critique essay about titanic

December 19, 1997 'Titanic': A Spectacle as Sweeping as the Sea From the Archives The New York Times Front Page With Coverage of the Titanic Disaster (April 16, 1912) Related Articles The New York Times on the Web: Current Film Forum Join a Discussion on Movies By JANET MASLIN he long-awaited advent of the most expensive movie ever made, the reportedly $200 million "Titanic," brings history to mind, and not just the legendary seafaring disaster of April 15, 1912. Think back also, exactly 58 years ago, to the Dec. 19 New York premiere of another grand, transporting love story set against a backdrop of prideful excess, cataclysmic upheaval and character-defining trial by fire. Recall how that cultural landmark wowed audiences with its bravado, mad extravagance and state-of-the-art Hollywood showmanship, all fueled by one unstoppable filmmaker and his obsessive imagination. Just as David O. Selznick had Atlanta to burn, now James Cameron has a ship to sink, but he also has much more than calamity to explore in this gloriously retrograde new epic. Cameron's magnificent "Titanic" is the first spectacle in decades that honestly invites comparison to "Gone With the Wind." What a rarity that makes it in today's world of meaningless gimmicks and short attention spans: a huge, thrilling three-and-a-quarter-hour experience that unerringly lures viewers into the beauty and heartbreak of its lost world. Astonishing technological advances are at work here, but only in the service of one spectacular illusion: that the ship is afloat again, and that the audience is intimately involved in its voyage. What's more, Cameron succeeds magically in linking his film's young lovers, played enchantingly by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, with established details of the "Titanic" story. And let's not forget the offscreen drama: delayed release and outrageous costs made "Titanic" the joke of the summer. Now it's the movie of the year. Though the tender moments in Cameron's earlier films have mostly involved Arnold Schwarzenegger, graceful storytelling from this one-man army of a filmmaker (a director, a producer, a writer and an editor) is the biggest of many surprises here. Swept away by the romance of his subject matter, Cameron rises to the occasion with a simple, captivating narrative style, one that cares little for subtlety but overflows with wonderful, well-chosen Hollywood hokum. In its own sobering way, the film is forward-looking, too, as its early brashness gives way to near-religious humility when the moments of reckoning arrive. Ultimately a haunting tale of human nature, with endless displays of callousness, gallantry or cowardice, it offers an unforgettable vision of millennium-ready unease in the sight of passengers adrift in icy seas on that last, moonless night. That Cameron allowed flashlights into what should have been a pitch-black sequence is one of the rare times when "Titanic" willingly departs from established fact. Otherwise, with an attention to detail that goes well beyond fanatical, the film flawlessly recreates its monument to Gilded Age excess. Behind-the-scenes details here, which prove no less fascinating than Selznick's "Gone With the Wind" memos, include Cameron's having persuaded the original carpet manufacturer to make an 18,000-square-foot reproduction of its "Titanic" weave and his having insisted that every sign, uniform and logo for the Southampton sailing sequence also be created in mirror image, so that the camera could reverse the apparent direction of the nearly life-size model ship. Sets match old photographs right down to the sculpture and woodwork; costumes incorporate fragments of vintage clothing; even the silver White Star Line ashtrays had to be right. A core group of 150 extras worked with an Edwardian etiquette coach throughout the filming, furthering the illusion that the privileged past had returned to life. "Titanic" is no museum piece, however. It's a film with tremendous momentum right from its deceptive, crass-looking start. The story opens in the present day, with a team of scientist-cowboys (led by Bill Paxton) hunting for lost treasure amid the Titanic wreckage. Though Cameron made his own journey to the ocean floor to film amazing glimpses of the ship, he treats these explorers as glib '90s hotshots, the kind of macho daredevils who could just as easily be found tracking twisters or dinosaurs in a summer action film. "Oops, somebody left the water running," one of them wisecracks about the sunken ship. Then the film begins, ever so teasingly, to open its window to the past. A 101-year-old woman (played spiritedly by Gloria Stuart, an 87-year-old beauty who appeared in "Gold Diggers of 1935") hears of the expedition and says it has links to her own history. It seems that she, Rose, was the model for a nude sketch found by the present-day fortune hunters in a Titanic safe. It is the only thing of value to be retrieved there. The money in the safe has turned to mud. But where is the Heart of the Ocean, the egg-size blue diamond Rose wears in the drawing? Rose begins telling her story, and at long last 1912 is at hand. In an introductory sequence mounted on a colossal scale, Cameron shows the ship being boarded by its full economic range of passengers, from the haughty rich to the third-class passengers being checked for head lice. Young Rose (Ms. Winslet) arrives at the dock in the show-stopping plumage of Deborah L. Scott's costume designs, and in the unfortunate company of Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), the tiresome snob whom she has