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Titanic , American romantic adventure film , released in 1997, that centres on the sinking of the RMS Titanic . The film proved immensely popular, holding the all-time box-office gross record for more than a decade after its release.

The film begins with the robotic exploration of the Titanic ’s wreckage by treasure hunters who hope to locate a fabled massive blue diamond, known as the Heart of the Ocean, that was supposedly lost when the ship sank. They recover a safe that contains some papers, including a drawing of a nude woman wearing a necklace with the gem in it. After the illustration is aired on television, the team is contacted by an old woman (played by Gloria Stuart) who tells them that she is the one depicted in the drawing, Rose DeWitt Bukater, thought to have died in the accident. Hoping that she can help them find the jewel, the treasure hunters bring Rose to their expedition ship. Most of the film’s story is then told in flashbacks as she recounts the Titanic ’s fateful 1912 voyage.

Upper-class Rose (now played by Kate Winslet ) boards the ship with her mother (Frances Fisher) and her well-to-do fiancé, Cal ( Billy Zane), whom she is marrying for financial reasons. Distraught by the pressure of her arranged marriage, Rose contemplates suicide on the ship’s stern. She is talked down by third-class passenger Jack Dawson ( Leonardo DiCaprio ), a handsome but penniless artist. Over the course of the voyage, she becomes increasingly attracted to Jack. Meeting in secret, Rose asks him to draw her wearing the Heart of the Ocean necklace, which was a gift from Cal. Rose and Jack subsequently make love, and Rose tells Jack that she will go with him once the ship docks. Later that night, however, they witness the Titanic ’s fatal impact with an iceberg.

As the ship begins to sink, the couple seeks out Rose’s mother and Cal, who has discovered Rose’s romantic entanglement. He frames Jack for theft by having the necklace placed in Jack’s coat pocket. Jack is arrested, and Cal later puts the necklace in his own pocket. Though she initially hesitates, Rose comes to believe Jack’s claims of innocence, and she eventually finds him in the master-of-arms’ office, handcuffed around a pipe. Using an axe, she is able to free him as water floods the room. The lower-deck gates are locked, but Jack helps break down the one trapping them. He and Rose return to the upper deck, where Rose is placed in a lifeboat by Cal, who wraps his jacket around her—still containing the necklace. Cal lies to her, saying Jack will be able to leave the Titanic safely, but she refuses to leave Jack behind and jumps back onto the ship. Cal chases them in a jealous rage but eventually gives up to board a lifeboat, using a crying child as an excuse for passage. Rose and Jack are left on the ship as it breaks apart and sinks, the lifeboats having all been launched. Jack helps Rose onto a floating piece of the wreckage so that she can later be rescued by a returning lifeboat, while he himself dies of hypothermia . Onboard the Carpathia , the ship that rescued Titanic ’s survivors, she adopts the name “Rose Dawson” and discovers the necklace in Cal’s jacket. The film returns to the present day, and centenarian Rose is revealed to still have the jewel in her possession. Her story told, she drops the famous necklace into the ocean.

Though much of the film’s plot deals with the fictional romance between Rose and Jack, writer/director James Cameron put a great deal of work into the historical accuracy of the sets and story. Many real-life figures are featured throughout the film, including Capt. Edward J. Smith (Bernard Hill), J. Bruce Ismay (Jonathan Hyde), and “Unsinkable” Molly Brown ( Kathy Bates ), and actual underwater footage of the wreck was used for the opening scenes. Cameron himself went on several dives to explore the sunken ship, and he designed an almost-to-scale replica of the Titanic for the film’s production. At the time of its production, Titanic was the most expensive film ever made, costing some $200 million. However, it recouped its expenses several times over. The film was somewhat of a phenomenon, especially among teenage girls and young women enamoured with DiCaprio, and the media widely reported on instances of individuals seeing the movie dozens of times in the theatre.

Titanic was nominated for 14 Academy Awards , tying the record set by All About Eve (1950), and it won 11, equaling the record set by Ben-Hur (1959), which was later matched by Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). In addition to winning Oscars for best picture and director, Titanic also received an Academy Award for the song “My Heart Will Go On,” performed by Céline Dion . A 3-D version of the film was released in 2012, shortly before the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

• Studios: Twentieth Century-Fox , Paramount Pictures , and Lightstorm Entertainment
• Director and writer: James Cameron
• Producers: James Cameron and Jon Landau
• Music: James Horner
• Running time: 194 minutes
• Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson)
• Kate Winslet (Rose DeWitt Bukater)
• Billy Zane (Caledon [Cal] Hockley)
• Kathy Bates (Molly Brown)
• Gloria Stuart (Old Rose)
• Lead actress (Kate Winslet)
• Supporting actress (Gloria Stuart)
• Art direction*
• Cinematography*
• Costume design*
• Film editing*
• Original dramatic score*
• Original song (“My Heart Will Go On”)*
• Sound effects editing*
• Visual effects*

by James Cameron

• Titanic Summary

The film opens with images of the Titanic ’s departure from Southampton in April, 1912. In the present day, treasure hunter Brock Lovett leads a team of submersibles down into the Titanic’s wreck. He finds a safe containing a drawing of a nude woman wearing a necklace he is seeking, called “the Heart of the Ocean.” Brock receives a phone call from a 101-year old woman claiming to be the subject of the drawing, and he flies her out to his research vessel to hear her story.

Named Rose Dewitt Bukater, she explains to Brock and his team that she had boarded the Titanic in Southampton with her fiancé, Cal Hockley , and her mother Ruth. Thus begins the flashback which will be most of the film's narrative. We see Jack Dawson , the penniless artist with whom she will soon fall in love, winning tickets for the Titanic 's voyage in a lucky round of poker in a nearby pub, and he boards the ship at the last minute. Rose describes the Titanic as “slave ship,” given how suffocated and unhappy she feels as Cal’s wife-to-be. After the ship departs from the harbor, Jack and his friend Fabrizio ecstatically rejoice at the ship’s bow. Rose dines in first class with other members of the upper crust, including Molly Brown , the shipbuilder Thomas Andrews, and White Star Line executive J. Bruce Ismay. Rose especially resents her mother and Cal’s controlling natures, and Ismay’s arrogance when describing the Titanic .

That night, Rose is about to commit suicide by hurling herself from the ship’s stern, when Jack happens upon her and convinces her to step back over the railing by saying he will jump in after her. White Star Line officials initially think Jack has attacked her, but Rose improvises a lie to exonerate Jack and conceal the motives behind her own behavior. Rose convinces Cal to invite Jack to dinner the following night. The next day, Rose strolls the deck with Jack, thanking him for his discretion. Initially shocked by his bluntness, Rose warms to Jack, especially impressed by his drawings. Molly lends Jack a tuxedo to wear to dinner in first class, where Jack charms the well-to-do with his carpe diem philosophies—all except for Rose's mother Ruth. After dinner, Jack secretly invites Rose to a raucous party below deck, where she drinks, dances, and feels liberated in the company of regular people.

The following morning at breakfast, after being informed of Rose’s behavior by his valet Lovejoy, Cal furiously scolds Rose. Ruth forbids Rose from seeing Jack again, reminding her that her marriage to Cal is crucial for remedying their family's precarious financial state. Jack tries to visit Rose in church, but is restrained by Lovejoy. Later that day, Rose strolls the decks with Thomas Andrews, noting that the ship only has lifeboats for half its passengers. Jack pulls Rose into a gym room and delivers an impassioned speech, worried that marrying Cal will extinguish the “fire” within her, but Rose tells him not to contact her anymore.

