The Critique of Titanic

Introduction

The Titanic is a 1997 film that tells of the sinking of the ship during its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean.  From the film, viewers get the follow the life of Rose DeWitt Bukater and her short-lived romance with David Dawson.  Rose is engaged and set to be married to 30-year-old Cal Hockley. Rose’ family is excited about the wedding because it would mark an end to their financial difficulties.  However, Rose does not love Cal and does not wish to marry him.  She contemplates to kill herself by jumping off the Titanic.  It is at that point that she meets Jack who saves her and their romance begin.  Cal is jealous of the connection that is evident between Rose and Jack.  He accuses him of theft and Jack is jailed.  When the ship begins to sink, Rose runs from her first class family and goes back to the ship to save Jack. Eventually, the ship sinks with the two love-birds on board (Koldau, 2012).  They find a piece of wood that, unfortunately, can support one person.  Rose boards it as Jack freezes in the water beside Rose.

            The film is very good as it employs flashback.  The entire film is a flashback as told by Rose whose is traced by treasure hunter Brock Lovett at the start of the film.  It is through flashback that viewers are taken back to the maiden voyage of the Titanic. The use of flashback allows the movie to detail information on the incidences that occurred in the film.    The movie also highlights the extent of social stratification and discrimination in society.  The ship was categorized into classes. The first class passengers (such as Rose) enjoyed life luxuries aboard the ship.  Even during the rescuing, the first class passengers received priority over other classes.  The first class life was different from the third class (where Jack was from).  The classes were not expected to interact, and the film shows how Rose’s first class family was uncomfortable with Jack’s presence. 

The movie is also good as it employs into the emotions of the viewers.  The blossoming love between Rose and Jack and their instant connection warms up viewers (Stringer, 2013).  Similarly, the death of Jack as he professes his love for Rose elicits the emotions of loss and grief among viewers.  Later, the last scene (where Rose appears to die on her bed) depicts Rose being received by Jack and other passengers and crew who died on the ship. The last scene elicits happiness and the excitement that eventually true love prevails since Rose and Jack still meet after their death.  In summary, viewers go through a wave of high and low emotions which are a great achievement for the film.

 The film also had some bad aspects.  First, the film portrays the woman as a weak person whose is controlled by the man and has a minimal chance of survival.  First, Rose is presented as a woman who is not in control of her life.  The decision to marry Cal is not hers but her families.  Similarly, Cal perceives Rose as her possession.  Moreover, during the rescuing mission, the crew was determined to save women and children as they appeared most vulnerable and unlikely to survive.  The directors of the film emphasize the weak and helpless nature of the woman while portraying the man as strong, independent and confident. The romance between Rose and Jack is also unrealistic to some extent.  It is impossible for Rose and Jack to love each other in a span of days.  In reality, Rose was engaged to Cal thus making it unrealistic that he could fall out with Cal and immediately love another man.  Therefore, occurrences such as the naked painting and love making scene are unrealistic.  It is evident that the directors put too many love-related events to occur with a few days (Marsh, & Kirkland, 2009).

The movie could also have been better if it had focused on more themes and more characters than Jack and Rose. The movie is primarily about Rose and Jack, and all other characters are mere supporting characters.  It is unrealistic that there was nothing else to follow in the ship except the life of Rose, her quest for love. The ship was filled, and it would have been realistic in the director could have focused on lives of a few other characters.

Conclusion

 Despite the flaws, Titanic (1997) is a film whose standards set the pace for the production of better movies in the following years.  The directors demonstrated that a movie should not just focus on telling a narration, but it should tap into various emotions of the viewers.  For instance, many viewers can agree that they were saddened by the death of Jack.  Similarly, the movie brings out underlying social issues such as social stratification thus providing insights that the problem existed hundreds of years ago.

References

Koldau, L. (2012). The Titanic on film: myth vs. truth. McFarland Publishers

Stringer, J. (2013). Movie blockbusters. Routledge

Marsh, E. W., & Kirkland, D. (2009). James Cameron's Titanic

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in help writing nursing research paper if you need a similar paper you can place your order for customized papers.