agreed to marry, largely at the urging of her impecunious mother (Frances Fisher). The Rose-Cal story line, which is the weakest part of the film thanks to Cal's unwavering odiousness, plays like Edith Wharton Lite. Meanwhile, in a nearby tavern, adorable Jack Dawson (DiCaprio) is winning a third-class Titanic ticket in a poker game. It won't be long before Jack is bounding happily into steerage, showing off the boyish adventurousness that makes him such a cure for what's ailing Rose. Aboard the ship of dreams, as the Titanic is often called here, Jack is one serious dreamboat. A bohemian artist (whose drawings were done by Cameron) who has spent the requisite time in Paris, he offers all the fun and flirtatiousness that Rose has been missing. This 20-year-old has also shown his share of worldly wisdom by the end of the story. It goes without saying that it's Jack, not Cal, who is the film's true gentleman. And that DiCaprio has made an inspired career move in so successfully meeting the biggest challenge for an actor of his generation: a traditional role. Among the many miracles of "Titanic" is its way of creating a sweet, life-changing courtship between Jack and Rose in the course of only a few days. At the risk of turning into a women's picture, "Titanic" brings these two together through a dramatic meeting, an invitation for Jack at a formal first-class dinner, a dancing romp among steerage passengers and even enough intimate moments to give the love story heat. Splendid chemistry between the stars, along with much color from the supporting cast and careful foreshadowing from Cameron, keeps the romance buoyant even after the dread iceberg gets in its way. Comfortable even in suggesting that the ship's lookouts missed the danger because they were busy watching lovestruck Jack and Rose, Cameron lets tragedy strike midway through the film. That way, the disaster can unfold in almost real time, with terrifying precision on a par with all the other details here. Not for "Titanic" the shrill hysteria of ordinary disaster stories; this film is especially delicate in its slow way of letting the gravity of the situation become clear. Much scarier than any explosion-filled caper film is the simple assessment from the ship's master builder, played with great dignity by Victor Garber: "In an hour or so, all this will be at the bottom of the Atlantic." As Cameron joked during production, about a film that pitilessly observes the different plights of the rich and the poor, "We're holding just short of Marxist dogma." (A lavish "Titanic" coffee table book from HarperCollins is filled with fascinating data about the film, from the director's casual asides to accounts of the technological wizardry, like computerized hydraulics, that were devised for repeatedly sinking the ship.) By this point, the audience knows the ship so fully, from Cal and Rose's elaborate suite to the depths of the boiler room, that the film is on shockingly familiar territory as Rose searches every newly waterlogged area for Jack. Very much to Cameron's credit is the lack of logistical confusion. Indeed, the film's modern-day characters even watch a computerized version of how the ship split and then rose vertically just before it plunged straight down, events that are later re-enacted with awesome power. Despite all this advance information and the revelation that Rose lives to be 101, "Titanic" still sustains an extraordinary degree of suspense. Tiny, devastating touches -- how the same doll whose face rests on the ocean floor in 1996 is clutched in the arms of a pretty little girl who idolizes Jack, or a four-hanky coda seen in Rose's dream -- work as well as the film's big spectacle in giving the tragedy of "Titanic" its full dramatic impact. Though many of the story's minor characters are one-note (hardly the case with Kathy Bates's hearty Molly Brown or Bernard Hill's brave captain), the cumulative effect of their presence is anything but shallow. Beyond its romance, "Titanic" offers an indelibly wrenching story of blind arrogance and its terrible consequences. It's the rare Hollywood adventure film that brings mythic images of tragedy -- the fall of Icarus, the ruin of Ozymandias -- so easily to mind. The irony is that Cameron's "Titanic" is such a Titanic in its own right, a presumptuous reach for greatness against all reasonable odds. The film itself gambles everything on visual splendor and technological accomplishment, which is one reason its extravagance is fully justified on screen. But if Cameron's own brazenness echoes that seen in his story, remember the essential difference. This "Titanic" is too good to sink. PRODUCTION NOTES TITANIC Rating: "Titanic" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It includes partial nudity, one brief sexual situation, mild profanity and the soul-shaking sight of a great ship going down. Written and directed by James Cameron; director of photography, Russell Carpenter; edited by Conrad Buff, Cameron and Richard A. Harris; music by James Horner; production designer, Peter Lamont; costume designer, Deborah L. Scott; special visual effects, Digital Domain; produced by Cameron, Jon Landau and Rae Sanchini; released by Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. Running time: 197 minutes. This film is rated PG-13. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson), Kate Winslet (Rose DeWitt Bukater), Gloria Stuart (Rose Dawson Calvert), Billy Zane (Cal Hockley), Kathy Bates (Molly Brown), Frances Fisher (Ruth DeWitt Bukater), Bernard Hill (Capt. E.J. Smith), Victor Garber (Thomas Andrews) and Bill Paxton (Brock Lovett).

