titanic film analysis essay

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Like a great iron Sphinx on the ocean floor, the Titanic faces still toward the West, interrupted forever on its only voyage. We see it in the opening shots of “Titanic,” encrusted with the silt of 85 years; a remote-controlled TV camera snakes its way inside, down corridors and through doorways, showing us staterooms built for millionaires and inherited by crustaceans.

These shots strike precisely the right note; the ship calls from its grave for its story to be told, and if the story is made of showbiz and hype, smoke and mirrors--well, so was the Titanic. She was “the largest moving work of man in all history,” a character boasts, neatly dismissing the Pyramids and the Great Wall. There is a shot of her, early in the film, sweeping majestically beneath the camera from bow to stern, nearly 900 feet long and “unsinkable,” it was claimed, until an iceberg made an irrefutable reply.

James Cameron's 194-minute, $200 million film of the tragic voyage is in the tradition of the great Hollywood epics. 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.

We know before the movie begins that certain things must happen. We must see the Titanic sail and sink, and be convinced we are looking at a real ship. There must be a human story--probably a romance--involving a few of the passengers. There must be vignettes involving some of the rest and a subplot involving the arrogance and pride of the ship's builders--and perhaps also their courage and dignity. And there must be a reenactment of the ship's terrible death throes; it took two and a half hours to sink, so that everyone aboard had time to know what was happening, and to consider their actions.

All of those elements are present in Cameron's “Titanic,” weighted and balanced like ballast, so that the film always seems in proportion. The ship was made out of models (large and small), visual effects and computer animation. You know intellectually that you're not looking at a real ocean liner--but the illusion is convincing and seamless. The special effects don't call inappropriate attention to themselves but get the job done.

The human story involves an 17-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater ( Kate Winslet ) who is sailing to what she sees as her own personal doom: She has been forced by her penniless mother to become engaged to marry a rich, supercilious snob named Cal Hockley ( Billy Zane ), and so bitterly does she hate this prospect that she tries to kill herself by jumping from the ship. She is saved by Jack Dawson ( Leonardo DiCaprio ), a brash kid from steerage, and of course they will fall in love during the brief time left to them.

The screenplay tells their story in a way that unobtrusively shows off the ship. Jack is invited to join Rose's party at dinner in the first class dining room, and later, fleeing from Cal's manservant, Lovejoy ( David Warner ), they find themselves first in the awesome engine room, with pistons as tall as churches, and then at a rousing Irish dance in the crowded steerage. (At one point Rose gives Lovejoy the finger; did young ladies do that in 1912?) Their exploration is intercut with scenes from the command deck, where the captain ( Bernard Hill ) consults with Andrews ( Victor Garber ), the ship's designer and Ismay ( Jonathan Hyde ), the White Star Line's managing director.

Ismay wants the ship to break the trans-Atlantic speed record. He is warned that icebergs may have floated into the hazardous northern crossing but is scornful of danger. The Titanic can easily break the speed record but is too massive to turn quickly at high speed; there is an agonizing sequence that almost seems to play in slow motion, as the ship strains and shudders to turn away from an iceberg in its path--and fails.

We understand exactly what is happening at that moment because of an ingenious story technique by Cameron, who frames and explains the entire voyage in a modern story. The opening shots of the real Titanic, we are told, are obtained during an expedition led by Brock Lovett ( Bill Paxton ), an undersea explorer. He seeks precious jewels but finds a nude drawing of a young girl. Meanwhile, an ancient woman sees the drawing on TV and recognizes herself. This is Rose (Gloria Stuart), still alive at 101. She visits Paxton and shares her memories (“I can still smell the fresh paint”). And he shows her video scenes from his explorations, including a computer simulation of the Titanic's last hours--which doubles as a briefing for the audience. By the time the ship sinks, we already know what is happening and why, and the story can focus on the characters while we effortlessly follow the stages of the Titanic's sinking.

