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Production

Costly! The costs of vising the wreck twelve times for research and footage, not to mention the cost of the film production overall. The extreme profitability of this film and James Cameron in general.


Classism

First, second, and third class on the same ship. Titans of industry. Runaway capitalism. The class divide and point of view before The Great War. The modern “royalty” by virtue of their wealth.


Technology

The pace of technological development in industries, especially intercontinental travel by steamship. Comparing the early 1900s to other periods of technological progress like the 1980s and 1990. Noting the nature of the automobiles in the film: literally the design of a “horseless carriage.” The cutting-edge wireless technology aboard the ship.


The ship

Three engines! Of two varieties. Steam-driven piston engines and steam-driven a turbine. Note: you cannot reverse a turbine. Peak power: 46,000 horsepower. 600 tons of coal daily. An anecdote about Mr. Diesel.


A collection of small problems

The nature of many disasters, probably including Titanic: a series of small problems, adding up to a catastrophic failure under the rigt (wrong) circumstances. Rich people hogging the Marconi wireless. Out of date lifeboat regulations. Loading lifeboats (badly). The reality of “women and children first.” Avoiding chaos until it’s too late.


Judgements

The inquiries from shortly after the event, and the great surprise you may experience when realizing that the company men consistently pushed blame back up the chain of command. Modern evidence changing our conception over time. Actually ultimately coming to the consensus that this particular ship on this particular voyage was mostly operated in a way that was totally normal in almost all respects and simply got very unlucky.


All told, it does seem that Titanic was really really well-engineered and did remarkably well under the circumstances.






[4K,60Fps,Colorized] Titanic, First and Last Voyage, April 1912 AI Recovery, added sound: YouTube



RMS Titanic Survivors True Accounts of The Sinking: YouTube



RMS Titanic: Fascinating Engineering Facts by the Engingeering Guy: YouTube



Titanic - Alternate Ending: YouTube




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The movie

It was really good! One-shot gimmicks of the past and appreciating the technical complexity of what was done here.


People

The demographic makeup of the British military. Young average infantryman age. “Pals battalions” and serving alongside your friends.


The Great War

The scale of WWI versus what came before. Rising contemporary appreciation for the study of this conflict. How much was the war a “modern war” and how much did it help usher in the modern world? Horses and tanks.


Trench warfare

The shovel as a tool of war for millenia. How do we wind up with stalemate trench warfare? A hint of trench warfare in the American Civil War. Really impressive trench engineering. Tanks, tech, strategy, and the eventual end of trench warfare. Rats - yuck! Rats in the trenches.


Technology

Barbed wire. Mechanized warfare. Horses in WWI and WWII. Tanks! Really slow and not very great tanks. Radio reliability. Hard-line comms. Sending messages by foot, radio, or… dropping it out of a plane? Medical infrastructure and what modern medicine owes to WWI.






A Prussian Landwehrmann tanning rat skins in a dugout, WWI: Reddit



Josh's show's on LSG Media: The X-Files Podcast (always)Science Fiction Film Podcast (sometimes)



Gallipoli: Prime VideoiTunes



They Shall Not Grow Old: iTunesAmazonYouTube



They Shall Not Grow Old: film restoration, persistance of vision, and vfx: Decipher SciFi




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Meta

Versions! So many versions. The best version of the film: The Ultimate Cut.


Setting the scene

Ancient Greece after 300. The Peloponnesian War (which Ryan is in the middle of on his show!). The rise of Philip. Olympias.


Philip

Putting Macedon at center stage in ancient Greece. Technical and logistical innovations. Planning the invasion of Persia right before his suspiciously untimely death.


The purge

Alexander and Olypmias. Purging royal competition in the ancient world. Plutarch and gossip about “powerful women” in antiquity.


Sources

The loss of contemporary sources and the reliability of what remains. Plutarch’s gossip column.


“The Great”

What makes an historical figure “The Great,” instead of “The Terrible” or just forgotten? So many Alexandrias! Conquest, culture, and Hellenization.


Manly love

“Homosexuality” in the ancient world and different norms of power and masulinity. Alexander and Hephaestion. Achilles and Patroclas.


Death

Heavy Macedonian drinking and Alexander’s downward spiral. Conflicting reports and also modern interpretations of possible causes of death. Indeterminate succession. Alexander’s body floating around for centuries.






Ryan's Show!: The History of Ancient Greece Podcast




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People

Roland Emmerich and Mel Gibson and historical rigor (or lack thereof).


