By Mikayla T
Summary of the film
The movie Titanic was released in 1997. It was directed by James Cameron and stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet as the two main characters, Jack and Rose. The movie is set in 1912 and follows the story of Jack, a working-class man who gets onto the ship by winning a ticket in a poker game. He falls in love with a girl called Rose who comes from a wealthy family. The story is about their time together on the ship and their difficulties as Rose's mother does not approve of their relationship and tries to force her to marry someone richer. The movie follows the events of the sinking of the Titanic and how it affected Jack and Roses relationship. It also explains the difficulties of the other characters such as the crew and captain.
Personal opinion of the film ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I would rate the movie 4 stars out of 5. The plot and the storyline were interesting and engaging. The only weakness is that it was too long, even though the story was engaging, towards the end I started to get bored. It goes for three hours and 25 minutes.
Directors interpretation
Jack- In James Cameron’s 1997 film ‘Titanic’, the main character Jack, is portrayed as a poor peasant going to New York on the ship the Titanic. The director James Cameron portrays him as inferior to the rest of the passengers on the Titanic seeing as he is a 3rd class passenger. He is also portrayed as adventurous and following what he wants. When depicting Jack's lower class status, James Cameron often uses high angles to make it appear as though we are looking down on him. This creates a sense of inferiority for Jack and explains his experience of poverty. It also reflects Jack's inferiority to Rose and to many of the other passengers aboard the Titanic. James Cameron also uses a birds eye view angle at the end of the movie when Jack has died and is sinking into the ocean. This helps to represent that Jack has passed away. It also depicts the tragicness of the scene and the pain in which Rose will endure. When it gets to part of the movie where the ship is sinking Jack is often represented by using a close up shot. This specific director's tool that is used helps us to understand the urgency of the scene as well as the facial expressions and emotions. It represents the rapidness at which Jack must find a way to save not only himself but also Rose. This creates an intense feeling for the audience and a feeling as though they don't know what will come next.
Rose- Another main character in ‘Titanic’ is Rose. Rose is a girl who comes from a very rich family and is in first class whilst she is aboard the Titanic. When James Cameron wants to represent Rose's superiority to Jack and the rest of the lower class passengers, he uses a low angle. The low angle creates a sense of power as it represents the supremacy of Rose and her family. Using high angles when describing Rose's character helps us to understand that she holds more class than Jack. When there are shots of Jack that include Rose, Cameron often uses a panning motion. This creates a sense of freedom for Rose who is stuck and is being forced to marry a man that her family approves of, but also for Jack who is limited in the things he can do since he does not interact with people of higher statuses very often. This can be seen in the scene when Jack and Rose are together on the bow of the boat acting the famous ‘i'm flying’ scene. In contrast to the earlier low angles, when the boat starts to sink, Rose is often seen with a high angle. This is because the director wants her to appear helpless. This helps depict the horrific events she had to undergo. A high angle can also be seen at the end of the movie when she tells the officer her last name is Dawson. This creates a sense that she is equal to Jack.
Essay
James Cameron's 1997 film ‘Titanic’ is somewhat historically accurate. Some aspects of the Titanic's sinking which are depicted in the film actually occurred, and are supported by historical sources. Examples of this include the band playing as the ship sunk, the insufficient number of lifeboats aboard the Titanic, and there being no other ships around.
In the ‘Titanic' whilst the ship is sinking, there is shown to be a band playing music whilst the ship goes down. This element of the movie did happen in real life. The band was composed of 8 different members who were led by the violinist Walllace Hartley. The band originally played as two separate bands but conjoined on the night of the disaster. This can be seen through Hartley’s violin case. Ten days after the Titanic had sunk, Hartley's body was recovered from under the water. Strapped to his body they found a violin case. Inside the violin case contained his violin and a couple of sheets of his music. This can help us assess the historical accuracy of the ‘Titanic’ as it helps us to understand the roles of different characters. It also helps us assess if they had used the correct instruments that would have been aboard the Titanic. Additionally, in the movie, the band is portrayed to be a quartet. This is historically inaccurate as in reality it was a band consisting of 8 members. In the movie, the band is shown to play until they are physically unable. This element of the movie is historically accurate. However, the last song they are shown to be playing is Nearer, My God, to Thee. Harold Bride (a wire operator) debates this by recalling the last song they played was Autumn. Due to this, the band factor of the ‘Titanic’ can be viewed as historically inaccurate.
Another element of James Cameron's movie the ‘Titanic’ that helps reinforce the idea that the ‘Titanic’ is historically accurate is the minimal amount of lifeboats aboard the ship. The Titanic was the greatest and largest ship of its time. It was also rumored to be unsinkable. Because of this idea, the people constructing the ship thought it unnecessary to include the required amount of lifeboats to fit all of the passengers and crew aboard the Titanic. They also did not include the required amount of lifeboats as they thought it would block the view of the ocean. In the movie, this fact is accurately depicted. The Titanic was built by the Harland and Wolff company and was operated by the white star line. When the ship was being constructed in 1909 the board of trade ordered there to be fewer lifeboats then required in order to create space for more viewing areas. For example, towards the end of the movie, there are shown to be many people floating around in the water waiting for help. This includes Jack and Rose. This is an accurate representation of what the waters would have been like because of the lack of life boats. Because of this accurate representation of the limited number of lifeboats, this part of the ‘Titanic’ is historically accurate.
The Titanic fully sunk under at two twenty in the morning of the fifteenth of April 1912. After two hours of waiting in the freezing cold water. The Carpathia rescued the seven hundred and five survivors from the life boats and also the water. The Carpathia was alerted to come save them after receiving a signal of distress at twelve twenty in the morning on the fifteenth of April. This can be seen through a newspaper published on the seventeenth of April in 1912 with the headlines ``All Titanic saved on Carpathia, No hope left, 1535 dead”. The ship the Carpathia saving the people who were floating around in the water is accurate in the movie. They would have been picked up by lifeboats that were later on picked up by the much larger Carpathia. However, the movie fails to mention that many different boats went past the wreckage of the Titanic before the carpathia did. Such as the ss Californian and the ss City of New York and Oceania. The reason that these other ships did not attempt to rescue the survivors of the Titanic is unknown but heavily debated. Because of these facts, we can infer this element of the ‘Titanic’ is not historically accurate.
In conclusion the movie ‘Titanic’ by James Cameron has many historically accurate features such as the band playing whilst the ship was sinking, and that there were not enough lifeboats to fit everyone on board the Titanic. There were also Historical inaccuracies, like the boat that came to save them. These elements contribute to the plot of the movie. Even though they are not historically accurate, they are used for the movie's story line.