titanic evaluation 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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Film Credits

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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The Significance and the Esteem of the Film “Titanic” Critical Essay

The film “ Titanic ” represents the ship that was deemed unsinkable and occurrences on her 1912 maiden journey from Southampton, in the United Kingdom, to New York City, in the United States.

On the ship was a girl (Rose DeWitt Bukater, acted by Kate Winslet) engaged to a rich man (Caledon) that she never loved. Despite the engagement, Rose comes across a poor young man (Jack, acted by Leonardo DiCarprio) and they fall in love.

As they fight with class and Caledon’s opposition, the Titanic hits an iceberg and begins to sink gradually. The striking of the iceberg by the ship leaves the stars of the film (Rose and Jack) struggling for their lives as well as their love.

It was with some surprise that Stephen Rowley wrote the review on this movie (Rowley para. 1). Doing his review in September 1998, 8 months after the release of the movie Titanic , it was disorientating for Stephen Rowley to note that he enjoyed it.

This is owing to the reason that at some point in that era, the unrelenting cruelty that surrounds James Cameron’s movie “ Titanic ” has resulted in Stephen Rowley disliking the movie and all about it. Rowley dislikes Jack for falling in love with Rose, who was already engaged to Caledon.

James Cameron is an action director who is little known as director of romances. The beauty of the Titanic film is that Cameron came up with practical, yet distressing, sentimental subplots and incorporated them completely into the power of an action narrative.

It is hard to believe that James Cameron envisaged the love narrative involving the two characters (Jack and Rose) and ultimately decided the ideal backdrop would be the sinking of the Titanic (ship).

However, it is easier to believe that James Cameron began with the notion of how exhilarating the submerging scenes could be and afterward grafted the lovers into the events. Titanic shows this vividly, making it an excellent and outstanding antique disaster film (Rowley para. 1-2).

James Cameron has the benefit of making his movie after the wreckage of the ship was found.

This has brought about a great deal of fresh information that cheerfully directs to a series of events significantly more visually exhilarating when judged against the old representation of ship submerging under the effects of the iceberg and waves.

Cameron is inventive at operating his characters into the excellent positions to observe every one of the outstanding achievement.

The imagery in the movie astonishes, from the frightening instances like icy water chases around the hull to the film concluding views like the sinking of the ship undersea.

James Cameron excellently conveys all the peak points such as his tactical craftsmanship; perfect framing, redacting and choreography of activity ought to be carried out as an instance in film production.

These views get approximately an hour to glue a viewer to them, which is roughly the period taken by the ship to sink. James Cameron shows off his command of the medium, his elegant production design and his surprising visual outcomes. In this regard, the movie is a great success.

Nevertheless, Stephen Rowley rapidly rose to resent the movie and the success it bears since individuals appear to enjoy the movie at the instances that it is not good at all. This feature of the movie is just a bare minimum endeavour; it is compliant with the action.

Being a drama in its own capacity, Titanic has notably miniature integrity. Fundamentally, Titanic brings out a common, stale category of conflict romance (Rowley para. 2-3).

James Cameron fails to add any astounding notes to the hackneyed story, and his illustration of class domination is exceptionally schematic.

As a result of this class domination, I tend to think that a director from either Britain or Australia could have initiated the judgment of class with more niceness and positive reception.

The majority of character instances are oafishly awkward and apparent (like the manner in which Rose quickly identifies the lifeboat scarcity).

In Titanic , Caledon seems to be misplaced in the period of time; there is not a single flaw in him that could make an underprivileged character like Jack forcefully get away with his fiancée.

A film as huge as Titanic is effortless for critics to direct shots at, because there is a great chance of hitting the target. Blamed of being overindulgent, historically wrong and poorly written, Titanic has been severally spoofed. (Rowley para. 4-6)

Many people deem the film unpleasant, its striking portrayal of the submerging mocks the individuals that passed on in a disaster that shook the world.

Nevertheless, a film that has generated such a huge sum of money and that has arrested the attention of such a huge fan-base indubitably must have achieved the right thing.