Period technologies

Rocking chairs! Pushing the edge of period chair technology. Actually a relatively new thing, so you could see why Mel might have been having some trouble. Smooth-bore firearms and the eventual transition to Longrifles. Militias vs armies and the frequency of rifled weapons between them. Reload times. Minié balls, loading speed, and rifle accuracy.


Banistre Tarleton

Maybe the name was too deliciously posh and British? So they changed it to William Tavington. Maybe kind of a jerk, but clearly not the caricature we see in the film. Blowing your inheritence on women and gambling vs buying hundreds of horses. Buying your military commissions whether you deserve it or not.


Heroism

Should we even try to approach the legitimacy of the “hero?” Humans: always flawed through some lens and operating within their time and experience.


Militia

Militias vs armies. The problem in modern armies of humans not really wanting to kill other humans.


War crimes

Ungentlemanly conduct. Continental congress early investigations for propaganda. Zero documented mass-slaughter church-burnings.


Slavery

Do not be misled: it was happening during this period. Especially in South Carolina. Promises (lies) of post-war freedom. Numbers on the British and Patriot sides.



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Language

Creating the dialects, idolects, and accents of the five points. Historical Language sleuthing. Daniel Day Lewis’ vocal performance.


Historicity

“A drama, not a documentary.” The overstatements of the loose source book “The Gangs of New York.” Compressed timeframes. Framing the story of the “gangs of New York” through the lens of the Italian mobs of the early 20th century.


Blight

“The Great Famine” and “The Potato Famine.” Blight: not a fungus! Actually non-photosynthetic algae. Living on only potatoes: pretty doable! How the blight was delivered from America and was able to flourish under the seasoncal conditions in Ireland.


Coming to America

Migration of Irish into (mostly) New York City. Staying where you land because you lack the resources to move on. The conditions on the long boat ride over.


Old New York

New York: like now, but smaller and mostly woods and marshes etc. Draining and filling the stinky sewage lake to make a place for the five points. American growth and the spoilage of nature.


The Five Points

Not as crimey as you heard! But, maybe just as grimey. Discerning quality of life in the five points from archaeology, correspondences, censuces, bank records, and other sources. Common people, eating meat; for every meal! Chain immigration.


Corruption

Using the Irish vote. Competitive firefighting. Tweed’s truly impressive corruption.


Gangs

Bill the Butcher. 19th century gang names. The dueling origin stories of the “Dead Rabbits.” Inter-linguistic phono-semantic matching.


Draft riot

History washing over local squabbles. Lynchings. Violently protesting the purchasability of draft vexceptions. Thge New York Times offices and machine guns and molten lead.






The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asburt: Internet Archive



The Rogue's Lexicon by George Matsell: Project Gutenberg



Five Points and 19th Century New York: YouTube




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Isaac Meyer’s History of Japan Podcast!!


Japan post-isolation

Tokugawa rule. Can historical economics be interesting? The introduction of tightly-controlled Dutch trade in Japan preceeding the Meiji restoration. Western opposition. Fighting over western presence and figuring out how much Western influence Japan can tolerate while still being Japanese. The return of the Emperor.


Europeans in Japan

Recognizing the relative militrary reputations of Britain, France, Germany, and the US at the time. French military advisors in irl Japan during the Meiji restoration. Jules Brunet as the closest real-life analogue to Tom Cruise’s Algren. Spheres of influence.


Samurai

War basically between and within the Samurai class. Samurai with side jobs. Disbanding the social class with the swords. Samurai civil war armor and its increasing disutility as firearms improve. The point of the elaborate headpieces.



Samurai with a Katana c. 1860



Felice Beato, public domain



Saigō Takamori

The irl analogue for Ken Watanabe’s character. Trying to fight Korea. Accidentally creating revolutionaries. Takamori’s last stand after his forces ran out of bullets. “The Last Samurai” and the ease of Japanese punning.



Saigo Takamori before 1877



Edoardo Chiossone, public domain



Foreign samurai

English-born “Samurai” and how/whether a foreigner could actually become a real samurai. The (probably) African-born “samurai” Yasuke, working as personal bodyguard for daimyō Nobunaga.


Bushido

Creating your warrior narrative after your period of real marshall utility. Analogy with European chivalry. The carrying of Bushido culture from Samurai time into WWII Japan. The circumstances where ritual suicide begins to seem like a reasonable option.


Guns

Arqebuses all over the joint before the period of the film. Samurai gun-kata. Wooden cannons, howitzers, and artillery classification.






The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori by Mark Ravina: iTunesAmazon



Stand Up For Your Rights by History of Japan Podcast: Part 1Part 2



Bushido Blade: Wikipedia



Japanese Milk Bread: NYT Cooking via Google page cache




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