James Cameron’s pondering was that, no matter what truly occurred, choosing Murdoch for the incident made probably the most sense for the story he was making an attempt to inform. “Oh, the man who’s answerable for helming the ship, on his watch, he is the one who basically ran the ship into an iceberg. Was he overcome by guilt? Was he making an attempt to save lots of as many individuals as he may however when the riot broke out he overreacted?’ Who is aware of,” Cameron defined in a 2017 interview. Cameron has since acknowledged that there was extra than simply good storytelling he ought to’ve thought-about:

“I feel I bought a little bit carried away with the narrative and was not delicate to the affect that it may need had on the households. And that is the accountability that one carries while you’re making what’s basically a giant docudrama since you’re telling the story of one thing that basically occurred, and I did populate it with actual folks.”

Ewan Stewart additionally expressed some remorse over his portrayal of the character within the movie, saying, “I am ashamed to say it, actually, now — I hadn’t actually on condition that loads of thought, that I used to be taking part in an actual individual.” 

We’ll by no means 100% know for positive, however most accounts help the concept he was one of the crucial profitable officers when it got here to loading up the lifeboats and that he carried out admirably all through an inconceivable scenario. “To many individuals, he’s a Scottish hero,” mentioned one researcher. Following the film’s launch, folks from Murdoch’s hometown in Scotland referred to as on Cameron and the studio to apologize for the portrayal.