Titanic has turned out to be one of the most triumphant, perdurable and best-cherished movie around the globe owing to three key points. To start with, the movie was anchored in a true historical event where real human beings were entailed.

Secondly, it displayed epic Computer-Generated Imagery of a huge magnitude. Thirdly, it narrated the personal tales of the individuals that had boarded the ship, instead of just a narration of the ship alone.

The submerging of the unsinkable ship has remained theatrically enthralling for more than one century (Rowley para. 5-7).

The impressive and perfect representation of the ship, the iceberg and the submerging accorded the movie the irresistible touch of a historical renewal, although an incongruously impressive one.

Nevertheless, what actually composes the movie is the cast of characters who boarded the ship as everyone is given time on the screen.

The rich girl (Rose) falls in love with the poor young man (Jack) with their short-lived affair being doomed and still rendered undying by the forthcoming disaster. Similar to Romeo and Juliet, Jack and Rose had a great conviction that they had found true love.

However, they hardly knew each other; they became infatuated and could try anything in their ability to safeguard their relationship.

For viewers, we have to suffer the pain of watching the two youngsters fall for each other, with the notion that their dreams and anticipations are nearly slipping off. As the years pass and Rose grows old, she still treasures the moments she shared with Jack and everything that he did for her.

Whereas the Titanic exhibits a number of flaws, it is not possible to disregard the significance and the esteem of the film.

Though I concur with Rowley that Titanic may not be a flawless movie, it has at least provided evidence that irrespective of how impressive and emotional it could be it is not beyond directing some criticism at itself.

Works Cited

Rowley Stephen. Titanic Review . 2012. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2019, July 5). The Significance and the Esteem of the Film “Titanic”. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-film-analysis-on-titanic/

"The Significance and the Esteem of the Film “Titanic”." IvyPanda , 5 July 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/a-film-analysis-on-titanic/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'The Significance and the Esteem of the Film “Titanic”'. 5 July.

IvyPanda . 2019. "The Significance and the Esteem of the Film “Titanic”." July 5, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-film-analysis-on-titanic/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Significance and the Esteem of the Film “Titanic”." July 5, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-film-analysis-on-titanic/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Significance and the Esteem of the Film “Titanic”." July 5, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-film-analysis-on-titanic/.

by James Cameron

Titanic summary and analysis of part 1.

The film opens with sepia-toned images of the RMS Titanic embarking from Southampton, England, then shifts to the present day, where an array of deep-sea submersibles are descending upon the wreckage of the Titanic . Inside one of the vessels, team leader Brock Lovett records video footage and muses over the grandeur of the ruins. Brock's partner, Lewis, remotely pilots a drone into the shipwreck and finds a safe, which the men excitedly recover and bring to the surface. The jubilant team expects to find priceless treasure, but Brock is disappointed to find nothing but muddy papers inside the safe. Preservation archivists aboard the ship clean the papers and find an intriguing portrait of a nude woman wearing an enormous diamond necklace.

Elsewhere in America, a 101-year old woman named Rose Calvert catches a glimpse of Brock on television explaining how he recovered the drawing. She calls Brock and asks him whether he has found, "the heart of the ocean," and tells him that she is the subject of the portrait. Brock swiftly flies her out to the research vessel, though Lewis remains skeptical. After Rose settles into her new abode at sea, Brock shows her the portrait and explains that his team is primarily after a massive jewel known as "the heart of the ocean," believed to have been lost at sea.

Rose examines other recovered artifacts, like a silver mirror and a butterfly brooch, then listens as Lewis talks her through a CGI model of how forensic experts believe the Titanic sank: first by plunging into the water by the bow, then cracking in half down the middle, and finally vanishing underwater. Rose is at first overcome with emotion but remains determined to provide her testimony to Brock, Lewis, and the others. As Rose launches into her tale, the film flashes back to April 15th, 1912, the day the Titanic set sail from Southampton.

