MovieChat Forums > A Night to Remember (1958) Discussion > Physical Ed teachers. If you're seaman e...

Physical Ed teachers. If you're seaman enough to go down that rope.


So now you are vindicated when students ask:
"Hey why do I have to learn to climb on this rope?"

"It's the system, Lara. People will be different after the Revolution."

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I'm surprised that this is the only Titanic film to feature Major Arthur Peuchen climbing down the rope onto the lifeboat. It's definitely one of the most exciting moments in the film. Incredibly, Peuchen was 52-years-old at the time. Alas, Peuchen's poor conduct on the lifeboat -- he didn't stand up to Quartermaster Robert Hichens grossly throwing his weight around as well as failed to give Molly Brown her due credit for upholding morale on the lifeboat in newspaper interviews -- and the harsh comments he said to reporters in interviews about Captain Edward John Smith and the Titanic crew -- he called them both "substandard" -- ultimately led to him being deemed a coward in his native Canada because of his self-serving attitude.

I've been chasing grace/ But grace ain't easy to find

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I'm a 97-pound weakling type, and an uncoordinated klutz on top of that. In high school Phys Ed, I never could climb the rope, couldn't even budge an inch. I just hung there at the bottom while all the other students laughed at me.

I wouldn't hesitate to slide down the rope if my life depended on it. And uncoordinated though I may be, I'm sure I could have summoned the presence of mind to steer myself into the boat. Wouldn't even care much if I scraped my hands raw trying to slow down. Going down a rope is easy. It's called gravity.

"I don't deduce, I observe."

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But you haven't done it and so you wouldn't know.

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