1997 ends with a gigantic motion picture about a monumental disaster involving a colossal ship -- Titanic.

The facts are simple enough. The Royal Mail steamship Titanic, of the White Star Line, sailing on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York with 2223 passengers and crew, was sunk at sea by collision with a submerged iceberg at night on Sunday, April 14, 1912. 832 passengers and 685 of the crew perished.

Among those lost were John Jacob Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Isidore Straus.

The Titanic was the largest ship in the world at the time, with a length of 852.5 feet and a gross tonnage of 46,328.

At least 10 films have been made about the disaster, starting with Saved From the Titanic, released on May 14, 1912.

The British film, A Night to Remember, released in 1958, is still regarded as the most faithful to the actual story. Indeed, advertising at the time described it as "The True Story of the World's Great Sea Disaster--Brilliantly Told by Walter Lord in His Best-Selling Novel--Now Comes to the Screen...The Full, Fantastic Story of the Night the Titanic Went Down in an Icy Sea."

Now, in 1997, we expect, and get, from James Cameron, a spectacular feast for the eyes, with dazzling special effects.

The framing story about a fabulous diamond and a tragic romance is fictional. With so much real tragedy in the Titanic story, why did Cameron have to invent his protagonists?

Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) is betrothed to filthy rich Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). This engagement was arranged by Rose's snobby, but now broke mother, Ruth, (Frances Fisher) to save them.

Naturally, Rose doesn't love Cal, and feels so trapped that she contemplates suicide, but is talked out of it by brash artist Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio). The romantic triangle is worked out against the backdrop of a rapidly sinking ship.

Why our continuing fascination with this disaster? Are we beginning to appreciate the limitations of mortal man?

Consider that the sinking of the Titanic has been called the wake-up call of the 20th Century. Man's hubris in naming the vessel "unsinkable" is met with unmitigated catastrophe.

Hubris, too, appears in the rigid class system, still part of British society. While even the real life memorial to the dead is written out by class, status didn't matter much when the victims hit the water.

Today, we may marvel at the technology of the Internet, but are troubled knowing that most of the money being made from it is currently going to the phone companies and the porno content providers.

Perfection has not been achieved quite yet. In Titanic's most bittersweet scene, the designer and shipbuilder, Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber), who has gotten to know Rose on the voyage, says sadly, when the sinking is imminent, "I'm sorry that I didn't build a stronger ship for you, young Rose."

Those of us who are parents often think and even utter such thoughts to our children: Sorrow that we didn't build a stronger ship--as in a better life.

Lord writes in his book: "What troubled people especially was not just the tragedy, or even its needlessness, but the element of fate in it all. If the Titanic had heeded any of the six ice messages on Sunday . . . if ice conditions had been normal . . . if the night had been rough or moonlit . . . if she had seen the berg fifteen seconds sooner, or fifteen seconds later, . . . if she had hit the ice any other way . . . if her watertight bulkheads had been one deck higher . . . if she had carried enough boats . . . if the Californian [just 10 miles away] had only come. Had any one of these 'ifs' turned out right, every life might have been saved. But they all went against her, a classic Greek tragedy."

Humbled, we move on. Happy New Year 1998!!