Titanic (United States, 1997)

Short of climbing aboard a time capsule and peeling back eight and one-half decades, James Cameron's magnificent Titanic is the closest any of us will get to walking the decks of the doomed ocean liner. Meticulous in detail, yet vast in scope and intent, Titanic is the kind of epic motion picture event that has become a rarity. You don't just watch Titanic , you experience it -- from the launch to the sinking, then on a journey two and one-half miles below the surface, into the cold, watery grave where Cameron has shot never-before seen documentary footage specifically for this movie.

In each of his previous outings, Cameron has pushed the special effects envelope. In Aliens , he cloned H.R. Giger's creation dozens of times, fashioning an army of nightmarish monsters. In The Abyss , he took us deep under the sea to greet a band of benevolent space travelers. In T2 , he introduced the morphing terminator (perfecting an effects process that was pioneered in The Abyss ). And in True Lies , he used digital technology to choreograph an in-air battle. Now, in Titanic , Cameron's flawless re-creation of the legendary ship has blurred the line between reality and illusion to such a degree that we can't be sure what's real and what isn't. To make this movie, it's as if Cameron built an all-new Titanic , let it sail, then sunk it.

Of course, special effects alone don't make for a successful film, and Titanic would have been nothing more than an expensive piece of eye candy without a gripping story featuring interesting characters. In his previous outings, Cameron has always placed people above the technological marvels that surround them. Unlike film makers such as Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, Cameron has used visual effects to serve his plot, not the other way around. That hasn't changed with Titanic . The picture's spectacle is the ship's sinking, but its core is the affair between a pair of mismatched, star-crossed lovers.

Titanic is a romance, an adventure, and a thriller all rolled into one. It contains moments of exuberance, humor, pathos, and tragedy. In their own way, the characters are all larger-than- life, but they're human enough (with all of the attendant frailties) to capture our sympathy. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Titanic is that, even though Cameron carefully recreates the death of the ship in all of its terrible grandeur, the event never eclipses the protagonists. To the end, we never cease caring about Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Titanic sank during the early morning hours of April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic, killing 1500 of the 2200 on board. The movie does not begin in 1912, however -- instead, it opens in modern times, with a salvage expedition intent on recovering some of the ship's long-buried treasure. The expedition is led by Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton), a fortune hunter who is searching for the mythical "Heart of the Ocean", a majestic 56 karat diamond which reputedly went down with the ship. After seeing a TV report about the salvage mission, a 101-year old woman (Gloria Stuart) contacts Brock with information regarding the jewel. She identifies herself as Rose DeWitt Bukater, a survivor of the tragedy. Brock has her flown out to his ship. Once there, she tells him her version of the story of Titanic 's ill-fated voyage.

The bulk of the film -- well over 80% of its running time -- is spent in flashbacks. We pick up the story on the day that Titanic leaves Southampton, with jubilant crowds cheering as it glides away from land. On board are the movie's three main characters: Rose, a young American debutante trapped in a loveless engagement because her mother is facing financial ruin; Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), her rich-but-cold-hearted fiancé; and Jack Dawson, a penniless artist who won his third-class ticket in a poker game. When Jack first sees Rose, it's from afar, but circumstances offer him the opportunity to become much closer to her. As the voyage continues, Jack and Rose grow more intimate, and she tries to summon up the courage to defy her mother (Frances Fisher) and break off her engagement. But, even with the aid of an outspoken rich women named Molly Brown (Kathy Bates), the barrier of class looms as a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle. Then, when circumstances in the Rose/Cal/Jack triangle are coming to a head, Titanic strikes an iceberg and the "unsinkable" ship (that term is a testament to man's hubris) begins to go down.

By keeping the focus firmly on Rose and Jack, Cameron avoids one frequent failing of epic disaster movies: too many characters in too many stories. When a film tries to chronicle the lives and struggles of a dozen or more individuals, it reduces them all to cardboard cut-outs. In Titanic , Rose and Jack are at the fore from beginning to end, and the supporting characters are just that -- supporting. The two protagonists (as well as Cal) are accorded enough screen time for Cameron to develop multifaceted personalities.

As important as the characters are, however, it's impossible to deny the power of the visual effects. Especially during the final hour, as Titanic undergoes its death throes, the film functions not only as a rousing adventure with harrowing escapes, but as a testimony to the power of computers to simulate reality in the modern motion picture. The scenes of Titanic going under are some of the most awe-inspiring in any recent film. This is the kind of movie that it's necessary to see more than once just to appreciate the level of detail.

One of the most unique aspects of Titanic is its use of genuine documentary images to set the stage for the flashback story. Not satisfied with the reels of currently-existing footage of the sunken ship, Cameron took a crew to the site of the wreck to do his own filming. As a result, some of the underwater shots in the framing sequences are of the actual liner lying on the ocean floor. Their importance and impact should not be underestimated, since they further heighten the production's sense of verisimilitude.