Later at sunset, Jack is standing at the bow of the ship when Rose approaches, saying she has changed her mind. Jack lifts her onto the railing, instructing her to close her eyes and spread her arms, and the two kiss. Rose invites Jack back to her first class cabin while Cal is at the smoking lounge, and asks him to draw her wearing only the Heart of the Ocean, which she retrieves from Cal’s safe. Jack draws her, and the two are later interrupted by Lovejoy. Jack and Rose sneak out the back entrance, and Lovejoy pursues them below deck. They run through the boiler room and wind up in a cargo area holding automobiles. They make love in one of the cars, and reemerge laughing on the ship’s deck, just as the ship is about to make contact with an iceberg.

The ship's lookouts ring the captain, and all over the Titanic , crew members work to throw the ship’s engines into reverse, to no avail. The ship collides with the iceberg, and Rose brings Jack with her to notify her mother and Cal about the collision, but Lovejoy and Cal frame Jack for stealing the Heart of the Ocean, and order the master-at-arms to arrest him. Below deck, alarmed third-class passengers see their cabins begin to flood, as above them, first class passengers remain largely oblivious to the severity of the accident. Thomas Andrews explains to Captain Smith, J. Bruce Ismay, and chief officer William Murdoch that the ship will sink in a matter of hours.

Rose shocks Cal and her mother by refusing to board a lifeboat, and instead goes searching for Jack, who has been handcuffed below deck under Lovejoy's charge. Thomas Andrews gives her directions through the crewman's passage to the rapidly flooding D-deck, where Rose finds Jack chained to a pipe. After failing to find a key, Rose runs through C-deck and finds an axe. She miraculously chops through Jack's handcuffs, and the two escape D-deck together. In C-deck, Jack helps the third-class passengers uproot a bench and ram through a gate preventing them from ascending to the upper levels.

Cal retrieves the Heart of the Ocean from his safe and stashes it in his coat. He finds Rose and Jack, and unwittingly gives Rose his coat with the diamond. He and Jack jointly convince Rose to board a lifeboat. Rose watches Jack as she descends, then leaps back aboard the sinking ship. Rose reunites with Jack, telling him, "You jump, I jump, right?" Enraged and jealous, Cal steals Lovejoy's gun and fires at Rose and Jack, sending them fleeing back down into the lower decks. He then realizes that Rose now has the Heart of the Ocean. Below deck again, Jack and Rose find a small child and try to rescue him, before being swept up in a current flooding the ship. They barely manage to escape the depths of the ship after Jack retrieves a pair of keys dropped by a fleeing White Star Line attendant.

Jack and Rose pass Thomas Andrews in the dining area, and he apologizes to Rose for not building a better ship. On deck, the ship's band plays while anarchy breaks loose. Cal finds a small, lost child and cynically uses her to board a lifeboat. William Murdoch, overwhelmed by managing the lifeboat triage, accidentally kills a passenger and then commits suicide. Captain Smith steps into the wheelhouse as it floods, killing him instantly. As the ship sinks by the bow, Jack and Rose run to the stern. The ship eventually snaps in half, and the front half sinks. Jack and Rose cling to the railing of the stern as the back half of the ship rises vertically into the air. Jack tells Rose to hold her breath as they finally go under.

Jack guides Rose to a piece of debris that she can use to stay afloat. Molly tries convincing the other people in her lifeboat to turn around and look for survivors, but is overruled. Jack makes Rose promise she will survive, and dies before the first lifeboat returns. Rose blows on a whistle to call the lifeboat, and is taken with the other survivors aboard the Carpathia the following morning. She registers the next day as "Rose Dawson" upon arriving in the United States. In the present day, Rose explains to Brock and the others that Jack saved her every way a person can be saved, and that Cal killed himself after the stock market crash in 1929. That night, Rose drops the Heart of the Ocean back into the sea. She goes to sleep and dreams she is back on the Titanic , kissing Jack, surrounded by smiling faces.

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Study Guide for Titanic

Titanic study guide contains a biography of James Cameron, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Titanic
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Wikipedia Entries for Titanic

• Introduction

• Film Analysis of “Titanic” by James Cameron Words: 1190
• Why the Titanic Film Is Overrated Words: 676
• Issues in the Film Industry Words: 2226
• Films and Their Role in Society Words: 2414
• Plot and Characters of the “Brokeback Mountain” Film Words: 1718
• Themes in Films by Spike Lee Words: 2225
• Predicting the Future of Film Narrative Words: 2840
• Value of Film in Explaining History Words: 1471
• Discussion of Gender and Society Themes in Films Words: 1602
• The Book “A History of Narrative Film” Words: 2815

Strengths of the Moview ”Titanic”

Titanic is a popular film that received acclaim from the industry and the audience. It was a colossal and unprecedented success upon the release, and it took more than a decade for another work by Cameron to overtake it. Although some consider the film overrated, its long-lasting impact and universal appeal attest to the quality. Those would be impossible without strong themes, memorable characters, and an engaging narrative.

Titanic ’s prominent themes include love, social inequality, and self-sacrifice, all tangled in a tragic event that resonated with many people by itself. The story concerns a love triangle involving two engaged members of the high society and a young man of low status. While the idea is not novel, the setting refreshes it and makes the dynamic of the relationship. Despite being short-lived, the feelings are genuine, and the final departure is rather emotional. The theme of social and financial inequality in a relationship remains relevant to new generations, although it has different manifestations nowadays. Meanwhile, almost all characters sacrifice something in the film, including their lives. It is an emboldening experience that makes the audience consider the value of what they hold dear. Overall, the themes of Titanic are effective due to their universality, lasting relevance, and emotional execution.

Titanic has a vast cast of characters, some of which existed in real life, but the focus is on the three fictional ones which comprise the love triangle mentioned before. Rose is an adventurous and somewhat fearless young woman who feels constrained by her elevated social status, reminiscent of classic literary works. Her infatuation with a low-class artist, Jack, invigorates her and enables her defiance of the family and fiancé. Both men are each other’s opposites, and it is fascinating to witness Cal’s jealousy unfold in the middle of the disaster. However, he realized that he had lost Rose’s heart forever, and he does some benevolent actions before exiting the scene. Meanwhile, Jack enjoys a loving and understanding relationship with Rose and later willingly sacrifices his life for her, fully aware that she will have someone else after him. Altogether, the characters are vivid, believable, and easily earn the audience’s sympathy or wrath.

Titanic has an engaging narrthat which contributed to the story’s overall strength. The film has a frame structure, starting and ending in the present, with the main events happening in the past. It provides a feeling of realism and proves to be especially effective at the end when we see the main heroine aged and regretful, and the ambiguity of her fate also intrigues the audience. The act of parting with the necklace could indicate Rose’s resolution to leave the events behind, but they seemed so important to her life that they could equal death. Interestingly, Jack managed to predict the circumstances of her passing, or his words left such a powerful impact on Rose that she decided to live accordingly. No matter the truth, the narrative devices enhance the themes and make the audience sympathize with the characters.

Summarizing everything, Titanic is an example of a filled hatch that won universal acclaim through the box office and numerous awards. Its achievements are based on the work’s immortal themes, striking characters, and narrative which supports them. Perhaps, other films surpass Titanic in those aspects, but what made it unique is the combination of the elements which transformed the film into an ultimate romance story in cinema.

