Analysis Of The Film, “Titanic”

Arranged by:

EPIFANO JORGHY MONTOLALU

210911020002

DRAMA AND FILM STUDIES

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES

SAM RATULANGI UNIVERSITY

 TABLE OF CONTENS

TITLE

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

-PLOT

-SETS

-THE CHARACTERS

CHAPTER II MELODRAMA

-SOUND TRACK

-LOVE MAKING SCENE

CHAPTER III -CRITICAL OVERVIEW

-CULTURAL CONTEXT

-FACTS ABOUT THE FILM

CHAPTER IV LITERARY REVIEW

-INTRINSIC ELEMENTS

-EXTRINSIC ELEMENTS

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION:

Titanic, released in 1997, is an American epic romantic film that

ends in a disaster. The film has been directed, written, co-produced, co-
edited and partly financed by James Cameron. Kate Winslet and !
eonardo DICaprio are in the lead roles. And they belong to two
different social classes who fell in love with each other in the film.

The theme of the film is the love story between the two main
protagonists which is infused with the human loss. The film was
released worldwide in english language on "December 19, 1997 and it
was distributed by 20th Century Fox (international) and Paramount
Pictures (USA). The characters in the film were Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate
Winslet, Billy Jane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan
Hyde, Danny Nucci, Gloria Stuart, David Warner, Victor Garber, and Bill
Paxton. The music was given by James Horner. It was the most
expensive film ever made at that time.

Titanic is basically a ship which unfortunately got hit with an ice

berg and broke into two pieces, thereby drowned maximum of the
passengers boarded on the ship.

Plot

The movie starts showing the drivers exploring the titanic and
looking for the legendary Heart of the Ocean necklace with a rare
diamond which is worth million of dollars. But incidentally when they
are supposed to find the necklace, they come across a nude drawing
(kept preserved by a safe). Also the date mentioned on the sketch was
April 14, 1912, the day Titanic struck the iceberg. And the drawing ends
up on the news and an old woman (Rose Dawson Calvert) recollects her
memories and identifies the sketch of herself. Then she visits the
treasure hunter, Brock Lovett. Initially he doubts her of being the
woman in the sketch, so she explains the story of her experiences
abroad Titanic.

At this point of time, the film goes into the flashback. It was in the
year 1912 in Southampton, when 17 year old first class passenger, Rose
Dawson Calvert boards the ship of dreams TITANIC along with her
mother, Ruth and her fiancé, Cal Hockley. Rose is engaged to Cal
forcefully by her mother after her father died and they became buried
in debt. Because once she is engaged to Cal, she will be tied to his
wealth and this will solve their debt problems. On the other hand the
male protagonist, Jack Dawson finds his way onto the Titanic by
winning the lottery tickets during a card game five minutes before it
leaves. He is a poor man so ends up in second class in the ship. One
night, Rose decides to end her life by jumping off from the ship into the
ocean. Jack sees her going towards the end of the ship and he
convinces her not to do it.

As soon as he takes her down, she slips while trying to climb but
ultimately Jack saves her life. Listening to the ladies' scream, others
arrive in and and they think that Jack was attacking her. But Rose comes
to the rescue and tells her fiancé that she was peering over the edge
and Jack saves her from falling. Cal is indifferent, but Rose indicates
that he should be awarded because he saves her life. So he (Cal) offers
him a small amount of money. But rose interferes once again by saying
that whether her life meant so little for him. So he invites Jack to have
dinner with them in the first class the following night. This is the
beginning of their tentative friendship, though Cal and Ruth are wary of
him. Post dinner, Jack asks Rose to come with him to enjoy the real
party and she secretly accompanies him at a party in steerage.

The following morning, Rose and Cal fight with each other on her
friendship with Jack and he forbids her to see Jack any more. But she
eventually doesn't care about it and she goes to meet Jack where the
fabulous scene take place when she tells him that I am flying Jack. On
the same day at dusk time, she realizes that she prefers Jack over Cal
and she takes Jack to her stateroom and shows Cal's engagement
present: the Heart of the Ocean. She insists him to draw the sketch of
her putting on only her necklace. She leaves with Jack and is followed
by Cal's bodyguard. They evade him and have sex in an auto-mobile
that is stored on the ship. After having the intimate scenes in the car,
they go to the forward deck of the ship and witness the collision of the
iceberg with the ship. They also heard officials discussing the
seriousness of the impact. In the mean time, Jack is arrested because
Cal played a game with him in which he consciously puts the necklace in
his coat and accused him of the theft. Jack is taken over by Master-at-
arms' office and handcuffed to a pipe. Soon she realise that ship is
sinking and she is desperate to free Jack. She flees from the scene and
go to rescue Jack from the room. She is able to free him by hitting the
cuff with an iron rod.