For the leading romantic roles of Jack and Rose, Cameron has chosen two of today's finest young actors. Leonardo DiCaprio ( Romeo + Juliet ), who has rarely done better work, has shed his cocky image. Instead, he's likable and energetic in this part -- two characteristics vital to establishing Jack as a hero. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet, whose impressive resume includes Sense and Sensibility, Hamlet , and Jude , dons a flawless American accent along with her 1912 garb, and essays an appealing, vulnerable Rose. Billy Zane comes across as the perfect villain -- callous, arrogant, yet displaying true affection for his prized fiancé. The supporting cast, which includes Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill (as Titanic 's captain), and David Warner (as Cal's no-nonsense manservant), is flawless.

While Titanic is easily the most subdued and dramatic of Cameron's films, fans of more frantic pictures like Aliens and The Abyss will not be disappointed. Titanic has all of the thrills and intensity that movie-goers have come to expect from the director. A dazzling mix of style and substance, of the sublime and the spectacular, Titanic represents Cameron's most accomplished work to date. It's important not to let the running time hold you back -- these three-plus hour pass very quickly. Although this telling of the Titanic story is far from the first, it is the most memorable, and is deserving of Oscar nominations not only in the technical categories, but in the more substantive ones of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress.

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TITANIC – FILM ANALYSIS

Titanic, released in 1997, is an American epic romantic film that ends in a disaster. The film has been directed, written, co-produced, co-edited and partly financed by James Cameron. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio are in the lead roles. And they belong to two different social classes who fell in love with each other in the film. The theme of the film is the love story between the two main protagonists which is infused with the human loss. The film was released worldwide in English language on December 19, 1997 and it was distributed by 20th Century Fox (international) and Paramount Pictures (USA). The characters in the film were Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Jane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, Gloria Stuart, David Warner, Victor Garber, and Bill Paxton. The music was given by James Horner. It was the most expensive film ever made at that time. Titanic is basically a ship which unfortunately got hit with an ice berg and broke into two pieces, thereby drowned maximum of the passengers boarded on the ship.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Titanic — The Analysis of the Film “The Titanic”

The Analysis of The Film "The Titanic"

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“Titanic” by James Cameron: The Design of the American Epic Romance Film Essay (Critical Writing)

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With masterful planning, the design and the production of the Titanic is a marvel that moved the film industry to higher levels. The film director and producer, James Cameron, and other crewmembers succeeded in bringing to the world’s attention the events that surrounded the greatest maritime disaster that claimed about 1,500 lives.

By paying meticulous attention to detail, the production designer of the film, Peter Lamont, succeeded in creating the ‘world’ of the film. He did this with the intention of avoiding the restrictions that comes with film production in the actual environment. More over, this enabled him to tackle the possible variables in the production process (Barnwell, 2004).

In order to design the ship’s interior such that it looked like the original one, the crewmembers used artifacts from that era. Nonetheless, the design crew was forced to make everything from scratch since everything had to be new. Consequently, forty acres of waterfront in Rosarito Beach in Mexico was obtained for constructing seventeen-million-gallon tank for the outer surfaces of the reconstructed massive vessel (Champkin, 2010).

The super-tank was beneficial for filming since it provided two hundred and seventy degrees of ocean view. In spite of the ship being constructed to full scale, the production designer took out unnecessary sections of the vessel. He then moved forward the well deck to ensure that the vessel was able to fit in the tank. The other parts that were not catered for were then filled with digital models.

The length of the ship’s lifeboats and funnels were reduced considerably, excluding the boat deck and the A-deck, the other sections of the superstructure were steel plated, and a fifty-foot lifting platform was included such that the ship could sink as planned. Referring to the design of the original structure, the production design crew reproduced the exact representation of its interior.

Other sections of the ship, such as the liner’s first class, were built out of real wood using photographs and plans of the original ship. During the ship’s sinking, the designs true to the originals were also actually destroyed. The custom building of the ship was meant to validate the historical detail of the movie.

The effects that the filmmakers used in the movie are marvelous. Previous movies about the 1912 catastrophe had depicted the water to be in a slow motion.

However, the film producer was not convinced of this and he ensured that the shooting of the forty-five foot long miniature of the ship was done perfectly. Thereafter, there was some incorporation of digital water as well as smoke. Some extras shot on a motion capture stage were also incorporated and for the digital extras and stuntmen, the faces of several actors were scanned to produce the visual effects.

The production design included a sixty-five foot long representation of the original ship’s stern. This was intended to divide it into two parts repeatedly when depicting the sinking scene. In order to depict the scenes that were set in the ship’s engine, wreckage of a liberty ship used during the Second World War were used.

This was combined with a number of miniature support frames to depict the occurrences at the ship’s engine. The actors who played a role in this scene were filmed using the chroma key compositing technique. The detailed design of the ship was meant to support the narrative such that the occurrences could be as desired.