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Special effects live up to hype in ‘Titanic’

There is a shot in “ Titanic ” that I watched like a hawk. The point of view is from above, as the great ship steams to its destiny. In one apparently uninterrupted piece of celluloid, we see the ship from bow to stern, every foot of it, with flags flying and smoke coiling from its stacks, and on the deck hundreds of passengers strolling, children running, servants serving, sportsmen playing.

I watched it because I knew, logically, that this shot was a special effect. They did not rebuild the Titanic to make the movie. I knew, in general, what to look for – what trickery might be involved – and yet I was fooled. The shot looks like the real thing.

“That was a model shot,” James Cameron said, smiling. “The people were all computer graphics. The way we did it was, we had people act out all of those individual behaviors in what we call a ‘motion capture environment.’ So, a steward pouring tea for a lady seated on a deck chair – that was all acted out and then that motion file was used to drive and animate those figures. The end result is like you said: We pull back down the full length of Titanic, and you see 350 people all over the decks, doing all those different things. The same technique was used for the sinking, when you see hundreds of people on the ship jumping off or rolling down the decks.”

So it’s all f/x. Well, I didn’t expect them to build the Titanic and sink it again. But what I also didn’t expect was a film so completely convincing in its details. There are a few moments the viewer doubts (the portholes look suspiciously bright at night), but in general Cameron’s film is a triumph of reconstructed realism: Inside and out, in good times and bad, when it is launched and when it goes to its grave, the Titanic in this movie looks like a real ship.

James Cameron is, of course, a director who specializes in special effects, and he’s been at the cutting edge since “ Aliens ” (1986), still the most disturbing of the “ Alien ” series. Before that he worked valiantly in films where the budget and the technology were not yet there for him (“Piranha II” in 1981, “Terminator” in 1984). After, he was the king of f/x, with such credits as “The Abyss” (1989), “Terminator II” (1991), “ True Lies ” (1994), and such producer credits as Kathryn Bigelow’s “ Strange Days ” (1995). The story’s the thing

There has always been the choice in Cameron’s work to insist on a story; he doesn’t lazily throw cardboard puppets into explosions and chases. When time ran out on the production schedule for “The Abyss,” and he had to make a deadline decision about what to finish for the release print, he kept the relationship story between aquanauts Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio . Not until the Directors’ Cut could we see the spectacular special effects (a city rising from the sea, a tidal wave) that he was willing to surrender before he short-changed his story.

In “Titanic,” there are three stories: the historic story of the sinking of the grandest ship of its time; the fictional story of a young female passenger and the men in her life; and the modern story of the Titanic in its grave, 2 1/2 miles beneath the sea.

There is a lot of footage of the real Titanic on the bottom, some fake footage, and some that dissolves from one to the other. Cameron wasn’t content to buy footage from documentaries about the search for the Titanic; he shot the film’s undersea footage himself, new for this film: “It’s all our own. I made the dives and operated the camera and we lit it and everything.”

You saw the Titanic, I said.

“Yes. Sat on the deck 12 times. The IMAX film stuck the camera inside the sub; it shot out of the view port, which was very limiting. We built a camera that went outside the sub and could pan and tilt and do all the normal movie camera type stuff. Ironically, we totaled the number of hours that we spent at Titanic during the course of those dives and it was more than the number of hours that the passengers spent on board.”

That last shot, I said, where we float on the bottom along the wrecked ship’s deck, and then . . .

“In that particular case it’s a model,” he said, “but we did generate a lot of footage of the real ship that’s in the film. Also interiors of the ship as it sits right now on the bottom of the ocean, and then fake interiors as well.”

It’s all so seamless.

“It’s consistent with what Titanic looks like. We couldn’t explore the whole interior of the ship. We could only get a glimpse into some areas. We went down some corridors to the D-deck level and saw a lot of the remaining hand-carved woodwork, the wall-paneling, the beautiful ornate carved doors. A lot of it is still there. It’s very, very cold, which helps preserve things. There are marine organisms that will eat wood, but in certain areas the wood was covered with white-leaded paint that protected Titanic.”

“Titanic,” he calls it. Not “the Titanic.”

“That’s how they referred to liners in those days. The great ships were places, not things. They were an entity almost. You’d say, `I’m crossing in Mauritania.’ ”

I was sitting in Chicago, drinking coffee with a man who had been as close to the Titanic as he was to me.

“It was eerie,” Cameron said. “I love to dive and I love shipwrecks, so the adrenalin was spiking. But there’s something about Titanic that’s sort of mythic, that’s storylike and you don’t quite believe it. It’s almost more like a novel than an event that really happened – and yet here’s the wreck. It really happened. People died here. That was the thing I had to take away. Not just the images of a wreck. I had to take away the sense of responsibility to do it right and to honor Titanic. The film that resulted is an expression of what happened there.”

“Titanic,” which opens Dec. 19, is said to be the most expensive movie ever made. Perhaps it is. Few films contemplate financing an expedition to the bottom of the Atlantic just to get things rolling. When “Titanic” missed its original opening date last summer, there were rumors that the film was in trouble, that it would be a disaster in the tradition of “ Raise the Titanic !” (1980), a film that inspired its producer, Lord Grade, to observe, “It would have been cheaper to lower the ocean.”

But the film’s world premiere, in November at the Tokyo Film Festival, was a triumph, and now the word is trickling forth from press screenings that, whatever its cost, “Titanic” is value for money, a marriage of imagination and technology in the Hollywood tradition of well-crafted epics.

The framing story involves an old lady, a Titanic survivor, who sees TV documentary footage of a sketch drawn on board all those years ago. She visits the documentary filmmakers and tells her story, which is reconstructed in flashbacks. Kate Winslow plays the survivor as a young girl, Billy Zane is her rich and arrogant fiance (who loves her all the same), and Leonardo DiCaprio is the kid from steerage who becomes her lover and, eventually, her savior.

Around their story all of the details are fashioned of fact and fiction. The real Titanic took a long time to sink, and the film recreates an eerie feeling of how that time was spent by the passengers – both first class ticket holders, and those with cheaper tickets who are temporarily locked below, because there were not enough lifeboats for everyone.

“Many died in terror, you know,” Cameron said. “When you look at the numbers, if you were a third class male on Titanic you stood a 1-in-10 chance of survival. If you were a first class female, it was virtually a 100 percent survival rate. It broke down along lines of gender and class. If you were a first class male, you stood about a 50-50 chance of survival. And the crew took it hardest.

“Of the 1,500 who died, 600 or 700 of them were crew members. The people who stayed in the dynamo room and the engine room, to keep the lights on so that the evacuation would not become panicked – who stayed till the end and missed their opportunity to leave the ship – that’s something you’d see less of today.”

I can only imagine, I said, the conditions on the set when you were filming the scenes where Titanic is almost vertical and people are sliding straight down and bouncing off air vents and deck walls.

“That was our most dangerous work,” Cameron said. “The stunt team worked for weeks in advance, videotaping each one of those stunts and rehearsing it and showing me the tapes. It was all intensely pre-planned and the set was made about 50 percent out of rubber at that point, all padded up. But there’s always an X-factor. We had 6,000 stunt person days on this film – the equivalent of one man doing stunts seven days a week for 16 years. But it was all happening at once. We did have a guy break his leg, which I hated. I don’t think anybody should get hurt for a film. So I decided to do more of it with computer graphics. Here was a case where the effects actually stepped in and took the place of some of the more dangerous stunts – like the guy falling who hits the propeller of the ship and bounces off. But a lot of those other stunt falls are real. If you look at our stunt credits in the film it’s like the Manhattan phone book.” It was such a blow to human confidence, I said, that this great ship, unsinkable, the largest ever, would . . .