They both returned to the top deck and Jack and Cal encourage
her to board the life boat. Earlier she is reluctant to go but Cal claims to
get him and Jack off safely. As the lifeboat is going down, she decides to
to jump back to the ship to be with Jack. Cal takes his bodyguard's
pistol and chased them down the ship. He fired few bullets upon them
but of no use. After using up his ammunition, Cal realise that he gave
his coat with diamond in the pocket to Rose. Cal later boards the
lifeboat by using a lost child to lie his way onto a boat. Finally Rose and
Jack manage to reach to the boat deck after facing severe difficulties
and obstacles. The people are falling down from the ship into the ocean
and all the lifeboats depart from the ship leaving thousands of
passengers back into the ship. The hip breaks into the two. And Jack
tells Rose to hold her breath till he asks her not to. They later find a log
of wood floating on the water but unfortunately it cannot support both
of them.

So Jack decides to hold the edge of the log of wood and asks Rose
to get on it. He remains in the water only. Later after several hours,
when the lifeboat comes back, Rose attempts to wake him up but he is
dead and the grip of his hands frozen to hers. She remembers her
promise to Jack that she will survive and go on. She pulls free and he
sinks. She moves her log of wood and finds a whistle in one of the dead
body's mouth. Taking the whistle, she blows it and the people on the
lifeboat are alerted by her presence.

After rescuing her, Cal comes looking for Rose but she hides from
him. Rose Dawson, the name she tells to one of the crew member
when he asks her name. She takes the Jack's surname. Now the film
flashes back to the present day and she tells the expedition crew, “Now
you know there was a man named Jack Dawson and he saved me, in
every way a person can be saved.” She later reveals that she is still
having the necklace but she never let know anyone about it. She tosses
it back to the ocean after keeping it for years and years. On that night,
she dies in her bed. And the end of the film shows them kiss each other
in the main dining hall and all the ghosts applauding them kissing.

SETS

In terms of sets, the film if vary different with respect to other films.
The sets were designed so as to make it look like the world of 1990s.
Even the costume and dresses of the people in the film are the same as
that of people of 90s. The ship also plays a very important role. The
dining hall for the first class people in the film represents a unique set.
Also the majority of the scenes are neither too dark nor too light. It is a
well blend of the lights used.

THE CHARACTERS

All the characters in the film represents a class of their own. Maximum
of them plays a upper middle class people except the few ones.

 MALE CHARACTERS

(1).“Jack Dawson’’: He is a main protagonist in the film. He is shown as

a poor and homeless man who travels different parts of the world
especially Paris. He gets onto the Titanic by winning two tickets from
poker game. He is attracted towards the Rose on the very first time he
sees her. He falls in love with her and tries every possible way to save
her. He likes making sketches and he is viewed as a character who
sacrifices himself for his love.

(2) “Cal Hockley”:He is shown as a handsome, self confident, hard guy

and belongs to a well rich family. At the same time he is extremely
arrogant and snobbish. He is the fiancé of Rose and he is too possessive
for her. His way of loving her is too different and he wants to keep hold
on her fiancé. He becomes jealous, envious and hateful of Jack because
of his relationship with Rose.

(3) “Captain Edward J. Smith”: A charming and well known officer

among the people on the ship, he takes the reponsibilty of the tragic
accident. He locks himself and asks others to go away. He even refused
to take the life jacket.

(4). Spicer Lovejoy: He is Cal's right-hand man as well as his bodyguard

and assistant. He takes care of Cal and his family. He is shown as a
faithful bodyguard. His job in the film is to keep Cal out of trouble.

(5). Thomas Andrews: He is a main architect of the ship and is portrayed

as a very kind and pleasant man. He is depicted as a man who during
the sinking of the ship stands next to clock in the first class smoking
room and expresses grief and sorrow for not making a safe and strong
ship.

(6). Fabrizio De Rossi: He is Jack's best friend and accompanied him

after Jack won 2 tickets and they both considered themselves as the
luckiest men in the world. He dies at the end when ship's funnel break
and crashes over him.

(7). Brock Lovert: He is the guy who acts as a treasurer and he is in a

search of the rare diamond.