A young Rose steps out of a coach, accompanied by her fiancé Cal Hockley , and her mother Ruth. The trio board the Titanic , which Rose remembers as a "slave" ship consigning her to a miserable marriage in America. At a bar nearby, a penniless artist named Jack Dawson is immersed in a high-stakes poker match where two tickets for the Titanic have been wagered. Jack wins the bet five minutes before Titanic is due to depart, and sprints off to the ship with his friend Fabrizio, and they barely make it aboard. Jack and Fabrizio wave goodbye as the ship departs, and settle into their third class cabin as Rose and Cal unload artwork in their ostentatious suite in first class. Cal expresses distaste for the works of Pablo Picasso, whom Rose admires.

In voice-over, Rose recounts other notable passengers aboard the Titanic such as "The Unsinkable" Molly Brown , heir to a recent gold fortune. Jack and Fabrizio rush to the ship's bow and peer over the edge, spotting dolphins, and Jack ecstatically spreads his arms and shouts, "I'm the king of the world!" In first class, Rose, her mother, and Cal dine with Molly, along with Thomas Andrews, the architect of the Titanic , and J. Bruce Ismay, the director of the White Star Line. After provoking Cal's ire by smoking at the table, and offending her mother with an off-color remark about Freud, Rose excuses herself from the table and goes on deck. While talking to a fellow third-class passenger named Tommy Ryan, Jack spots Rose from afar, and Fabrizio and Tommy tease Jack about his starstruck expression.

Desperately unhappy as Cal's fiancee, Rose remembers running to the back of the ship on the first night, intending to throw herself off. She steps entirely over the railing before Jack, smoking a cigarette nearby, approaches her and tries to coax her back. Taking off his shoes, Jack tells her that if she jumps, he will have to jump in after her, even though icy water feels like, "a thousand knives." Rose finally relents and grabs Jack's hand, but slips on her dress and hangs precariously over the edge of the ship before Jack pulls her back over, collapsing to the ground.

Hearing Rose's screams, White Star Line officials descend on the scene, assuming she has been attacked. After Cal arrives, Rose improvises a lie about wanting to see the ship's propellers and slipping, before being saved. In return for saving Rose's life, Cal gives Jack twenty dollars, and at Rose's behest, invites him to dinner the following evening. Cal's valet, Spicer Lovejoy, makes a comment to Jack that suggests he remains skeptical of Rose's account. Later that night in their cabin, Cal gives Rose "the Heart of the Ocean," a diamond necklace, as a gift.

James Cameron 's Titanic aspires throughout to blend historical fact with fictional narrative, incorporating real-life historical figures, diligently researched settings, and reported testimony into its dramatization of the British passenger liner's doomed voyage across the North Atlantic. The decision to open the film with sepia-toned moving images of the ship's departure, which resemble stock footage but are actually a carefully staged recreation, reflects Cameron's desire to use the medium of cinema to magically transport audiences back to one of the most well known historical tragedies of the twentieth century.

Cameron uses the character Brock Lovett, and his mission to recover the "Heart of the Ocean," as a frame narrative for the film's major plot arc: the sweeping love story between penniless artist Jack Dawson and heiress-to-be Rose Dewitt Bukater. Cameron successfully convinced studio executives to allow him to descend into the North Atlantic via the Russian vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh to obtain firsthand footage of the RMS Titanic , the wreckage of which was only discovered in 1985. Brock's character develops from a cynical treasure hunter to a compassionate observer of history after hearing the full extent of Rose's tale.

The "Heart of the Ocean," a massive jewel valued at more than the Hope Diamond, is one of the film's key symbols, at once capturing the mystery of love, the power of memory, and the folly of greed, pride, and excess. Brock's dogged pursuit of the diamond is the plot device that leads to Rose's testimony, but ironically, by the end of the film, the power of her recollections has bewitched Brock and the others so entirely that his hunt for the jewel falls by the wayside. Rose's insistence on setting up picture frames in her bedroom aboard the research vessel reflects the premium she places on her memories. Other recovered artifacts, like Rose's butterfly brooch and silver mirror, also spur her memory, becoming symbols of loss and the passage of time.