“The great lesson of Titanic for us, going into the 21st century,” he said, “is that the inconceivable can happen. Those people lived in a time of certainty; they felt they had mastered everything – mastered nature and mastered themselves. But they had mastered neither. A thousand years from now Titanic will still be one of the great stories. Certainly there have been greater human tragedies during this century, but there’s something poetically perfect about Titanic, because of the laying low of the wealthy and the beautiful people who thought life would be infinite and perfect for them.” What would you have done? Anyone seeing this movie, I said, will have to ask themselves this question: Would I have fought to get on a lifeboat? Would I have pushed a woman or a child out of the way? Or would I have sat down in the lounge and called for a brandy, like Guggenheim, and faced the inevitable with grace?

“The sinking of Titanic took 2 hours and 40 minutes. People had time to think about their doom and to make choices. It wasn’t instantaneous like the crash of the Hindenberg. This was about moral choices, and so it asks every member of the audience to question their own moral choices, their own courage, their own kind of fiber.”

He sighed. “I don’t know what I would have done. Well, I know what I would have done if I had been taken back on a time machine and put on the deck of Titanic. I know exactly how I could have survived without hurting anybody else. But if I was really there, with my personality but without my current knowledge, I don’t know what I would have done.”

What would the time traveler have known to do?

He smiled. “Oh, it’s very simple. You just wait until Boat No. 4 is pulling away from the ship and dive in at the front off the B Deck level and swim to it, because it was only half full anyway.”

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Home Essay Samples Entertainment Titanic

Analysis of the Visual Work in the Movie "Titanic" by James Cameron

Analysis of film elements

• Cameron, J. (Director). (1997). Titanic [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.
• Janicker, R. (2004). The Sinking of the Titanic: An Iceberg for Cultural Studies. Discourse, 26(2), 99-118.
• Boushel, M. (1999). 'I'll never let go': titanic and the ethics of spectatorship. Camera Obscura, 14(2 42), 60-97.
• Jones, E. (1998). Titanic and the making of James Cameron: the inside story of the three-year adventure that rewrote motion picture history. New York: Newmarket Press.
• Albornoz, L. (2012). James Cameron's Titanic and the myth of the male hero. Revista De Estudios Norteamericanos, 16, 55-67.
• Ingham, R. (2000). Finding a place for Titanic in our film and history classes. Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies, 30(1), 68-74.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Titanic — The Enduring Impact of Titanic: Themes, Characters, and Narrative

The Enduring Impact of Titanic: Themes, Characters, and Narrative

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Published: Feb 12, 2024

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The film titanic, the characters in titanic, the engaging narrative structure of titanic.

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Titanic: a Closer Look – Film Summary and Analysis

This essay will provide a detailed exploration of the Titanic, delving into its history, construction, and the fateful maiden voyage that ended in tragedy. It will examine the factors that led to the sinking, including technological failures, human error, and the ship’s design. The piece will also discuss the cultural and historical impact of the Titanic disaster, as well as its enduring legacy in popular culture and maritime safety reforms. On PapersOwl, there’s also a selection of free essay templates associated with Analysis.

How it works

The Titanic was a film like no other, offering audiences all aspects that they love to watch in one movie. It included a compelling love story based on a historical reference of the sinking of the Titanic.

The Titanic offered a captivating story the was based on the real-life events on the sinking of the Titanic ship. It did all of this while also portraying the story with attractive protagonists that made the story even more appealing because it offered many generations to also see romance, and a love story the audience knew most likely wasn’t going to end well knowing the fate of the Titanic. The film was influenced by audiences need for tragedy and use of a real-life event, that was the sinking of the Titanic. The film influenced other films with its use of making a real-life event into a fiction love story, it made audiences feel that this event could have happened in the real-life event. The film impacted a whole generation with its captivating storyline, use of directorial skills, and character development.

The film accomplished exactly what its generation was looking for, they needed a storyline that made them feel for its characters because of the love story that ends in tragedy. Titanic accomplished its goal of making people feel and then some. Cameron made the feeling of sadness that the movie goers would feel at the end almost addicting to them. Audiences would go watch the film more than once sometimes three to four times, this was also not just in the United States. People in other countries would go watch the film more than once even in countries like France where it was not known for people to go watch films more than once (Ansen, D., Brown, C., Sawhill, R., Yahlin, C., & Takayama, H. ,1998). The films story was an original story with the touch of real life events that was the sinking of the Titanic. The film made audiences fall in love with the characters and the love story and basically took it all away from them at the end. The film touched audience’s emotions in ways that they were not expecting when they first watched the film. Its Audiences enjoyed the feelings that the film made them experience even if it ended in tragedy, that aspect was what was most appealing to the audience because they may have felt like this extravagant love story could have happened aboard the Titanic.

The films story gave audiences hope that people that lived in two completely different worlds such as Jack being the poor guy, and Rose the rich girl could grow to fall in love so deeply regardless of their social status. It made people believe in love at least for the three hours and 14 minutes that the movie lasted. That is a powerful thing for a movie to achieve. It gives the idea that money does not matter and has nothing to do with happiness, but that love is what brings happiness. This especially was attractive to the younger teens that watched the movie countless times after its release. It also related to teens in the sense that they could relate to the rebellion that Rose was demonstrating to her mother and her finance. Rose’s mother did not want Rose to lose her fiancé because she did not want to lose the money that was in store if Rose did marry. The film made people of all ages believe that there was a thing such as true love out there, females especially thought that there might me a Jack for them and guys imagined that there might be a Rose out waiting for them also. Although the movie had great special effects such as the scene of the Titanic actually sinking, the emotions and the love story conveyed on screen is what really impacted the audience. In essence the people aboard the Titanic is what made the film so great, such as when they were all waiting for their death and the scenes that Cameron was able to capture of the passengers in their final moments of life.

The characters in the film also made it possible for audiences to fall in love with the film. James Cameron the director of the film made two great choices in the protagonist of the film with Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack, and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt. When Leonardo was cast in the role he was still a relatively unknown actor, only starring in a few select films before the Titanic such as Romeo and Juliet. Cameron made sure the he cast Leonardo instead of a more well-known heartthrob knowing that Leonardo was the right man for the job, He also made sure the Jack was portrayed as the man of any woman’s dream with barely any flaws to his personality. Jack lite up the screen every time he was had a scene and that worked out for the film in the end because every girl fell in love with Jack just like Rose did.

James Cameron’s directorial skills is also what made the film what it is and why it made the impact that it did on our society. Cameron was a director that has much passion about the films that he makes. He did not skimp on the amount of money that was spent on the film, just the scene that demonstrates the ship sinking cost the studio $4.5 million. Cameron is a director that does not care whether he makes a profit on a film because he believes in his art which is movie making. He made sure that everything in the film looked as authentic as possible including the costumes that they wore to the most minimal detail that the average movie goer probably didn’t even notice. Cameron could capture the time period that the film was set in perfectly down to the last detail. Cameron was also very hands on with the film and made sure that he always worked as hard as he could on the film. He also worked his actors hard so that the film could look as authentic as possible, especially the scene where Jack and Rose were at the end in the water, since they had to be inside the cold water for hours on end. If anyone else had directed Titanic it would not have had the same impact that it did and still had had in our society. Cameron’s directorial skills took its audience to the movie itself, making its audience experience the movie and not just watch it.