In order to sink the interiors of the ship, about nineteen million-litre tank was used. It was designed such that, during the sinking scene, the whole set could be tilted into the sea. For sinking the Grand Staircase, three hundred and forty thousand litres of water were placed inside the set as it was being lowered into the huge tank; however, contrary to the plan, the fall of the water destroyed the staircase.

The first half of the seven hundred and forty-four foot long outer walls of the ship were first allowed to get into the tank. However, as it was the weightiest section of the ship, it smoothed out the shock impulse against the water.

This assisted in enabling the set to get into the water. During the sinking, much water was released from the set. Following the successful sinking of the dining saloon, about seventy-two hours were utilized in filming Lovett’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) navigating the shattered pieces in the present. After sinking the ship, the other scenes were filmed in the sub-zero Atlantic Ocean in 1.3 million-litre tank.

The frozen dead bodies were generated by applying fine powder on the actors. This crystallized on exposure to the water at sub-zero temperature. In addition, their hair and clothes were covered with a waxy material to show that their bodies were starting to decompose.

Perhaps the most visually dramatic special effects of the movie relates to the climactic scene in which the filmmakers depict the ship to be breaking up into two separate parts before going under. To achieve this, a full-sized set was tilted, together with one hundred and fifty extras and one hundred stunt performers.

Ultimately, the ship plunged to the bottom of the frozen ocean. The film producer, Cameron, stated that the previous versions of the film did not portray the incident as chaotic as it should have been since they represented the final plunge into the ocean as a graceful slow event. To portray this, Cameron instructed the actors to fall off dangerously on the side of the ship that was slowly sinking.

However, this was unsuccessful as some people got injured. Ultimately, to make the sequence less dangerous, images of individuals created using computer was used to depict this risky falls. The ship was designed, as described above, such that this could occur as desired. This also assisted in supporting the narrative of the film.

In spite of the success of the film, there are a number of critical reactions to its design. Notable is the high cost of its design. With a budget of two hundred million dollars, the production team of the movie have been criticized for only managing to construct a half of the original ship.

This meant that some scenes were shot and reversed when the filmmakers wanted to portray the occurrences on the other side of the ship. Some critics have said, “It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted and spellbinding. If its story stays well within the traditional formulas for such pictures, well, you don’t choose the most expensive film ever made as your opportunity to reinvent the wheel” (Ebert, 1997, para. 3).

In conclusion, since the events in the movie took place over ninety years ago, the production crew attempted to tailor the actions in the film to their historical context. Therefore, various technologies and effects were used to achieve this. In addition, the design of the American epic romance film was such that it supported the narrative. Despite of the film’s critical reaction to its design, it highly regarded as one of the best movies ever produced.

Barnwell, J., 2004. Production Design . London: Wallflower Press.

Champkin, J., 2010. The making of titanic; the real story behind the film of the year. Web.

Ebert, R., 1997. Titanic . Rogerbert. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2018, July 20). “Titanic” by James Cameron: The Design of the American Epic Romance Film. https://ivypanda.com/essays/film-review-titanic/

"“Titanic” by James Cameron: The Design of the American Epic Romance Film." IvyPanda , 20 July 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/film-review-titanic/.

IvyPanda . (2018) '“Titanic” by James Cameron: The Design of the American Epic Romance Film'. 20 July.

IvyPanda . 2018. "“Titanic” by James Cameron: The Design of the American Epic Romance Film." July 20, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/film-review-titanic/.

1. IvyPanda . "“Titanic” by James Cameron: The Design of the American Epic Romance Film." July 20, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/film-review-titanic/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "“Titanic” by James Cameron: The Design of the American Epic Romance Film." July 20, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/film-review-titanic/.

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‘titanic’: thr’s 1997 review.

On Dec. 19, 1997, James Cameron's epic set sail in theaters nationwide.

By Duane Byrge

Duane Byrge

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On Dec. 19, 1997, James Cameron’s Titanic set sail in theaters nationwide. The 193-minute blockbuster epic went on to dominate the 70th Academy Awards, nabbing 11 wins including best picture. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below.

Paramount should replace that white mountain in its logo with an iceberg for the next several months. The studio will navigate spectacularly with its latest launch, Titanic , the most expensive movie ever created about what was once the largest moving object ever built.

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A daunting blend of state-of-the-art special effects melded around a sterling central story, Titanic plumbs personal and philosophical story depths not usually found in “event-scale” movies that, beneath their girth and pyrotechnics, often have nothing at their core.

Titanic , however, is no soulless junket into techno-glop wizardry but rather a complex and radiant tale that essays both mankind’s destructive arrogance and its noble endurance. 

Ultimately, we all know the horrible outcome of the Titanic sinking. We can recite the numbers lost and the awesome dimensions of the ship, and we can construct some sort of comparative scope for the catastrophe. But all these are mere quantifications and chit-chat regurgitation. 

