As millions of moviegoers know, James Cameron's "TITANIC" is an rich and beautiful retelling of a compelling story, but in terms of accuracy, how does it stack up? Wonderfully....well, mostly.

Although we do have a great deal of information on what happened on that tragic night, there is also much conjecture and supposition. Cameron has had to make some creative decisions in creating his movie, and in some cases has made an educated guess at the truth. But with people like visual historian Ken Marschall in his corner, they were pretty good guesses.

Many serious students of the Titanic are I think, unfairly harsh about the movie, stating it is full of inaccuracies and neglects the real people who were on board. One imaginative individual recently e-mailed me that he found "over 100 errors in the first half hour"! Well, he must know something I don't but he is entitled to his opinion.

Like many others around the world, I have spend a considerable portion of my life studying the Titanic's story and I thought the movie was fantastic. Although I love this movie for what it was, it is not a complete, honest factual retelling of the story. It is a motion picture based on actual events.

SETTING THE STAGE

James's Cameron and his crew spared nothing in recreating the world that gave birth to Titanic. They reached into the old photographs and pulled Titanic and her era back into the land of the living, with all the brilliance and beauty that was the Edwardian era.

Each prop and background element was faithfully researched and recreated. Dresses from 1912 were located and lovingly restored, over 500 bowler hats were collected from the US and England.

Once the actors looked the part, they had to move and interact the way people did in 1912. An ettiqutte coach was brought in to teach them to act, walk and talk appropriately.

THE SHIP

An astounding replica of the Titanic was built in Mexico, 90% scale! You could say it was built full scale, in that all of the parts were full size, but they remove certain "redundant" space in between elements, for cost cutting reasons. The overall length of Cameron's ship was therefor slightly smaller. The Titanic in the movie is visually stunning, as well as highly accurate. Because of the fact that the movie Titanic is only complete on one side, a few real Titanic scholars will notice several scenes in which the ship is reversed. On the "I'm the king of the world" scene, for example, the crew galley skylight gives this reversal away.Reproductions of the cabins, dining saloon and boat deck are so accurate even the pickiest Titanic entheusiast would be hard pressed to find fault with them. Tableware, floor coverings, everything has been reproduced to the tiniest detail.

In many cases, original manufacturers were contacted to reproduce the props for the movie. The Welin davit company was recruited to reproduce the lifeboat davits to the original specs, as was the carpet in the 1st class dining saloon, which was made for both Titanics by BMK-Stoddard of England.

Although every element of the Titanic story has gripped me for over 2 decades, my primary area of study is the ship itself. It is in my own opinion one of the greatest and most beautiful objects ever created by the hand of man. I have spent countless hours pouring over my plans, photos and books in my own work, and know much about the construction of the vessle. Any discrepencies I picked up were too minor to distract me from being completely immersed.

THE BREAKUP

Some survivors testified that the ship did in fact break apart before going down, while others testified that it went down intact. With the discovery of Titanic in 1986, hopes of the huge liner lying intact on the sea floor were dashed. The distance between the two major portions of the wreck makes it very likely that the ship did in fact break apart much like was depicted in the movie. Though there have been a number of fine movies made about the Titanic, few have depicted the real terror and violence of Titanic's final moments. One of the other parts of the movie I found particularly stirring was the eerie silence, after the cries had died down. The lapping of the water mixing with James Horners haunting music was a deeply moving scene.

THE PEOPLE:

Rose and Jack:

The characters of Rose and Jack are fictional, as is Cal Hockly, Ruth, Lovejoy, Fabrizio and the Heart of the Ocean Diamond. There was in fact a J.Dawson listed on the crew roster for the Titanic. Although this is simply a coincindence, it didn't stop hundreds from flocking to the poor man's graveside in Halifax.

Captain Smith:

In TITANIC, Captain Smith is portrayed as quiet, withdrawn and seemingly a little confused in the final scenes, after the damage to the ship is realised. While some saw Cameron's Captain as a bumbling fool, I viewed him as completely overwhelmed by the horror of what he probably felt very responsible for. The real captain E.J.Smith once described his career as"uneventfull". While some might think that he was somewhat more animated then he appeared in the movie, it is entirely possible that the sinking of his vessle was in fact so overwhelming that he was in shock.

In the movie, Captain Smith wanders alone onto the ship's bridge to meet his end. Although the final moments of Titanic's Captain are not clearly documented, survivors recounted seeing him in a number of places during the ship's final moments. From reading the testimony, the likely scenario is that he was washed from the bridge area slightly before the final plunge. The depiction in the film could have well been accurate.

The Other Characters:

With the exceptions of the characters mentioned above, many of the movies other characters were real. The officers, bandsmen, even a number of the passengers were honest representations of the real people who live at the heart of the Titanic story.

The characters Rose points out to Jack in the first class dining saloon are actors portraying real first class passengers. Mr. Cameron's choice of actors seems, from looking at my photographs, to be very discriminating.

J.J Astor:

While the movie shows John Jacob Astor on the Grand Staircase, most survivor accounts place him on the boat deck at the end. Some reports stated that he was in fact crushed when the first funnel collapsed. When his body was recovered, it was in fact badly injured, and was identified by a ring, and his initials on his cuff.

The Strauses:

As the final moments of Titanic play out on the screen, the camera captures moments of different people preparing to meet their final fate. One of these is an old couple embracing on a bed. Although their story ended up on the cutting room floor, they are Isador and Ida Straus. Owner of Macy's department store, Isador was travelling first class with his wife Ida. Although he was offered a place in the boats, he chose to remain with the other men. His wife decided to remain and persished with him.

A point of contention among some Titanic scholars, the love story is the central theme of TITANIC. Although the Titanic story is itself a fantastic tragedy, filled with countless subplots, romance, even a touch of precognition and the supernatural, the basic reasons for the love story are obvious. By getting to know Jack and Rose, and by feeling her pain when she lets go of him, we can feel for the 1500 real people who died.

The only part of the movie I found serious fault with was the depiction of Murdoch committing suicide. Although several witnesses did claim after the sinking that an officer shot himself, (some said the Captain, some said Murdoch, along with various other suggestions) there is no way, using currently available evidence, to know for sure if anyone comitted suicide, or who. I would think it would have been more respectful to have used an unknown officer, or implied that a suicide may have occurred in some other way.

The depiction of officer Lowe firing his revolver along the side of the ship to warn passengers from rushing the boat was taken directly from evidence given at the Inquiries.

The portrayal of Murdoch accepting a bribewas the BIG mistake of the movie. This was one fiction that was outside the bounds of respectable artistic interpretation, though I suspect Mr. Cameron was using the bribe as more a statement about Cal than Murdoch. People in Murdochs home town were understandably upset over this.

If you really want to learn more about Titanic, both the movie and the real Titanic, buy James Camerons Titanic Explorer from Fox interactive. Thetitle equals the movie in excellence. Beautifully executed and loaded with enough information to keep the most serious Titanic enthusiast busy for weeks.