The film stages a show-stopping, opulently-produced sequence to represent the grandeur of the Titanic 's departure from Southampton. Cameron exploits the fact that audiences knew the fate of the Titanic by making liberal use of foreshadowing in the film's script, such as when Cal Hockley declares, "God himself could not sink this ship!" or when Jack tells Fabrizio, "We're the luckiest sons-of-bitches in the world!" Class is also a key theme in Titanic: Cameron joked that the film's vilification of the super-rich approached "Marxist dogma," and originally pitched Titanic as " Romeo and Juliet on a boat," given the seemingly-insurmountable obstacles that continually keep Jack and Rose apart.

As a vessel containing a vibrant cross-section of society, the ship is a fantasy space that creates possibilities between people who would typically never meet. Jack, although a destitute artist, imagines himself to be a "king" on the ship. On the other hand, Rose, soon destined to be a queenlike figure in Philadelphia society, longs to be liberated, calling the Titanic a "slave ship." Whereas the bow of the ship is a space of power and limitless potential, the stern of the ship (where Jack and Rose meet as she is about to commit suicide) represents grief and loss. From the very beginning, Jack is fully prepared to sacrifice his life for Rose, reflecting the classic theme of "love at first sight" that also invites comparison to Romeo and Juliet.

Titanic Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Titanic is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

how does the main character solve the problem?

Are you referring to Titanic? The problem isn't solved. The ship sinks: main characters die.

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I suggest you use the "Contact Us" button located on the bottom, left-hand side of the page.

What is the central idea of Below Deck: A Titanic Story?

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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
• Titanic Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Wikipedia Entries for Titanic

• Introduction
• Pre-production

Sample details

• Cinematography
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Titanic Evaluation Analysis

Are you thinking about watching the film Titanic, but are worried it is just a boring reenactment of the sinking of the Titanic? Let me put your worries to rest by telling you this movie is an invigorating, heart wrenching, and thrilling film that will surely go down in history as a classic. If you find romance to be revolting this is certainly not the film for you. Each moment the main characters spend together is filled with passion, and the excitement of finding new love. Titanic has all the redeeming qualities a film needs to be labeled as a great movie. Though this movie is a hefty 195 minutes it is well worth it.

Titanic is a superior film in the areas of acting, scenery, and story line though it is a bit long. The astonishing acting is enough to label this film as one of the best romantic dramas out there. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who portray the two main characters, act so passionately towards each other it is hard to believe they are not real life lovers. It was not the cheesy kind of love that is often found in other romantic dramas such as The Last Song, where Miley Cyrus had me convinced she was not capable of love. Not only were they outstanding at acting in love, they displayed a plethora of different emotions.

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When the characters found out the Titanic was indubitably going to sink, I could see the fear in their eyes. When Leonardo’s character was framed to look like a thief I could hear the betrayal Kate’s character felt in the way she spoke. I knew what the characters where thinking without them saying anything, because of the way the actors carried themselves. These two actors gave a the performance of lifetime which is an attribute that really raised this movie above your average film. In the same way the acting made Titanic an exceptional film, the breathtaking scenery lifted this film to another level.

The scenery was not only beautiful, but it conveyed the emotion you were meant to feel in each scene. For example, the movie starts off underwater looking at the ship covered in mold, and you can see all of the things that got left behind. The best part is that this scene was actual footage taken of he sunken ship. It really puts you in the mindset of what a tragedy this really was. The next scene that was exceptionally astonishing was when the film went back in time when the ship had just been built. It was bright, colorful, and filled with the hustle and bustle of excitement, which made you feel hope and optimism.

Even though you know the outcome, the ship will endure you still feel exactly what the characters where feeling in each scene. The scenery really sets this film apart from other romantic dramas, because it magnifies what the actors are portraying. The acting and scenery would mean nothing to this film if they were not accompanied by an astounding story line. This story line surely takes you on an emotional roller coaster. You will laugh, cry, be angry, be excited, and most of all feel the true love between the two main characters.

The story-line is truly amazing because you are never bored. Even before there is any worry of the ship sinking there is almost a complete story within itself. You get to see how the characters fall in love, and what that means for not only them but also their families and peers. You get to experience the difference in the social classes of that time period, and what came along with having money. Yes, this movie is certainly a longer than your average film. So much happens before the ship ever hits the iceberg, I am surprised they were able to get the movie down to 195 minutes.

