titanic site and now to capitalize on the moment to garner viewers is beyond distasteful.” Yet another: “Netflix marketing director: ‘You know how we could really capitalize on the tragic deaths of those people? Put the Titanic on Netflix for some easy cash because $31.6 billion a year in revenue isn’t enough.’ How broken and sick does your brain have to be to think this way?”
Many wondered when, exactly, the decision was made to bring the epic film back to the streamer, with many assuming it must have been after the tragedy. But Titanic was actually reported on Netflix’s July films list before the Titan was first reported missing, and licensing deals for films are struck far in advance of the air date. Titanic has been streaming on Prime Video.
As for the documentary, Netflix first posted the trailer for The Deepest Breath last Tuesday — after the sub went missing but before its tragic outcome was revealed. The documentary isn’t about the Titanic or submersibles, however, but follows Alessia Zecchini, the current holder of the freediving world record.
In the wake of the Titan tragedy, Cameron himself drew parallels with the ill-fated ship’s sinking, telling ABC News: “Many people in the community were concerned about this sub and even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental and what they were doing needed to be certified. I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many died as a result. It’s a very similar tragedy at the exact same site. It’s astonishing and really quite surreal.”
Speaking to BBC News, Cameron added that he knew the sub was doomed soon after the news of it vanishing first broke. “I felt in my bones what had happened,” Cameron said. “For the sub’s electronics to fail and its communication system to fail, and its tracking transponder to fail simultaneously — sub’s gone. I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position. That’s exactly where they found it. [It] felt like a prolonged and nightmarish charade where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all this other stuff.”
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