Out at sea, it pays to be rich

Besides props and memorabilia, Titanic: An Immersive Voyage Through The Eyes Of The Passengers shows how certain travellers were luckier than others

- John Lui

Some say the Oscar-winning movie Titanic (1997) is anti-rich propaganda.

The millionaire Cal (Billy Zane) is a swine who desires the aristocratic Rose (Kate Winslet), but cannot have her because sexy starving artist Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) has lured her into his scruffy arms.

And some have also noticed this: First-class girl Rose is so taken with third-class Jack that when she is elderly and close to death, she chooses him as her afterlife companion, not the husband and children with whom she has spent most of her life.

The romantic disaster epic about the titular ship's 1912 sinking in icy waters is riddled with examples of bias against the rich, such as when third-class passengers meet locked gates stopping them from reaching the lifeboats so the posh folks can board first.

Writer-director James Cameron guessed correctly that most moviegoers fly economy, and we are the type to glare at first- and business-class passengers boarding ahead of everyone else, hoping they trip and fall.

Visit the new exhibition with a title almost as long as the ship, Titanic: An Immersive Voyage — Through The Eyes Of The Passengers, and you will see that maybe the film is not just anti-capitalist propaganda.