Cameron, who wrote and directed the film, has put a face on that horrific happening; he has taken us beyond the forensics of the sinking and put us inside the skin and psyches of those who perished and those who survived. In both, we see facets of ourselves: In philosophical microcosm, Cameron shows that in the end — both the good and the bad endings — we’re all in the same boat.

Told in flashback as a single-minded fortune hunter (Bill Paxton) combs the Titanic’s wreckage with his state-of-the-art search ship in hopes of finding undiscovered treasure, the story is recalled by a 103-year-old woman (Gloria Stuart) who was a passenger on the ship’s ill-fated maiden voyage. Drifting back to that time in April 1912, we see the trip through Rose’s (Kate Winslet ) 17-year-old eyes. 

High-spirited and betrothed to a monied mill heir (Billy Zane), Rose is, nevertheless, despondent. Like a Henry James heroine, she finds that she is not suited for life in the gilded cage that society is shaping for her as the baubled wife of a leisured industrialist. She foresees her life as being measured out by serving spoons, and she wants no part of such a stuffy existence. Her ennui turns to deep depression, and she nearly ends it by diving into icy waters, where she is saved only by the wise grace of a third-class passenger, Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio ), whose joy for life and eagerness for living it to the fullest soon revitalize the young Rose. 

All the while, Cameron plants calamitous forebodings — the inadequacies of the life rafts, equipment shortages and the vanity of the ship’s creators and captain. Narratively, Titanic is a masterwork of big-canvas storytelling, broad enough to entrance and entertain yet precise and delicate enough to educate and illuminate. Undeniably, one could nitpick — critic-types may snicker at some ‘ 60s-era lines and easy-pop ‘ 90s-vantage hindsights  — but that’s like dismissing a Mercedes on the grounds that its glove compartment interior is drab. 

Unlike in most monstrosities of this film’s size and girth, the characters are not assembled from a standard stock pot. Within the dimensions of such an undertaking, Cameron, along with his well-chosen cast, has created memorable, idiosyncratic and believable characters. Our sympathies are warmed by the two leads: Winslet is effervescently rambunctious as the trapped Rose, while DiCaprio’s willowy steadfastness wonderfully heroic. On the stuffy side of the deck, Zane is aptly snide as Rose’s cowardly fiance, while Frances Fisher is perfect as a social snob, both shrill and frightened. Kathy Bates is a hoot as the big-hatted, big-mouthed Molly Brown — she is, indeed, indestructible. On the seamier side, David Warner is positively chilling as a ruthless valet. As the deep-sea treasure hunter, Paxton brings a Cameron-type obsessiveness to his quest. 

Also on the Oscar front, clear the deck for multiple technical nominations. Front and center is, of course, Cameron. A decided cut above other superstar directors in that he can also write, Cameron deserves a director’s nomination for his masterful creation — it’s both a logistical and aesthetic marvel. The film’s fluid, masterfully punctuated editing, including some elegantly economical match cuts, is outstanding: Editors Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris deserve nominations, as does cinematographer Russell Carpenter for his brilliantly lit scopings ; his range of blues seems to hit every human emotion. 

Titanic ‘s visual and special effects transcend state-of-the-art workmanship, invoking feelings within us not usually called up by razzle-dazzlery . Highest honors to visual effects supervisor Rob Legato and special effects coordinator Thomas L. Fisher for the powerful, knockdown imagery. It’s often awesome, most prominently in showing the ship’s unfathomable rupture. The splitting of the iron monster is a heart stopper, in no small measure compounded by the sound team’s creaking thunders. Through it all, James Horner’s resonant and lilting musical score, at times uplifted by a mournful Irish reed, is a deep treasure by itself.  — Duane Byrge , originally published on Nov. 3, 1997.

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Titanic: Cinematic Masterpiece of Love, Tragedy, and Technology

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Introduction

Overview of the titanic, tragic event and aftermath.

Details about the Titanic

Technological excellence in filmmaking, cast selection and performances, soundtrack and film's impact, technical achievements, critical reception, cinematic impact.

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Titanic, Directed by James Cameron, From a Psychoanalytic, Marxist, and Feminist Lens

Introduction, psychoanalytic perspective, marxist perspective, feminist perspective, works cited.

Titanic is a 1997 movie directed by James Cameron, which achieved substantial commercial success and positive critic reviews. Some people view Titanic as a story about the sinking of the eponymous ship in 1912, which was the largest vessel afloat at the time. They argue that the major plotline about love between Rose and Jack was created to make the story attractive to the audience. The movie is indeed based on a real-life tragedy and depicts a range of historical characters, such as Captain Edward John Smith and Thomas Andrews. However, it does more than merely show a love story against a backdrop of the catastrophe. Titanic demonstrates a desperate fight for survival: Rose’s struggle to overcome her mother’s and fiancé’s domination, the fight for survival between the rich and the poor, and women’s attempts to succeed in a male-dominated society.