Titanic had a great influence on the films that came after it, but not necessarily on the artistic way, instead making other filmmakers try to strive to gain the $1 billion that Titanic was able to reach worldwide that no other film had done before it. Unlike Cameron that could reach to that point with a love story, other filmmakers reached that point mainly with sequels. They would make already big hits in the box office, for example like the Harry Potter series into an even bigger film with the sequels that followed it (Corliss, R. 2012). A sequel would usually be the film that was able to hit the $1 billion mark at the box office. Cameron was able to achieve this without a sequel and not using the same format the films that followed the Titanic. The films that followed the hero usually prevails at the end while in the Titanic the ship sinks and the hero being Jack dies and the end. James Cameron was able to beat his own box office record with his film Avatar. Titanic changed movies forever in the way that movies now focused more on the money aspect than the story and art aspect of it. Titanic was one of the most expensive films to make, but it ended up paying off in the end since it did reach the $1 billion mark at the box office. Many films following that made tried making their films as big as possible in order to achieve that same goal, which made the films actually lack many of the things that made Titanic great such as the narrative and the originality of the film.

Titanic also had an influence on society because it changed the way that we went to the movies. Before Titanic movie goers did not have the habit of going to see that same movie more than once at the theater. While when Titanic came out in theaters people, especially the younger generation would go see the movie more than once. It made audiences sit through a movie that was more than 3 hours long and enjoy every minute of it. This opened audiences to especially American audiences to broaden their horizons when it comes to long movies because even though they are long it does not mean that they are bad movies, just like Titanic proved.

Titanic has proven to be a film great for all times, with its storyline that kept audiences all around the world entranced to the screen. Its characters on the screen that could perfectly capture the love that they felt towards each other regardless of the odds that they faced because of their social status. It made people believe in love and feel emotions that they were not necessarily expecting when the ship sank and most of the people died, including the hero of the film and Roses true love. James Cameron’s directorial skills and the amount of risk taking that he had on the film was also what made the film be as impactful as it was and still is to this day. He had such great attention to detail and cared so much about his film that he was able to capture the time period and its characters perfectly that really took the audience to the time period and really made them feel the story. He was also able to push his actors in ways that they would act totally authentic in their roles. Titanic also changed the way that people made movies, production studios focused more on the money aspect of movie making then before. Since Titanic was one of the most expensive movies to make, but it was also the highest grossing film in the box office having reach $1billion, they wanted to produce even more films of that magnitude after Titanic.

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My Favorite Movie: Titanic (Essay Sample)

Table of Contents

Introduction

What’s your favorite film? Writing an essay on a movie that made an impact on your heart is a fun and memorable experience. It is a time of revisiting your emotional journey through a narrative that resonated with you.

This essay outlines one’s favorite film, which happens to be Titanic. It contains a summary of the author’s highlights of his immersive experience with the movie.

Got a movie you like that you want to write about? Contact us for essay writing help . We can match you with a writer who can help you come up with a well-crafted article.

My Favorite Movie: Titanic

Titanic will always be my favorite movie, not only because of the historical relevance of the movie’s storyline. The scenery featured in the movie and the assertiveness and brilliance of the actors makes the movie stand head and shoulder above all others.

A 1997 hit, Titanic emotionally unveils the bittersweet story of two teenagers who encounter each other on a ship and are instantly smitten. Jack Dawson (Leonardo di Caprio) and Rose Bukater (Kate Winslet), while on the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage from the coast of England to the United States, fall in love at first sight, despite their different social classes. Dawson, a young and talented artist from a poor background, and Rose, a young woman married to a wealthy but cruel older man who she does not love, have an intense whirlwind affair on the ship.

Directed by filmmaker James Cameron, Titanic reveals the nature of you-and-me-against-the-world relationships that exist in society, which continue to be mirrored in this day and age. While still frowned upon by more traditional segments of society today, a teenage girl from a wealthy family can get married to a poor boy from a humble background,  as long as the two are in love.

Why Titanic is The Ultimate Love Story

Apart from the power of love thriving and surviving in every situation as a dominant theme, Titanic reminds us that we can find love anywhere regardless of the prevailing situation.

A particularly poignant scene shows Rose about to jump off the back of the ship into the cold ocean water when Jack tells her, “I’ll be right after you.” He was ready to jump into the water to save her.  Another favorite moment of mine is when the ship’s crew’s attention is drawn to Jack and Rose as they make love on the ship’s deck, just as the ship hits an iceberg.

The death of 1500 out of 2200 people on board and the frantic effort to save some of the passengers add to the tragic beauty of the story. It was a heartbreaking backdrop to Jack trying to save his lover as the bitter-cold ocean water sweeps onto the deck, flinging many passengers out into the sea. Despite many people opposing their romance, most notably Rose’s mother, their courage to face the odds reinforces the theme of timeless and bold love.

Little details in the film’s cinematography make the story more compelling. The dance of the dolphins rhythmically aligns itself to the movement of the ship, the warmth of the glorious sunshine greeting the faces of excited travelers, and a masterful soundtrack create a glorious backdrop to a tale worth telling.

Few movies inspire as much emotion as Titanic. It definitely stands out for its combination of intelligent elements and perfect acting. The main actors bring out the message of the movie clearly, and they thoughtfully and sensitively embody the situation and life of the twentieth century as well as the modern times.

Finally, I love how Celine Dion interpreted the theme song, “My Heart Will Go On.” It achingly reflects the journey of the star-crossed lovers, and the resolve to move forward with life to do that love justice even when their time together has ended. The hopeful lyrics, penned by Will Jennings, are so well-written.

The 1997 movie Titanic remains to be my all-time favorite movie. Every aspect of the movie,  from casting to scene selection, is done flawlessly and the themes are woven into every scene clearly and perfectly.

Titanic Essay In 200 Words

No other Hollywood-made love story hits me just as much as that of Jack Dawson and Rose Bukator in the award-winning picture Titanic. I simply could not get through the whole movie without a box of tissues and a glass of wine.

The journey of these two characters and their evolution as lovers are beautiful to watch. Though hailing from opposite social classes, being stuck together on a ship caused them to see past their differences and fall head-over-heels in love.

Director James Cameron’s guidance of Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio is commendable. Although the two actors are already brilliant and have good Hollywood track records to begin with, his oversight really helped them bring out the essence of the main characters. Billy Zane deserves recognition as well, as he played a villain with a believable motivation.

Though only Rose survived at the very end, I was satisfied with the way that Titanic ended. It had its own take on a heartbreaking but hopeful ending. It made me look back on the couple’s best moments together on the ship, but also wish Rose well on a new chapter of her journey without Jack.

What about you? What’s your favorite movie?

How To Start A Talk About Your Favorite Film?

Talking about something that has made such an incredible mark on your life should not be so difficult. It should, as a matter of fact, come quite naturally to us. In writing about something from the silver screen that you found unforgettable, before reviewing the actual scenes and lines, it is good to always begin first with your “Why.” Why did I find this film so thrilling? What was it about the movie that I connected with so passionately? How did the experience of the artists enrich the characters? How did the cinematography provide an interesting background for the journey to unfold? How did I see the director’s influence on the acting and styling of the set? How does it compare to some of the films in my list of favorites?