The length of the film just shows you how much going on throughout the movie, and every minute is entertaining. Without the qualities of great acting, scenery, and a superb story-line a film is bound to fail. In this films case it does not only have these qualities, but also it exceeds expectations. This is a film you can watch over and over, and each time you find something new. Yes, it is filled with romance! If you don’t like romance you will not like this movie, but if you like a good love story you will certainly fall in love with this film! This movie dare I say was probably the best romantic drama I have ever seen.

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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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Example Of Essay On Titanic Evaluation

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Disaster , Sociology , Literature , Cinema , Relationships , Love , Movies , Vehicles

Published: 12/14/2019

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Titanic is outstanding in its writing, visuals and special effects. Even a person who does not like love stories will be won over by the action. However, perhaps the most praiseworthy element of the movie is the exploration of the issue of social class and divide. Jack (played by Leonardo Di Caprio) is a young man who wins the trip on the Titanic through a fluke card game. Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Kate Winslet) is riding the ship to America in order to marry Cal Hockley (played by Billy Zane). Rose is unhappy about her upcoming marriage and considers committing suicide by jumping off the ship’s deck. Jack talks her around and the two fall in love. However, their love is short lived once the Titanic hits an iceberg (Cameron, 1998). In this movie, the story depicted is told as a flashback. Rose is narrating the story, which is mostly from her point of view. This method of storytelling works very well for the movie. Rose is 101 years old at the beginning of the story, and she tells a treasure hunter the whole story of her experience on the Titanic. The technique is executed in a tender manner and the voice is believable throughout. The recreation of the Titanic vessel is flawless. The rendering of the ship’s exterior was completed using Digital Alpha processors running Linux (Ram, 1998). Especially in the disaster scenes when the ship is sinking, the quality of the ship is amazing. As Janet Maslin (1997) points out, “sets match old photographs right down to the sculpture and woodwork.” Running for just over three hours, the movie is long. However, for the most part, the storyline is so gripping that it does not seem this lengthy. In particular, once the ship has started to sink, the pace of the movie picks up dramatically. Cameron does not rush the telling of the story and this serves to build tension even more fully. As with most ships, the sinking of the Titanic was a slow event; this allowed Cameron the time to explore the relationships and interactions between the characters when faced with disaster. The dialogue in this movie is excellent. Cameron wrote as well as directed Titanic. Each character has their own unique voice and the relationships depicted are multifaceted and believable. Clearly, in the case of a movie, the abilities of the actors are vital. The actors in this picture are committed and authentic. As the Titanic was believed to be unsinkable, the builders did not install enough lifeboats for all the passengers on board. When the ship surprised everyone by sinking, the lifeboats were given to the upper and middle classes. The people of the lower classes were left to die; there is a particularly moving part in the movie when a group of less fortunate people were even locked, deliberately, into the cabin area and abandoned. The exploration of the class system in 1912 Britain is, perhaps, the most interesting element of the movie. Cameron has made intelligent choices with this movie and those choices have resulted in a ground-breaking cinematic experience. From the set to the dialogue, Titanic remains true and authentic enough for a Hollywood movie. However, where Cameron really excels is in his commentary of the social class system in Britain.

Cameron, J. (1998). Titanic. Fox.

Maslin, J. (1997). Titanic: A Spectacle as Sweeping as the Sea. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B0DE7DB113FF93AA25751C1A961 958260

Ram. (1998). Titanic Movie Review. Retrieved from http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/titanic.html

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Home / Essay Samples / Entertainment / Movies / Titanic

Titanic Essay Examples

Titanic movie: a cinematic retelling of tragedy and love.

The Titanic was a story narrated by Rose the main character and a survival of the tragedy who provided the people details of her experience on the ship. In Titanic movie summary essay the plot of the aforementioned film will be briefly discussed.  Rose, the...

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With more than 130 million viewers worldwide, and eleven Oscars one of the most famous films in history was James Cameron`s 1997 film Titanic. Titanic is the love story of Jack and Rose, portrayed by the actors Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet told against the...

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