Movies like this are not merely difficult to make at all, but almost impossible to make well. The technical difficulties are so daunting that it's a wonder when the filmmakers are also able to bring the drama and history into proportion. I found myself convinced by both the story and the saga. The setup of the love story is fairly routine, but the payoff--how everyone behaves as the ship is sinking--is wonderfully written, as passengers are forced to make impossible choices. Even the villain, played by Zane, reveals a human element at a crucial moment (despite everything, damn it all, he does love the girl).

The image from the Titanic that has haunted me, ever since I first read the story of the great ship, involves the moments right after it sank. The night sea was quiet enough so that cries for help carried easily across the water to the lifeboats, which drew prudently away. Still dressed up in the latest fashions, hundreds froze and drowned. What an extraordinary position to find yourself in after spending all that money for a ticket on an unsinkable ship.

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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Titanic (1997)

Rated PG-13 For Shipwreck Scenes, Mild Language and Sexuality

194 minutes

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson

Kate Winslet as Rose Dewitt Bukater

Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett

Kathy Bates as Molly Brown

Billy Zane as Cal Hockley

Written and Directed by

• James Cameron

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Film Analysis of “Titanic” by James Cameron

Introduction, auteur theory and titanic, production techniques in titanic, the film and society.

Titanic (1997) is an epic film directed, written, produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. Titanic is an epic film that shows a love story in a setting of a great disaster. The story involves a seventeen-year-old Rose who falls in love with Jack, who rescues her. The whole story takes place on board the famous ship. The movie describes Rose’s penniless mother forcing her daughter into a marriage with a rich, supercilious snob Cal. Devastated, Rose attempts suicide and is saved by Jack, who is a traveling artist. Later on, Rose and Jack fall in love, despite being from very different social classes. Rose decides to leave Cal and gets together with Jack, and right at that time, the Titanic crashes into an iceberg. The plot then turns into Rose and Jack’s attempts to save themselves from a sinking ship. Overall, Titanic is a cultural phenomenon and will be further analyzed through the auteur theory. Its production techniques and the movie’s connection with society will be discussed over the course of this essay as well.

Auteur theory is a film theory that states that the director is the author of a film and, therefore, their intentions are what shape the film’s narrative. Auteur theory is a way of analyzing films that focuses on the role of the director in shaping all aspects of a film (Morrison, 2018). This includes what the movie looks like, who plays which roles, and how it ends. To some, it is an ultimate goal to achieve total control over every detail in their movies.

James Cameron is an ultimate example of an auteur director, thus making Titanic a perfect film to analyze through the lens of this theory. Cameron not only directed but also wrote the screenplay, produced, and even co-edited Titanic . The three components of auteur theory are technical competence, different personality, and interior meaning (Morrison, 2018). All three components in Titanic fully demonstrate Cameron’s directing talent.

In terms of technical competence, the film is ahead of its time. The special effects from 1997 can match contemporary easily. The ship is demonstrated in great detail and is nearly a perfect copy of the actual ship. That is one of Cameron’s distinctive touches, that attention to detail. The film is one of the most expensive movies ever made. The director not only wrote the screenplay but also helped with montage and editing, as well as casting choices.

Regarding distinguishable personality, Titanic is a historical fiction where fictional characters cross paths with real ones. It is a “Romeo and Juliette” story on the Titanic, and it works because it makes the storyline relatable. The plot has seven fictional characters, and the rest are real people, demonstrating the incredible amount of historical research done for that movie. The film can relate to the modern audience because of the simplicity of the love story in it. James Cameron is famous for this hands-on approach, and Titanic is a testament to his genius. Auteurs make films that have many layers of hidden meaning. Titanic’s basic layer of meaning is that it is a tragic love story. However, when digging deeper, one can see the social drama and tragedy, explore examples of toxic relationships and discover the life purpose of the heroine. The film’s biggest theme is a social drama, showing classism and gender inequality.

There is a number of specific techniques and design elements employed in the film as they contribute to the overarching narrative and theme of the film. They include elements of mise-en-scène (e.g., lighting, sound, the composition of the frame, costuming, etc.) and editing (e.g., cuts and transitions, shots used, angles, etc.).