How To Write A Reaction Paper About Titanic Movie?

In order to excellently pen a reaction paper about Titanic, you should first recall your very own reactions to the film, especially during your first time watching it. What were the raw emotions that you felt, whether positive or negative? What roused you and what bored you? What parts of it satisfied you and what scenes left you hanging? Identifying the key elements that provoked you to react is crucial in figuring out how you’re going to write that paper. It is a process of you thoughtfully dissecting Titanic and pointing out the areas that you liked and didn’t like.

The 12 Best Romance Movies with a Love Triangle

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Two's company. Three's a crowd. But when the three is a drama-invoking love triangle that keeps you on your toes? Yes, please. Love triangles have been a cinematic go-to since the era of silent film. And it's been successful every single time. The secret: Everyone likes drama. Excitement, and intrigue, have a way of drawing you in, and then there's the thrill of choosing a side and spending endless hours debating who's the best.

Love triangles and relationship drama in real life can be anxiety-inducing and should be avoided at all costs. But that doesn't mean you can't live a happy, rainbow-filled life while enjoying some of the best love triangle movies to scratch your deeply ingrained itch for complicated romance drama. Movies with love triangles aren't going out of style, with the greatest among them featured in engrossing dramas and mesmerizing romances. Fans looking for the very best examples of the trope can turn to award-winning classics and hidden gems in the romance genre.

12 'The Accidental Husband' (2008)

Director: griffin dunne.

Patrick ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ) is preparing to live the rest of his life with Sofia ( Justina Machado ) until she makes a call into the radio show hosted by renowned love expert Dr. Emma Lloyd ( Uma Thurman ). Upon Emma's advice, Sofia breaks up with Patrick, making him furious, especially when he learns that Emma is about to be married. Determined to take revenge, Patrick allows his young neighbor, Ajay ( Jeffrey Tedmori ), to hack into public records and create a fake marriage certificate between himself and Emma.

A hilarious and cheesy romantic comedy leading to uproarious laughter and a few tears, The Accidental Husband is one of the most crooked love triangles ever . Be warned, Uma Thurman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan certainly try their best to carry the film, but the overall chemistry between the three leads just doesn't work all the time. It's far from perfect, but viewers can expect a good time and a few laughs at some cringe-worthy dialogue.

The Accidental Husband

Watch on Fubo

11 'The Kissing Booth 2' (2020)

Director: vince marcello.

After Noah's ( Jacob Elordi ) departure to Harvard, Elle ( Joey King ) is focused on her senior year in The Kissing Booth 2 . Their relationship gets rocky when Elle meets his friend Chloe ( Maisie Richardson-Sellers ), who tends to forget boundaries. Meanwhile, Elle and Lee ( Joel Courtney ) are planning to convince Marco Peña ( Taylor Zakhar Perez ), the new transfer student known as the new "Noah Flynn," to be one of the kissers, but she embarrasses herself in front of the entire school on his first day.

Elle must make a choice as sparks fly, and it might not be the choice you think. Based on The Kissing Booth books by Beth Reekles, the series is one of the most coveted love triangles of the 2020s . It's not for everyone, but anyone who enjoys cheesy mindless romance should dive right in, plus, there's a sure fanbase out there who have already seen this more than once just for Jacob Elordi.

Watch on Netflix

10 'Something Borrowed' (2011)

Director: luke greenfield.

When Darcy ( Kate Hudson ) throws Rachel ( Ginnifer Goodwin ) a surprise birthday party, they don't see what's coming next. After Darcy is safely home, a drunk Rachel ends up having sex with her best friend's fiance, a move driven by her long-term crush on Dex ( Colin Egglesfield ). As the days to Darcy and Dex's wedding approach, Rachel switches between the role of a supportive friend and a backstabbing manipulator.

Something Borrowed is one of those ultimate summer movies that offers an unusual take on friendships and relationships. While it isn't healthy to condone actively ruining relationships, the film makes it feel okay to side with the other woman just this once. It's just a movie full of flawed characters, but viewers may end up rooting for some anyway. Kate Hudson is fantastic as Darcy, but even her charm may not be enough to redeem the film from its flaws.

Something Borrowed (2011)

Rent on Apple TV

9 'Sweet Home Alabama' (2002)

Director: andy tennant.

Sweet Home Alabama is the story of Melanie ( Reese Witherspoon ), a successful New York fashion designer. She wants a high life and society and is set to marry the wealthy Andrew Hennings ( Patrick Dempsey ). The only thing holding her back is a small-town husband, Jake Perry ( Josh Lucas ), whom she married as a pregnant teen and left after a miscarriage. Melanie must soon face her future and make a tough decision.

While these childhood sweethearts eventually find their way back to each other, Patrick Dempsey's Andrew Hennings plays an essential distraction to the couple, making the ending much more delicious. Sure, it may be predictable and somewhat cheesy all throughout, but Sweet Home Alabama remains a classic enemies-to-lovers romance movie that also happens to feature one of Witherspoon's best roles .

8 'Alex Strangelove' (2018)

Director: craig johnson.

Alex Truelove ( Daniel Doheny ) has been friends with Claire ( Madeline Weinstein ) forever, but when an emotional moment leads to a kiss, they know they will be each other's firsts. However, when Alex meets Elliot ( Antonio Marziale ), an openly gay teenager, at a party, things are about to change. Alex is questioning his sexuality, and while his friends think it's a momentary lapse because he's nervous about losing his virginity, Alex knows this isn't a false conclusion.

An LGBTQ+ Netflix Original, Alex Strangelove hosts a light-hearted love triangle and encourages you to discover yourself and who you're truly meant to love. Its endearing performances from its teenage leads lend authenticity to its story. Despite being mostly forgotten at this point, it's still one of the best love triangle movies on Netflix and definitely worth the watch.

Alex Strangelove

Not available

7 'My Best Friend's Wedding' (1997)

Director: p. j. hogan.

Years ago, Julianne "Jules" Potter ( Julia Roberts ) and Michael O'Neal ( Dermot Mulroney ) agreed that they would marry each other if they were both unmarried by age 28. Three weeks before Jules's 28th birthday, she receives a call from Michael that he is getting married in four days. Realizing he's the love of her life, Jules is determined to make Michael and Kimmy ( Cameron Diaz ) break up for good and asks her friend, George ( Rupert Everett ), for help.

A rational story with a fresher perspective on the friends-to-lovers trope, My Best Friend's Wedding offers an ending you won't see coming. As long as audiences don't think too hard about the ethics of Jules' actions, the 1997 flick is a highly enjoyable and entertaining romantic comedy throughout. It's a film from the '90s that has aged well and is also among Julia Roberts' best movies .

6 'Bridget Jones's Diary' (2001)

Director: sharon maguire.

Bridget ( Renée Zellweger ) is like every other unmarried woman in her 30s: engagingly imperfect and anxious about her weight. She works at a publishing company in London, where her primary focus is drooling over her boss, Daniel Cleaver ( Hugh Grant ). Then, her mother introduces her to Mark Darcy ( Colin Firth ), an old acquaintance and barrister, at the New Year's party. They immediately grow a hatred for each other, and Bridget, appalled by his demeaning comments, decides to turn her life around and starts writing a diary.