 FEMALE CHARACTERS:

(1). Rose DeWitt Bukater: The female protagonist is being shown as a

beautiful, extrovert, intelligent and poised lady. She is engaged to Cal at
the age of 17. She is frustrated from her first class life, so think of
committing suicide. She is well educated and passionate and also a
brave lady. She meets Jack and trust him at every stage. She is very
optimistic and sure about her decisions. In the end, she is being shown
as a non greedy lady.

(2). Ruth DeWitt Bukater: She is Rose's widowed mother who is of the
opinion that Rose's marriage to Cal will help her in paying the huge
debts. She believes in social position rather than love marriage. At the
same time she hates Jack in spite of saving the life of her daughter.

(3). Mrs. Margaret "Molly" Brown: She belongs to a first class family and
is very kind and generous lady. She is very helpful and helps Jack by
getting him the dress bought for his son for the dinner party. But at the
same time she is looked down upon by the other ladies from the same
class.

(4). Rose DeWitt Bukater (An Old Lady): She acts an old Rose and she
recalls the story about her experiences on the Titanic to the treasure
man. First of all She mentions Jack in her speech. And that shows her
love for Jack. She is the one who carries the story forward.

Ch 2: MELODRAMA

Titanic in itself is a classic example of Melodrama. It can be

regarded as a melodramatic love story. In this film, one can easily
recognize who is a villain and also the relation between Jack and Rose is
of little complicated and less ambiguity is present between them. The
villain acting as an evil in the film is Cal Hockley. He continues to be
prick even after lost the girl. Winning the tickets and boarding the ship
within 5 minutes shows the melodrama.

When Jack and Rose meet again on the ship deck and share their
first kiss, Jack asks Rose to close her eyes and come up. Then tells her to
open the arms and open her eyes. Rose's respond to it by saying, “Jack,
I am flying. I am flying.” This again is a part of melodrama.

The sinking of ship is also a kind of melodrama. Right from

showing the making of ship till its destruction is accounted as a
melodrama. Terrible accident and dying of larger number of people.
The moment when Jack And Rose share their first kiss. Sinking of the
Great Titanic All these events are not tragic, they are much closer to
being melodramatic. Collision of the ship with an iceberg in itself is a
disaster. Here an iceberg is acting as a villain. This shows the
melodrama part. The innocent people are killed. This is clearly
melodramatic. At the time of sinking when everyone are looking for
their spaces to resist the disaster, there are few musicians who
continue to play the musical instruments in the middle of the ship. This
part is clearly a melodramatic one.

The policeman shoot himself after he fires on two third class

passengers because they try to cross the border line in order to board
the lifeboats. So he shoot himself for all the wrong doings he does that
time. The musicians who continue to play the instruments even at the
timre of sinking. Policeman shooting himself after firing on the citizens.
In the end scene where Jack again confesses his love for Rose and said,
“Never let go.” In response Rose said, “I will never let go, Jack. I'll never
let go.” This part again is an example of pure melodrama. Apart from
this the very last scene where they kiss each other and the ghosts
applauding them is clearly a melodramatic shot.

SOUND TRACK:

This is composed by James Horner. There is a soft music going on in

between the film and the term “evocative” is given by Earle Hitchner of
The Wall Street Journal. Another music track “My Heart Will Go On” is
sang by Celine Dion and is put the end of the credits of the film.
Because the director, James Cameron didn't want any song to be
played in between the film.

LOVE MAKING SCENES:

Two types of love can be seen in this film, Parental Love between
Rose and her mother, Ruth and Buddy Love between Rose and Jack.
These love moves towards certain points of representation and
meaning. True love is present between the main protagonists of the
film. Jack tries every possible way to save Rose.

The kiss plays a very important role in binding the love. The first
kiss that happens on the ship deck is a promise between the two to stay
together forever. Also the sex in the auto mobile between Jack and
Rose is nothing but the way of showing the love. After having the sex
Jack trembles and Rose asks for its reason. In reply, Jack replies by
saying that don;t worry, I'll be all right. This shows the depth of love of
Jack for Rose who doesn't want her to go away from him.

In the love scene, Rose tells Jack to "Put your hands on me." She
then gently takes one of them and begins to kiss and caress his fingers
with her wet lips. Then we see the hand of Rose in passion as it slams
against the fogged up window of the Renault during the sex scene.
Hands throughout, touching, holding, and letting go. These aspects of
the film help establish its mythic and human quality in relation to time.