The production design of Titanic is incredibly specific and accurate to the time; all the little nuances and touches turn the title character, a ship, into an actual one that the audience cares about. In every other scene, the shot demonstrates the ship, which artfully grabs the viewer’s attention to the details of the Titanic. The composition of the frame also reveals the details in the shot. Especially the moment when Rose is presented with a diamond by Cal, and the shot shows them reflected in the mirror, slowly zooming in. The scene shows how desperate and trapped Rose looks, and the exact opposite for Cal. It is a relatively simple shot, but it makes the storytelling incredibly impactful, demonstrating a clear difference and incompatibility between the characters.

Another design element that contributes to the narrative in Titanic is costume design. At the beginning of the scene, Rose is dressed very similarly to her mother. The heroine has agreed to marry for money and is following a path chosen for her. Throughout the movie, her dresses change and become simpler. When Rose and Jack finally get together, she wears a very simple grey dress, seemingly showing her agreement to become a part of his social status (which is much lower than hers). When Rose is rescued, she wears that simple dress and a man’s coat; she is completely stripped of anything that might identify her class. This shows that the heroine has chosen a path for herself to move forward, and she departs from her old life.

The shots and transitions in the sinking scene demonstrate Cameron at his finest. The director shows how every single detail of the entourage on the ship is destroyed. It is followed by the close of the characters, and their emotions make the scene more powerful. Moreover, the story turns the ship from a simple exterior into a character of the film. In the scene where the head engineer apologizes to the main characters, the shot is angled to demonstrate that the boat is sinking. The apology is made for not building a stronger ship, which gives the boat a voice, thus turning it into a character. It is not the engineer apologizing; it is the ship apologizing, which makes the sinking scene much more powerful.

Titanic presents three main issues: classism, sex, and gender inequality. The main characters are from different social classes, which causes the majority of problems. Throughout the story, Titanic skillfully demonstrates classism, where characters from different classes are treated very differently. When saving of upper-class passengers was extremely different from the lower-class ones, to the point where it caused the loss of many lives. Another social problem in the film is gender inequality, where Rose is not allowed to make her own choices and is patronized by Cal. The film raises very deep social questions that are still relevant today.

James Cameron is an example of an auteur director; he directed, wrote the screenplay, produced, and even co-edited Titanic . This gave him an opportunity to fully control the filmmaking process resulting in a masterpiece. One of Cameron’s unique touches is omnipresent attention to detail, which makes the film stand out. The film uses visualization and design techniques that emphasize the characters’ journey. Titanic is a social phenomenon that demonstrates the highest skills in acting and directing and presents contemporary social problems that did not lose their relevance even now.

Morrison, J. (2018). Auteur theory and my son John . Bloomsbury.

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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 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.

Titanic Questions and Answers

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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
• Pre-production

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

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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A Narrative Analysis Of The Film, “Titanic”

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“Titanic” Film Analysis Essay

• Category: Film
• Words: 2734
• Published: 02.10.20
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Titanic is an epic relationship film, which also includes certain historical and authentic aspects of time it told about. The film is released in 1997 which is directed, written and co-produced by Adam Cameron, as well widely known as the overseer of Avatar. Based on the sinking with the passenger boat RMS Titanic ship in 1912, one of the most tragic historical incidents, Titanic targets the reinvestment of the previous. It obtained a great industrial success and broke the records of its period because of the factors like its original storyline, cast, huge budget as well as its successful content material.

Titanic was indeed the most costly one of its time with its predicted $200, 000, 000 finances, which opened the way for the reputation of the film like a blockbuster. In the opening weekend, it reached 2674 displays and was ahead of the package office lists in UNITED STATES with $28, 638, 13. In total, it had a field office of $2, 185, 372, 302 worldwide. It was nominated intended for 14 categories in Academy Awards and won 14 of them, including “The Finest Director” and “The Finest Actress (Kate Winslet)”.

Though Titanic is certainly a historical figure in American cinema, it can be based on a fictional love account of the members with the several social classes but the account begins having a present day plus the exploring in the shipwreck RMS Titanic in 1996 by Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and its staff for looking a diamonds necklace known as “Heart from the Ocean”. After finding an old picture of the young undressed woman putting on this necklace, an old woman named Flower Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stuart) calls the team and claims that she actually is the woman in the picture. The lady and her granddaughter occur the wreck and Went up Dawson begins to tell the storyplot.