One of the best rom-coms of the 2000s, Bridget Jones's Diary is based on Helen Fielding 's novel of the same name, which is a reinterpretation of Jane Austen 's novel Pride and Prejudice . It's a classic that has a special place in fans' hearts, with Daniel and Mark's attempts at winning over Bridget being both sweet and hilarious . It also features Renee Zellwegger's best and most unforgettable role.

Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget, a single woman in her thirties, embarks on a mission to overhaul her life by keeping a diary, where she records her resolutions, romantic entanglements, and professional aspirations. Her love life becomes a rollercoaster as she juggles the attentions of her charming but roguish boss and a seemingly cold but earnest family friend. Amidst comedic blunders and poignant reflections, Bridget’s journey highlights themes of self-discovery and genuine love. The film offers a witty and heartwarming portrayal of personal growth and the complexities of relationships in the contemporary world.

5 'The Great Gatsby' (2013)

Director: baz luhrmann.

After his service in World War I, army veteran Nick Carraway ( Tobey Maguire ) underwent treatment at a mental health facility in December 1929. There, he recalls the story of the summer of 1922, when he moved from the Midwest to New York after abandoning writing and found himself oddly attracted to his wealthy neighbor, Jay Gatsby ( Leonardo DiCaprio ).

No one can talk of love triangles without passing a nod to The Great Gatsby . While fans aren't all uber-rich personalities throwing elaborate parties to seduce our now-married crushes, deep down, everyone wants to. The classic novel has been adapted as a movie four times over the years, but the 2013 version was the most popular, with its set pieces, music, and costumes doing a great job of depicting the Roaring 20s. While it does water down its source material in favor of flair, it's still worth seeing for its entertainment value and DiCaprio's take on Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby (2013)

4 'love actually' (2003), director: richard curtis.

Love Actually featured a flurry of unique love stories, each depicting different aspects of love, but one of those stories stayed with viewers long after all the others faded away. Juliet ( Keira Knightley ) and Peter's ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ) wedding was filmed by their best man, Mark ( Andrew Lincoln ). But despite being Peter's best friend, Mark dislikes Juliet, or so the couple believes.

Movie theaters around the world rumbled with cries and sighs as it was discovered that Mark was hiding his love for Juliet by means of acting rude to her because she was married to his best friend. Albeit a little dysfunctional, the story is one of the most heartwarming moments in the history of movies. Love Actually is also now considered one of the most romantic Christmas movies and is part of fans' annual traditions , with the love triangle story undoubtedly one that most viewers eagerly wait for.

Love Actually

3 'the notebook' (2004), director: nick cassavetes.

Set in 1940s South Carolina, The Notebook follows the passionate romance between the mill worker Noah Calhoun ( Ryan Gosling ) and wealthy girl Allie ( Rachel McAdams ). Of course, Allie's parents don't like Noah, so it's a relief for them when he serves as a soldier during World War II. In the meantime, Allie says yes to Lon Hammond ( James Marsden ). When Noah returns, it's clear they still have feelings for each other.

The classic tear-jerking romance movie is something every millennial has seen (likely more than once). Gosling and McAdams' performances are iconic and are still discussed and referenced today. Their electric love makes it easy to forget there was a love triangle in the movie, with the unfortunate Lon never really standing a chance in The Notebook . There's a good reason the 2004 film continues to top many lists of the most romantic movies ever made, as Gosling and McAdams' electric chemistry and memorable love story have made their mark on cinema.

The Notebook (2004)

Watch on Hulu

2 'Titanic' (1997)

Director: james cameron.

Titanic is one of the most epic love stories ever made into a movie, and it can be easy to forget that the film was a member of the love triangle association. While he is no competition to the soulmate bond developing between Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose ( Kate Winslet ), Caledon ( Billy Zane ) is, indeed, Rose's fiancé, which proves the following point. It's important to note that Jack is, technically speaking, the other man, because Rose and Cal were committed, at least by means of being engaged.

Technicalities aside, Cal was a chivalrous jerk, and when the ship breaks, much like fans' hearts, this incredible love triangle receives a tragic end in the highest-grossing romance movie of all time . Rose and Jack were always meant to have the stronger, more passionate connection, with Winslet and DiCaprio's effortless chemistry lighting up big screens around the world.

Watch on Paramount+

1 'Casablanca' (1942)

Director: michael curtiz.

Often considered the greatest romance movie ever made having one of the best love triangles in Hollywood, Casablanca revolves around the complicated romance between Rick Blaine ( Humphrey Bogart ), a nightclub owner, and Ilsa ( Ingrid Bergman ), his old flame. Their chance encounter reveals that Ilsa has already married the known rebel Victor Laszlo ( Paul Henreid ), whom she thinks only Rick can help escape from the country.

The renowned classic sees the ups and downs Rick and Ilsa's affair , which was made iconic by Bogart and Bergman's jaw-dropping performances and legendary chemistry. But in the end, it still is a love triangle, and Casablanca makes its iconic mark with the emotional ending the complicated situation leads to. It helps that the characters also exchange some of the most romantic quotes, including the unforgettable "Here's looking at you, kid."

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‘I Like It Here’: Aging Wistfully in the Hudson Valley

Looking back at the lives he and his friends led, the documentarian Ralph Arlyck delivers a memoir, an essay on mortality and a portrait of his community.

By Alissa Wilkinson

“I got taxied into the world in the middle of the last century,” a man’s voice says at the start of “ I Like It Here ” (at the Firehouse theater in New York). We’re gliding slowly across a green rural landscape. “This is where I live now,” he continues. “I’m 78.”

The voice is Ralph Arlyck’s, and the movie is his, too. Arlyck is a veteran documentarian , and “I Like It Here” is part memoir, part personal essay on aging and mortality, part portrait of his community and home in the Hudson Valley. There’s no plot, per se. But I’ve seen the movie twice, and both times I found myself moved near tears.

“I Like It Here” feels like a cousin to Agnès Varda’s documentaries, particularly the curiosity and humor of “ Daguerréotypes ” (1975, Criterion Channel ), in which she records the daily lives of her neighbors on the Rue Daguerre. Arlyck also introduces us to several of his friends, most of whom he’s known for decades. They’ve grown old alongside one another, sharing lives that intersect and diverge. Most have started to recognize they’re the age their parents and grandparents were when they thought of them as “old.” It’s a realization that’s equal parts unsettling and amusing.

Arlyck’s recollections of his own family history, his marriage and his career as a filmmaker are part of the film. But they’re woven into the present narrative perfectly, without seeming at all self-indulgent. Instead, he’s doing precisely what great memoirists do: invite us into their stories as a way of making space for us to reflect on our own.

“I Like It Here” is loaded with gentle humor as a counterbalance to the pathos inherent in any reflection on mortality by a man who knows most of his life is behind him. Near the beginning of the film, we see hands pull a box of 36 new pencils from a desk drawer. In voice-over, Arlyck notes that he doesn’t go through pencils very fast, and it occurs to him that this is probably the last box of pencils he’ll ever purchase. It’s almost a morbid thought, but it’s also kind of funny, and he treats it as such. Pencils: they mean nothing, and everything.

The “here” of the title — Arlyck likes it here — opens up in complexity as the film progresses. It’s that green landscape from the beginning, where the neighbors and horses and Arlyck and his family live. But it’s also the planet, and an ineffable moment in time that he’s been lucky enough to inhabit. He and his friends talk about being aware that the end is coming, and have mostly gotten used to the idea. But late in the movie, he expresses a wistfulness that there’s nobody he can bargain with to stay longer than his time. “I’m having fun,” he says, while we see his grandchildren playing. “I’d actually rather not leave just yet.”