From a psychoanalytic view, Titanic is the depiction of Rose’s struggle with the consequences of her dysfunctional relationships with her parents and, subsequently, her fiancé. Since childhood, she was obliged to follow the social norms accepted in higher society. The audience learns it from the episode when Rose sees a mother teaching her four-year-old daughter to keep the correct posture and hold a teacup. This was exactly what Rose experienced as a child, and she grew tired of all the conventions characteristic of the high social class. However, she could not object to her mother’s commands, even being a grown-up 17-year-old girl. After her father’s death, Rose was obliged to marry Cal in order to cope with her family’s debts and preserve status. He was a wealthy man who treated her like his possession. These relationships negatively affected her character and laid the foundation for her struggle depicted in the movie.

It seems that Rose was so deeply affected by the necessity to obey that she developed an intense fear of death. However, she was afraid to die not literally but spiritually; it means that she was sure that if she married Cal, her individuality would cease to exist. Jack described Rose’s feelings as being “stuck on a train you can’t get off ‘cause you’re marrying this fella” (Cameron). According to Tyson, when the fear of death reaches the extreme, living one’s life becomes so painful that one’s only choice is death (23). This happened to Rose when she desperately ran toward the ship railing and started to climb over it, aiming to commit suicide.

Luckily for her, Jack witnessed her suicide attempt and gave her a helping hand. It seems that Jack could not stay aloof because of his worldview shaped by his past experiences. When he was fifteen, his parents died in a fire, and it greatly affected his attitude toward life. Jack said to Rose, “Something like that teaches you to take life as it comes at you. To make each day count” (Cameron). In a sense, Jack also had a fear of death. According to Tyson, this psychological issue translates into a more general fear of loss (23). Having experienced the death of his parents, Jack was afraid to lose any valuable things that came to him in his life. In a conversation with Rose, he said that his father always wanted to see the ocean but never managed to do so (Cameron). Jack feared that something similar could happen to him, which was why he decided not to miss any opportunities that arose before him. For this reason, he was happy to win the ticket to Titanic, and he seized the chance to rescue Rose when she was about to jump.

Rose’s behavior demonstrates her unstable sense of self, which becomes especially evident after her acquaintance with Jack. Tyson defines this core issue as “the inability to sustain a feeling of personal identity” due to which individuals change their conduct depending on who is around them (16). Among people of high social status, Rose behaved as required by the rules accepted in that society, even though she did not like it. However, when she joined the third class, she changed her conduct as if she were one of them. In a conversation with Jack, she shared that she did not possess a firm sense of self: “There’s something in me, Jack. I feel it. I don’t know what it is, whether I should be an artist, or, I don’t know… a dancer” (Cameron). Since she had been told what to do throughout her whole life, she was unaware of her true aspirations and only had a sense that her current position was wrong.

In the face of death, Rose managed to overcome the constraints imposed on her by her parents and fiancé. Instead of trying to save herself, she rushed to rescue Jack. Running into the lift operator who attempted to stop her, she exclaimed: “I’m through with being polite, goddamnit! I may never be polite the rest of my life!” (Cameron). The fear of losing Jack urged her to forget the proprieties taught to her since childhood. Jack was Rose’s rescue from her imperious mother and fiancé; losing him would mean the loss of herself and the return to the situation that forced her to attempt suicide. Although Jack eventually died, she managed to escape the fate of Cal’s wife by threatening to spoil Cal’s reputation. Thus, Titanic depicts Rose’s liberation from her dysfunctional relationships with her mother and Cal, which was driven by her fear of loss of her freedom and identity.

From the Marxist perspective, Titanic is a movie that invites the audience to condemn capitalism by showing an unequal struggle for survival between the rich and the poor. In the film, the ship represents a capitalist society: the first class was separated from the third class, and there was a startling difference between them. People from the first class resided in opulent rooms, had servants to assist them, and were served with various delicacies. In contrast, the third class was located at a lower deck in rooms with plain interiors. Passengers from the lower deck were not allowed to enter the premises intended for the upper class. This design of the ship represents the societal divide between the bourgeoisie – those who control resources – and the proletariat, comprised mainly of manual laborers (Tyson 52). As Tyson notes, Marxists focus on the distribution of economic power because this is the field where the fiercest battles take place – the ones “between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’” (52). Titanic depicts one such fight that demonstrates the injustice of the capitalist system.

Cameron sets the scene for the struggle for survival by vividly demonstrating the relationships between the rich and the poor. The upper class treated the lower class contemptuously and as if they were less worthy than themselves. For example, when Jack was invited to have dinner with Rose’s family in acknowledgment of his rescue of Rose, one first-class passenger noted: “What is Hockley hoping to prove, bringing this bohemian up here?” (Cameron). Cal Hockley is the main character representing the ruling class and can also be regarded as the adherent to the ideology of rugged individualism. His phrase “A real man makes his own luck” may be considered his personal motto as he was highly concerned with doing anything to increase his wealth (Cameron). Marxists oppose rugged individualism because it encourages people to value their own interests higher than those of society, especially of unprivileged people (Tyson 57). Indeed, in the movie, the majority of the first class did not care about the passengers of the lower class.