Here, we could back to 1912. A beautiful young upper-class girl, Rose (Kate Winslet), her fiancé Induration (Billy Zane) and her mother Ruth DeWitt Bukater board Titanic. Rose does not have any control over her life as her mother wants her to get married to Cal, a rich claimer, for your woman believes that it will solve Bukaters’ financial problems. Daunted and depressed by her proposal, Rose turns into depressed and tries to make suicide by jumping off the stern yet Jack Dawson (Leonardo Dalam Caprio), a bad and destitute artist, helps you to save her.

The moment Cal recognizes them and learns that he provides saved Increased, he invitations Jack towards the dinner. Right here, Jack and Rose become good friends and later, Jack and Rose sign up for a party inside the third category quarter with the ship. The two Cal and Ruth are concerned about their romance and prohibit to see the other person. But Increased realizes her love and wants intended for Jack to draw her naked photo with “Heart of the Ocean”, which is a valuable diamond diamond necklace. Cal views the picture and has Plug arrested by putting the necklace in his pocket.

Moreover, the ship collides with an banquise and begins to sink. Increased saves Jack but the deliver is nearly sunk, Jack and Cal persuade Rose to board a lifeboat yet Rose will not want to leave Jack and is back in the dispatch. The deliver divides into two parts and they get caught in the water from the demanding. Jack will save Rose by helping her mount on a wall panel. Jack is in the ocean and dies of hypothermia, when Rose is boarded to a lifeboat.

Then simply, the remainders are returning to New York. Rose changes her name since Rose Dawson and discovers that California committed committing suicide. Finished her story, Flower takes out “Heart of the Ocean” and chuck it in the ocean. Naturally , what makes a motion picture “blockbuster” cannot be limited with its plan and its superstars.

The budget from the film truly gives us an idea regarding the role and importance of visuality in the success of Titanic. David Cameron had a fascination about the shipwrecks and for him, THE RMS TITANIC was “the Attach Everest of shipwrecks” (Bilmes, 2010). On that basis, a new sort of camera and camera perspectives had to be used so as to present Titanic at the bottom of the marine.

With the mild of this data, the cinematographic procedure is as comes after: Titanic was shot simply by Super 35 film formatting, in extensive screen, together with the 1: 78: 1 feature ratio by Russell Father. The modern day scenes were shot aboard the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in mil novecentos e noventa e seis. A reconstruction of the Titanic ship was created at Playas de Rosarito, Baja Washington dc, and range models and computer-generated imagery were also accustomed to recreate the sinking (Marsh, 1998). Yet , most of the shots of the film at sea were unreal.

Although you observe many kinds of camera shots in the film, the medium close-up and the pan down pictures are dominated. The moderate close-ups and zooms are highly used in the party moments at the 3rd quarter intended for showing the intimacy plus the scenes of sinking so that we can understand the feelings in the people using their mimics. The pan down pictures are especially in the flying picture of Plug and Went up, capturing the psychological scenarios of them since conquering and proud with themselves. We also see that the field gives a speedy social meaning. In the scene, Jack and Rose are above all the social classes.

They think safe and united. Furthermore, in certain moments there are very long tracking pictures, which provide the film a taste of action. Various kinds of camera perspectives are used inside the film. A minimal angle is employed in the flying scene and used in the water in the sinking scene, as if it is still taking over and demanding the marine.

On the other hand, the high position and the raie shot is likewise preferred inside the sinking scene. It demonstrates the send is much below to the ocean, building a sense of vulnerability and hopelessness pertaining to the audience. With regards to editing, Rms titanic portraits as a mainstream Artist film, although it has also the parallel editing and enhancing in the selected scenes. One example is when the deliver runs into the iceberg, Flower tries to launch Jack at the same time.