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

Venice’s ‘Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari’ Boarded by Fandango Sales, Teaser Debuts (EXCLUSIVE)

By Leo Barraclough

Leo Barraclough

International Features Editor

• The Party Film Sales Sells Venice-Bound ‘Aicha’ to Several Territories, Debuts Trailer (EXCLUSIVE) 35 mins ago
• Films Boutique Picks Up Venice Entries ‘January 2’ by Zsofia Szilagyi, ‘Wishing on a Star’ by Peter Kerekes (EXCLUSIVE) 20 hours ago
• The Match Factory Takes Sales Rights to Venice-Bound ‘Edge of Night,’ Debuts Clip (EXCLUSIVE) 1 day ago

Fandango Sales  has boarded essay documentary “Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari,” which plays in the out of competition section of the Venice Film Festival . The film, written and directed by Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti , has debuted its teaser.

“Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari,” which is described as “a reflection on the relationship between humans and nature that exists beyond our impact on it,” is divided into three acts, dealing with animals, plants and stones, respectively.

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Each act of the film is a “tribute” to a specific genre of documentary cinema. “Bestiaries” is based on found footage and on the how and why cinema has obsessively represented animals; “Herbaria” is an observational documentary, shot inside the Botanical Garden of Padua; and “Lapidaries” is an “industrial and emotional film on the transformation of stone into collective memory.”

The producers are D’Anolfi, Parenti, David Fonjallaz and Louis Mataré.

The film is produced by Montmorency Film with Rai Cinema, and Lomotion with SRF Schweizer Radio Und Fernsehen/SRG SSR.

Luce Cinecittà is the Italian distributor.

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The Role of Music in the Film “Titanic” Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Content and themes, the role of music, works cited.

In many films, music is used to improve the cinematic experience of viewers. On the other hand, it is used to enhance the delivery of certain messages through the various themes that movie producers explore. The choice of music used in a film depends on the message and theme that form the foundation of the movie’s script. Music determines how well a movie or a specific scene in the movie is received by viewers. The theme is vital a factor that determines how viewers receive a movie. This paper will discuss the role played by music in developing various themes in the movie Titanic . Also, it will discuss the content and themes of the movie and explain the role played by music in the movie.

The movie Titanic was produced in 1997 by James Cameron. It was described as one of the greatest films produced in the 20 th century. The story is a fictional presentation of the events that took place during the tragedy of the RMS Titanic ship. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet who belong to different social classes. However, their differences do not stop love from blossoming between them. They fall in love aboard the ship and form a strong, romantic relationship. The film explores two main themes that include romance and disaster. The producer of the film made the film because of his interest in shipwrecks. Cameron wanted to convey an emotional message by showing the events of the ill-fated Titanic voyage. The incorporation of a love story into the film helps to convey the message effectively because love and sadness are strong emotions.

The movie begins with a treasure hunter searching the wreck of the Titanic for a treasured necklace. After retrieving a safe from the wreckage, Lovett hopes to find the necklace inside. However, he does not find the necklace. Instead, he retrieves several bank statements and a sketch of a nude woman adorning the necklace that he was looking for. He at once concludes that his search is futile. A few days later, a woman contacts Lovett claiming that she is the one in the sketch that was in the safe. In another scene, the lead character is seen as gambling. After winning tickets in a poker game, Dawson (played by DiCaprio) boards the ship together with his friend. The film also shows Rose, the woman that falls in love with Dawson, in the ship. She is in the first-class section while Dawson is in the third class section.

Rose tries to commit suicide because she dislikes her mother’s decision to marry her to Hockley. Fortunately, Dawson confronts her before she throws herself into the sea. Rose descends from the railings and spends the night dancing with Dawson. She asks him to draw a sketch of her naked body wearing the treasured Heart of the Ocean necklace. They then move to the cargo hold area and make love in a car parked within the area. After they finish, the worst happens as the ship hits an iceberg. The accident creates commotion in the ship and passengers begin to board lifeboats. While this happens, Jack is arrested and in an expression of love, Rose goes back to save him instead of saving herself. Her fiancé convinces her to leave and claims that he had a plan to get out of the ship. However, Cal tricks Jack and leaves without helping him. Rose is annoyed by Cal’s actions and goes back to save Jack. A confrontation ensues between the three of them with Cal chasing them with a gun. He fails to capture them and boards a lifeboat.

Rose and Jack sink together with the ship but Jack helps her and she survives the ordeal. They both exchange loving words as an expression of the love that had blossomed between them. Unfortunately, Jack does not survive and dies of hypothermia. After boarding the Carpathia, Rose avoids Cal by covering her face with a blanket. When asked about her name, she gives it to Rose Dawson. Before his death, Jack and Rose had made great plans and promises about what they intended to do together in life. However, tragedy makes it impossible for them to be together to fulfill their promises to each other. In his honor, Rose executes all the plans they had with Jack. The movie ends with a scene that shows a meeting between them. They meet on the ship’s staircase and kiss romantically. The victims of the tragedy applaud them. The viewer is left to figure out whether Rose was dreaming or dead. The movie ends in suspense because of the last scene’s obscurity. The themes of love and tragedy are well explored in the film. The incorporation of love in the film makes the tragedy bearable to the viewer but very painful to Rose.

The music in the movie pacifies viewers by neutralizing the horror of the tragedy. The scene where the ship is sinking is very sad and horrifying. People are crying and families become separated. People clamor for help amidst their helplessness. However, the music that plays in the background during that scene intensifies the emotions of the viewer (Sandler and Studlar 53). It expresses the sadness and horrific tragedy calmly and serenely without using words. The role of the music in the movie is to make it more emotional and compelling. The use of romantic music increases the emotions experienced during love scenes between Rose and Jack. It shows the beauty of love despite the social or economic classes of lovers. For example, the hit song My Heart Will Go On shows the strength of the love between Rose and Jack (Sandler and Studlar 53). It signifies the intention of Rose to carry on with the love despite the demise of her lover. This is fulfilled in Rose’s decision to do all the things they had planned together with Jack. Music is also used to elicit sad emotions during death scenes. The music supports the director’s decision not to linger on death scenes. The music elicits some emotions but does not force them to sympathize with the victims.

The movie Titanic uses music to elicit different emotions in viewers. A mix of different music genres that elicit feelings of both happiness and sadness adds to the development of the movie’s themes of love and tragedy. Also, the humor contained in the movie adds to the pacifying nature of the music. Finally, the movie adds to the quality of the emotionally charged love scenes between jack and rose. The soft and soothing ballads create a mood of love in the mind of the viewer thus improving the viewing experience. On the other hand, slow music calms the viewer.

Sandler, Kevin, and Studlar Gaylyn. Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster . New York: Rutgers University Press, 1999. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2021, April 4). The Role of Music in the Film "Titanic". https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-music-in-the-film-titanic/

"The Role of Music in the Film "Titanic"." IvyPanda , 4 Apr. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-music-in-the-film-titanic/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'The Role of Music in the Film "Titanic"'. 4 April.

IvyPanda . 2021. "The Role of Music in the Film "Titanic"." April 4, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-music-in-the-film-titanic/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Role of Music in the Film "Titanic"." April 4, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-music-in-the-film-titanic/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Role of Music in the Film "Titanic"." April 4, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-music-in-the-film-titanic/.