CRITICAL OVERVIEW:

One of the most expensive film in history, Titanic is a romantic

tragedy love story. The film shows the sinking of the ship as well as the
love between Jack and Rose. That is the two stories goes hand in hand.
But the film is praised for its romanticism. Differences on the basis of
class can also be seen in the film. The 3rd class people are ill treated.
They are not given the lifeboats unlike the first class passengers. There
are conflicts with respect to class, religion and heroism. There are
scenes in the film where men of all classes step aside so that women
and children from all classes can get to the life boats. There are also the
scenes of people praying as the ship sinks.

CULTURAL CONTEXT:

The film can easily be resembled with an English classic, “The

English Patient” that was released a year before the release of Titanic.
A Walk to remember can also be put in the same context. Also Titanic
can be regarded as a film that shows love without violence. In the same
terms with respect to Indian Context, few films that shows non violent
love are Hum Apke Hai Koun, Dilwale Dulhanya Le Jaayenge, Akele Hum
Akele Tum, etc.

FACTS ABOUT THE FILM:

1. The film won 4 golden globe awards and was nominated for 20
BAFTA awards. The film garnered 14 Academy Awards notifications and
won 11 out of them. The soundtrack became the best selling album of
1998 in the U.S.

2. The budget of the film was higher than the Titanic itself.

3. Rose Dawson Calvert, an old woman (Real Name: Gloria Stuart) got
nominated for Best Supporting Actress at an age of 87 and became the
oldest person to ever be nominated for an Oscar.

4. Titanic was the first film to be released on video while it was still
being shown in theatres.

5. James Cameron drew all the pictures in Jack’s sketchbook. The hands
seen sketching Rose were not Jack’s but Cameron’s.

LITERARY REVIEW

In analyzing a movie, there are two elements that need to be

considered. These are intrinsic elements and extrinsic elements.
Intrinsic aspects embrace narrative and cinematography aspects. There
are some narrative aspects in a movie but the ones analyzed in this
study are character, setting, and conflict. The cinematography aspects
of the movie are also the object of the analysis. Sound and framing are
important cinematography aspects since they play big roles in a movie
Titanic. Both of these elements are combined so that the movie can
amuse the viewers. The aim of this chapter is to give explanation about
some theories applied to the movie discussed.

 Intrinsic Elements
(1).Narrative Aspects

A good movie is one that can keep the audience enjoying while they
watch it. To be a good movie, there are some intrinsic elements that
have to be deeply considered. Some of them are character, setting, and
conflict.

-Character: In every movie, the existence of character is important as it

will fill up the story.

-Setting: Every single situation occurring in live is always related with

place.

-Conflict: Conflict makes the story interesting. Without any conflict, a

movie is just as plain as water. Conflict is one of the elements of the
plot.

(2). Cinematographic Aspects

In cinematographic aspects, there are two things that need to be the

spotlight. They are sound and framing. Both of them have crucial
function to determine and elaborate the messages of the movie.

-Sound: The use of sound in a movie gives a big impact for those who
watch the movie. Sound also supports the visualization and gives
different sensation. This sensation is to clarify, contradict or even
render the scene.

-Framing: Framing is something that we see in the entire movie. It uses

eyes as the media to mediate so every motion that our eyes get can be
translated. Talking about framing cannot be separated from discussing
“shot”. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, shot is “a
scene in a film / movie that is filmed continuously by one camera”
(2005). This is the aspect that enable frame is taken in a movie. There
are seven shot distance in taking action in a movie. These are extreme
long shot, long shot, medium long shot, medium shot, medium close-
up, close-up, and extreme close up.

 EXTRINSIC ELEMENT

Extrinsic element is a way of analyzing literary works by using

suitable theory and relating the content of the works to get a better
understanding between the theory and the material that will be used.

Extrinsic elements are elements that are outside a literary work but
indirectly affect the content of the work.

CONCLUSION:

Titanic, a classical melodramatic romantic film is a perfect example of

true love. Though the title of the film clearly suggests that it is a film
about ship which is known as Ship of Dreams but the romantic side of
the film can't be ignored. There are two stories going on side by side.
But for the maximum number of audiences, it is a film filled with
romanticism. The love story is told in a very unique way. It is well
juxtaposed with the historical evidences of Titanic ship. The most
astounding thing about the film is the way the director has shown the
“love story.” Imparting a positive, lifeaffirming attitude on the whole
concept of romantic love itself, which is something sorely lacking in so
many "modern" movies. It is the type of film which will remain close to
people's heart for the years to come.