The sound with the film also varies in line with the scenes. A diegetic sound is used inside the scene of party as well as the voyage nevertheless non-diegetic appear is also preferred especially in the loving scenes just like their “flying” and stress scenes of sinking, mainly because it increases the anxiety. But the present-day scenes have zero soundtrack, centering on the dialogues. The soundtrack of Titanic contributed to the immense success of the film, selling more than 10 million copies and becoming among the best sellings in history. ( Film Score, 2010).

Along with the primary camera methods, some of the special effects were also desired in the film: Digital effects. 17 more company were in cooperate with Digital Domain, the production company of Titanic, for In total, there is certainly 500 views with digital effects. For example in the tragedy scenes, stunt men and women acted instead of the celebrities but with the help of the effect tactics the faces of the celebrities were montaged on the systems of the stunt men/women. Articles Based on a tragic famous event, the core of Titanic is the love story of numerous classes.

With this point, there are many social and subconscious messages in the film. One of the centers of the film is the idea of “class” in twentieth century. Class is represented within an excessively direct way, through both the story of characters and the narrative of Rms titanic itself. This article and the notion of the film is made on the personas Jack and Rose.

Simply by positioning all their social functions, Cameron quickly delivers the differences in cultural classes plus the deep concern for the interaction of the classes. There are plenty of examples to infer your class distinction from beginning to the final of the film. For instance, even though different cultural classes can easily board to Titanic, that they stay in the various quarters with the ship and “more money” means “better standards”. Going for a closer look, the class variation between the upper and lower classes are represented even in the dresses of men and women. Prestige women put on corsets and hats, which in turn become the symbols of the school.

In addition , all of us obviously know the distinction from Jack and Flower. Rose can be represented being a young upper-class woman managing social guidelines and having no control on her existence. She interprets Titanic like a slave ship and some sort of “prison”.

Alternatively, Jack is definitely represented as being a homeless and poor low-class man, perceiving Titanic as a ship of his dreams and sense great excitement. Even though all their paths mix at a point and they create a friendship,  Rose’s mother and fiancé-regarding these kinds of an discussion as a “threat” for their standing and their class- forbid those to see each other. Again, in the sinking landscape, the variation between social classes turns into chronically agonizing as the upper-class people are boarding to the lifeboats while the crew and the low-class are merely remaining to dead, simply locked in the engine room and their own quarters. Thus, electricity is the your survival and the course that an individual belongs to closes her/his destiny.

Gender jobs in Titanic are also constructed in an specific and mainstream way, specifically on the primary characters. Rose is showed as a woman who cannot express her own opinions and have no idea about the control of her life. Actually by her mother, she’s seen as a ensure for the solution of her family’s monetary problems. To get his fiancé Cal, Rose is just a control and this individual wants to include control on her.

He recognizes no injury throwing her a hissy fit. The painful dresses and the cordon of the females also provide us with an idea about how exactly women perceives themselves as if they have to seem to be fit and beautiful since otherwise they are condemned not simply by their congenerics, but also by men. Another point that people should consider may be the scenes of sinking.

Because you remember, “women and children first” should be saved and survived. They may be immediately boarded to the lifeboats and men stay in the sinking deliver. As David Hall declares; Passengers’ odds of surviving the sinking in the S. S. Titanic had been related to their very own sex and their social category: females had been more likely to endure than males, and the likelihood of survival rejected with sociable class since measured by the class in which the passenger journeyed. (Hall, 1986) At first, the scene could even be appreciated thinking about the norms of the society, including the positive elegance.? n a profound research; however , we also discover an implication that “Women are not capable of surviving and physically very much weaker than men. ” which is challenging.

Men of high-classes are represented because “heroes” in the film, compromising their lives. Actually, it is just a realistic manifestation of the interpersonal conventions and sexism inside the society. Speaking directly to accounts of “women and children first”, Zizek claims: In the case of Titanic ship, the myth of first-cabin man heroism become a huge hit to standard understandings and sentimental ideas of male or female roles that involved several oppositions: strength versus weak spot, independence vs . dependence; intelligence versus feelings; public compared to private. (Zizek, 1989) On the other hand, in the film as a big surprise, Rose rejects to table to the lifeboat when both equally Jack and give us a call at try to persuade her.

