"THE TITANIC" - SEEN THROUGH EYES OF SEA CAPTAIN

( Editorial: --> 0795 ) ZAGREB, May 1 (Hina) - "Titanic", a movie lauded across the globe and bestowed with many awards, which tells the story of mythical proportion about the sinking of the world's most exclusive ship, has offended an experienced Croatian sea captain and marine writer, Bruno Profaca. Errors made by director James Cameron are serious: with an inexpert and candied presentation of a seaman's life, he "brings into question one of the greatest maritime tragedies of all time", and he "approaches the honourable vocation of a seaman with incomprehensible malice," Profaca criticises. Captain Profaca, currently residing in Zagreb, especially takes offence at the "ignoring and reversing of the strict hierarchy aboard ship" in the movie. "Maritime sailing is not only mere pot-boiling of those who live on the sea and from the sea, but is a particular way of life, to which (...)all the inhabitants of the coastal area, commonly referred to as 'gente di mare', willingly incline. I believe that all those who have really experienced the true way of life of a mariner (...), having seen the showing of the seemingly magnificent cloned "Titanic", left the movie theatre a bit depressed," Profaca wrote, extensively analysing the movie in Sunday 26 April's edition of the "Novi List" daily. "If it had happened like that in reality - the "Titanic's" command would have rightfully demanded protection from its union," Captain Profaca said defending the dignity of his profession, and condemning the movie's much too accentuated role of the ship's constructor, as well as the non-existence of expert consultants among sea captains to the movie's director. He is especially perturbed by the character of "the unfortunate captain Edward J. Smith", who was reduced to a "mute plastic figure as if taken from some model of a ship in a museum," presented as "almost having no purpose on the captain's bridge, and then as an accessory singer in a church choir"... And, "when the movie reached its worst moment, in the agony of the collision, a call is heard 'starboard' (meaning turn the rudder to the right), and the steersman feverishly begins turning the rudder to the left!" This "most lauded and most profitable movie in the world" is far from, for example, "the magnificent English film 'Cruel Sea', which was at the time "commended even by the British Royal Navy," Captain Bruno Profaca wrote. (hina) lm 011528 MET may 98