When the ship hit the iceberg, and it became clear that the vessel would sink, the unequal fight for survival began. The upper-class passengers possessed money and, consequently, power, which was why it was the priority to save them first. Realizing these circumstances, Rose shouted to her mother: “Don’t you understand? The water is freezing and there aren’t enough boats… not enough by half. Half the people on this ship are going to die” (Cameron). Her fiancé’s reply reflected the whole upper class’s attitude toward the poor: “Not the better half” (Cameron). The difference between the value that rich people assigned to their lives and those of the poor became even more evident when the third-class passengers were locked behind the gates. The poor were hindered from the rescue, while the rich cared more about saving their belongings rather than helping those on the lower deck.

Titanic shows not only rich people’s indifference toward the poor but also overt cruelty. Lifeboats were departing half-full, but no one was willing to return and help the remaining passengers. On lifeboat 6, Molly, a first-class lady who was not respected by her peers, asked the crew, “What’s the matter with you? It’s your men back there! We got plenty of room for more” (Cameron). However, no one listened to her. In another lifeboat, Cal hit the people in the water with the oar when they tried to cling to the sides of the boat. As a result, many third-class passengers froze to death because the rich did not consider their lives worth saving. Thus, from the Marxist point of view, Titanic shows a story of a fight for survival between the wealthy and the poor. In this battle, the lower class is defeated because the power to allocate the available resources is concentrated in the hands of the rich, but they use it only for their own interests.

From the feminist perspective, Titanic is also deeper than a love story against the background of the sinking ship. The movie shows the classic patriarchal society and how women struggle to survive in it. Patriarchy is defined as “any culture that privileges men by promoting traditional gender roles” (Tyson 81). In Titanic , this culture is evident among the upper class, in which men are considered superior to women.

Rose and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, represent two different approaches that women can take in a male-dominated society. Ruth is a traditional “patriarchal woman,” which means that she internalized the values and norms of patriarchy (Tyson 81). She sincerely believed that it was men’s work to provide for the family, which was why she urged Rose to marry Cal: “It is a fine match with Hockley, and it will ensure our survival” (Cameron). When Rose said to her that it was unfair for her mother to force her to marry the man she did not love, Ruth answered: “Of course it’s unfair! We’re women. Our choices are never easy” (Cameron). Thus, Ruth thought that it was unjust that women had to rely on men if they wanted to lead a decent life. However, she accepted these patriarchal values and saw no alternatives to her lifestyle.

In contrast, Rose opposed patriarchal ideology because she did not want to feel inferior to men, particularly her fiancé, Cal. In Titanic , Cal is depicted as a traditional patriarchal man who believes in male superiority and women’s obedience. For example, when Rose said that she was his fiancée, not “some foreman … you can command,” Cal replied, “Yes! You are! And my wife… in practice, if not yet by law. So you will honor me, as a wife is required to honor her husband!” (Cameron). However, this was not the fate that Rose wanted for herself. Instead, she eventually refused to act like a lady and even asked Jack to teach her to spit “like a man” (Cameron). Due to her courage to act against traditional gender roles and behavior patterns, she was able to avoid marrying the domineering man and managed to live the life of her choice.

Titanic goes far beyond depicting a love story against a background of the sinking of the ship. From a psychoanalytic perspective, it is a story about how Rose’s fear of loss of her freedom and identity drove her to have an affair with Jack and part with her fiancé. Marxist critics would view this movie as the depiction of the struggle for survival between the rich and the poor, in which the former win because they control the resources. From the feminist perspective, Titanic is a film about a patriarchal society in which Ruth and Cal internalized patriarchal values, and Rose opposed them.

Cameron, James, director. Titanic . Paramount Pictures, 1997.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide . 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015.

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StudyCorgi. (2022, October 11). Titanic, Directed by James Cameron, From a Psychoanalytic, Marxist, and Feminist Lens. https://studycorgi.com/titanic-directed-by-james-cameron-from-a-psychoanalytic-marxist-and-feminist-lens/

"Titanic, Directed by James Cameron, From a Psychoanalytic, Marxist, and Feminist Lens." StudyCorgi , 11 Oct. 2022, studycorgi.com/titanic-directed-by-james-cameron-from-a-psychoanalytic-marxist-and-feminist-lens/.

StudyCorgi . (2022) 'Titanic, Directed by James Cameron, From a Psychoanalytic, Marxist, and Feminist Lens'. 11 October.

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StudyCorgi . "Titanic, Directed by James Cameron, From a Psychoanalytic, Marxist, and Feminist Lens." October 11, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/titanic-directed-by-james-cameron-from-a-psychoanalytic-marxist-and-feminist-lens/.

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