She actually is back to save Jack through the prison, reaching a steward and in this scene she’s considered as a “heroine” by the audience, which problematic in terms of the ill-perceived idea that “using violence is one of the brave behaviours. ” All of us cannot quickly say that Rms titanic serves for just about any kind of ideology but we can infer the ideology of 1912 from the film. 1st, the “unsinkable” ship Titanic ship is a total of capitalism and hegemony. All cultural classes may board towards the boat.

The top and the lower class are living together, beneath the same roof structure but upper class is “more equal”. They may have much better requirements in the quarters than the decrease class. Even the music played out in the sectors are different. Upper class needs to the physical benefits of the labor class, which can be represented as the crew in the ship.

But labors are not indispensable for the upper-class, since it is highly deduced from the getting away scenes. The crew and other lower school members are left to dead when upper-class board to the lifeboats immediately. Additionally, the description of the dispatch as unsinkable” and the representations of class differentiation in the film shows that upper-class has a perception in which they can be much more effective than mother nature itself, which will also refers to the code of “dominating the nature” as a usual of capitalism.

Cameron can also make a reference intended for the break and wipe out of capitalism against mother nature with the moments especially in that the valuable content articles are continuously displayed and the orchestra remains to be playing the music when the dispatch is sinking into the ocean. When seen from this point of view, Titanic ship and the important articles are definitely the symbolic rules of capitalism. Conclusion Though it has the storyline problems and is highly difficult with regards to the rendering of sociable aspects, Titanic ship is one of the many successful motion pictures in terms of it is acting, marvelous visual effects, high production price and the delicious taste of its story.

The different themes are blended together constructed around a appreciate story, in an epic story with special effects and a feeling of reality. But, whether or not that totally deserves 11 Oscar including “The Best Director” and “The Best Screenplay” is a couple of question in fact it is still debated. It is also tough that though Cameron in some manner criticizes the social category distinctions by looking into making reference to the unfair and unequal nature of capitalism, the exorbitant production costs and the analysis of the film as a Artist product, which can be regarded as a heart of capitalism in USA, draw a hypocritical profile of him.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Cameron, James. (Director, Writer). (1997). Titanic ship. Santa Clarita, California, UNITED STATES. Retrieved coming from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/ Chumo, Peter And. (1999). Finding out how to Make Each Day Count: Amount of time in James Cameron’s Titanic.

Diary of Well-known Film and Television, 99. Gambrel, Steven Michael. “Titanic” discourse: Around the edge of the millennium. The University of Texas by Arlington, 1999. 1398215. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/pqdtft/docview/220096286/13BC1B792D07C8DD8A8/7?accountid=11248 Hall, Wayne. (1986).

Interpersonal Class and Survival on The S. S i9000. Titanic. Interpersonal Science and Medicine 1986 22 (6). Retrieved from: http://espace.uq.edu.au/eserv/UQ%3A152940/HallSSM2261986.pdf Learning and Educating Scotland.

Larger Still Advancement Unit (2001). English and Communication: Rms titanic & A Night to Remember: Gain access to 3 & Intermediate 1 ) HSDU, 2001. Nulph, Robert Glenn. (2002). The research, application, and evaluation of three crucial methodologies, plus the synthesis of the new critical model for audiovisual research: Case study, “Titanic” (1997). University of Kansas, 2002.

Robinson, Cassidy. (2012, April 12). An Research – James Cameron’s Titanic Successes. Recovered from: http://www.macguffinpodcast.com/macguffin-spotlight/an-analysis-james-camerons-titanic-successes/ Tatlock, Melissa S. (2009).

From “Titanic” to “Star Wars”: A Derridean deconstructive analysis from the minimization of violence inside the 25 best grossing films of perfect. Saint Mary’s University, Canada, 2009. Tyrkus, Michael J. Titanic. Fim Reference. Retrieved from: http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Thr-Tur/Titanic.html Zizek, Slavoj. (1989).

The Sublime Thing of Ideology. New York: Poema, 1989.

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Social Inequality in the Titanic Movie Essay

Introduction, short synopsis of the movie, the social problems shown in the movie, social inequality according to sociological perspectives, social inequality in titanic according to sociological perspectives.

Movies not only provide entertainment but also often depict situations that show various aspects of the human life. Different social problems, for instance, are vividly present in many films. In this paper, we will scrutinize the movie Titanic , in which the problem of social inequality is rather bright. After that, we will analyze social inequality from two different sociological points of view, namely, the conflict and the interactionist perspectives.

Titanic is an American 1997 movie that tells a fictional story of a young woman and a young man who met on RMS “Titanic,” a historic British ship that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg (Cameron & Landau, 1997). The story is told by Rose, an old woman who survived the catastrophe. When she was 17-year-old, Rose DeWitt Bukater boarded “Titanic”; she came from a formerly rich family that was experiencing financial problems.

She was to marry a Cal Hockley, a rich man, to resolve these problems. She did not love Cal, neither did she want to lead a life of a wife of a rich businessman. The old Rose says, “I saw my whole life as if I have already lived it, an endless parade of parties and cotillions… Always the same… people, the same mindless chatter. I felt like I was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull me back, no one who cared or even noticed” (Cameron & Landau, 1997, 0:34:45-0:35:15).

Rose was going to commit suicide and jump down from the stern, but she was stopped by Jack Dawson, a poor young painter. After communicating with him for a while, Rose fell in love with Jack. She decided to part with Cal and run away from her family together with Jack; she left a mocking note to Cal. When Cal discovered it, he decided to frame Jack for stealing a precious diamond necklace, the Heart of the Ocean. Somewhere at this point, the ship collided with the iceberg, while Jack ended up chained to a pipe on the lower deck.

Instead of using a lifeboat, Rose went down to the lower decks to save Jack. Having fetched him, she went up to the upper deck and boarded the lifeboat. When she was looking at Jack, she understood that there was no lifeboat for him as he previously had claimed (there were too few lifeboats on the ship), and jumped back to the ship. Eventually, they waited together until the ship sank. Later, Rose was picked up by a lifeboat, but Jack died of hypothermia in the ocean. Rose lied about her name and introduced herself as Rose Dawson later on a ship that came to save them, to avoid Cal, as well as her family.

One of the major social problems that are shown in the movie is social inequality. It is vividly depicted in the film. The main characters, Rose and Jack, come from different social groups, and the position and obligations of Rose do not allow her to be with Jack. Even when she rejects the privileges (which she perceives as a burden) that her class offers in order to be with the one she loves, she is eventually separated from him because of the consequences of social inequality.

The fallout of social inequality is also brightly depicted in the movie. The number of lifeboats that are available on the liner is too small; there are only enough to save approximately half of the people on the ship. When Rose says, “Half the people on the ship are going to die,” Cal answers her: “Not the better half” (Cameron & Landau, 1997, 1:51:45-1:52:00), for the boats, are reserved for those who use the first class, the rich and the noble. While they are boarding the lifeboats, the passengers of the economy class are forced to wait on the lower decks, locked so that the rich could board the boats without interruptions (Cameron & Landau, 1997, 1:49:30).

Therefore, the people who could only afford the economy class tickets were forced to stay on the ship and die. This is why Rose jumped back to “Titanic” when she was already in a lifeboat; she understood that Jack, being a poor person who was traveling by the economy class, would not get a place on a boat and that he would most likely die together with the other lower-class passengers. She decided not to abandon him. And still, she lost him when he froze to death while they were waiting for a ship to come and save them.

Social inequality is a situation when resources are distributed unevenly in the society, according to people’s social status. The types of inequality include racial, ethnic, gender, age inequality, etc. One of the most obvious types of social inequality is economic inequality, an uneven distribution of wealth among people, or the representatives of different social groups. Social inequality can be analyzed through the prism of different theories; we will look at it using the conflict and interactionist perspectives.

According to conflict theories, which are most often associated with Karl Marx and Marxian economics, economic inequality is the result of the economic system of the society (Bartos & Wehr, 2002). Today, this economic system is capitalism, which is based on the free-market economy. In such a system, the members of the wealthy class use the members of the working class in order to produce wealth. According to Marx (2004), they hire them as employees but achieve income by accumulating the surplus value (i.e. the value created by workers that is more than what the capitalists pay the workers for their labor) and turning it into capital, which is then used to obtain even more income.

Capitalists possess capital that they can use to produce more wealth by using workers, whereas the workers can only sell their labor to capitalists, and are forced to do so in order to make their living. But, however hard a laborer works, they will not be able to get an equal share of income. It also means that e.g. a worker’s children are extremely unlikely to become rich, for they do not have starting capital, as well as other resources needed to enter the higher class. Also, even if one manages to become a member of the higher classes, the vast majority of people are still forced to sell their labor to the few who possess capital. This means a conflict over valuable resources between the rich and the working classes continuously exists (Marx, 2004).

It should be stressed that possessing great amounts of wealth, large capitalists have enough resources to obtain a share of political power as well. They often use governments to maintain their position, to create subsidies, tax breaks, and other means to help their business. Therefore, the rich not only receive an unevenly large share of money but also have much more power than the others. In addition, it means that they can control or affect the media, the education system, etc.; they use it to spread an ideology which is beneficial to them. For instance, according to such an ideology, the wealth of the rich is a result of their own hard work rather than the structure of the society and their starting position, whereas the poor are poor because they are not hard-working enough, and so on. The wealthy create the image of “self-made men” in order to maintain their position via cultural influence.

On the other hand, according to the interactionist perspective, the position that one has in a society is maintained via the micro-interactions between them and the other members of the society, on a day-to-day level (Ferrante, 2008). This leads to people keeping their social roles prescribed by society (Turner, 2006, p. 217). For instance, when an employee interacts with their employer, the worker will often behave cautiously and very politely; they will attempt not to get on their bad side so as not to get possible penalties this might involve. This maintains the subordinate position of the worker and the superior position of the employer.

Therefore, the social inequality is also maintained via such interactions. The people will usually attempt to act according to their social roles, in order not to lose these roles. These ways of interactions preserve the relations of power that exist between individuals on the micro-level, which eventually leads to sustaining the power structures on the macro-level (Dennis & Martin, 2005, p. 207). In fact, it works in different contexts: members of different social groups interact according to their roles (as was shown in the example with a worker and an employer), members of groups with different political power also interact accordingly (one is likely to behave courteously with the president of their country, whereas if virtually everyone stopped considering them a president and behaving accordingly, the president would stop being one), etc. Therefore, according to the interactionist perspective, the interactions between people on a micro-level should be considered one of the factors that preserve the social inequality.

It is now possible to apply the described sociological perspectives to Titanic. If we use the conflict perspective to analyze the movie, it is easy to see that Rose and Jack come from different classes, which prevents them from being together; even even though they wish to leave their social difference behind, the low status of Jack prevents him from escaping, and he, along with many other lower-class passengers, dies in cold waters of the ocean. On the other hand, according to the interactionist perspective, both main characters do not keep to their social roles; however, they are still interacted with by the others as the carriers of those roles, and this fact eventually seals their fate.

As it was possible to see, the problem of social inequality is presented rather vividly in Titanic . In fact, social inequality is one of the main reasons why the protagonists could not be together. There are some sociological perspectives that can be used to analyze social inequality. According to the conflict perspective, which is closely associated with Marx, social inequality comes from the economic system of society. On the other hand, according to interactionists, it results from daily interactions between people. Both perspectives can be used in order to understand these social phenomena.

Bartos, O. J., & Wehr, P. (2002). Using conflict theory . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Cameron, J. (Producer & Director), & Landau, J. (Producer). (1997). Titanic [Motion picture]. United States: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, & Lightstorm Entertainment.

Dennis, A., & Martin, P. J. (2005). Symbolic interactionism and the concept of power. British Journal of Sociology, 56 (2), 191-213. Web.

Ferrante, J. (2008). Sociology: A global perspective (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Marx, K. (2004). Capital: A critique of political economy, volume 1 . (B. Fowkes, Trans.). London, UK: Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1867)

Turner, J. H. (Ed.). (2006). Handbook of sociological theory . New York, NY: Springer.

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