Titanic

2008-04-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

What is the name of the movie?

Titanic.

Who are the stars?

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher

When did you watch? Date and time?

Monday, April 14th 2008

The Director?

James Cameron.

The genre?

Romance, drama, tragedy.

What type of movie is it?

Live Action.

How did you watch it?

VHS.

Plot.

TITANIC, is a retelling of the tragic tale of the doomed 1912 ocean liner. The plot however features the fictional story of two lovers, Jack Dawson and Rose Dewitt Bukater, who are being torn apart by society's expectations. Rose, engaged to Caledon Hockley, feels trapped in her strict, upper class life and looks to Jack, a poor artist, to free her. But can their newfound love survive the inevitable fate of the ship? The movie also features a secondary storyline about a “treasure hunter”, Brock Lovett, who, in 1997, is determined to discover the secrets of the sunken ship, for his own financial benefit. Will he succeed or learn a more valuable lesson? Released in 1997, Titanic was called “the most expensive film ever made” and was expected to flounder in theatres, however, it went on to become a world wide success, becoming the highest grossing film of all time, a record that still stands to this day.

Questions.

When TITANIC was released in 1997, it came at time when CGI was relatively new to the movie industry. Cameron's integration of digital special effects, models, and computer generated imagery and principal photography is virtually seamless and hugely effective. The director uses a model of the ship in some cases, for example where full shots of the ship are used it is with this model. Certain rooms for scenes were obviously rebuilt to match photographs from the ship. Also, there are also instances when the director uses CGI, for instance in the scenes where the ship sank. The full impact of this is never fully felt until the scenes where the Titanic sinks. The movie becomes a spectacle as the audience watches the ship fall apart. Also, there is a real emotional link when one begins to see the people fall to their deaths or drown. It must never be forgotten that the Titanic was a true disaster; therefore, the visual impact of actually seeing the ship, the people in their costumes, the deaths and the struggle for life cannot be underestimated. It brings a sense of realism to the audience.

Also, this movie does include some actual footage of the Titanic’s wreck, which provides a good past-present contrast.

Additionally, Titanic was filmed inside of a studio; therefore the use of the lighting effects is also very important. The majority of the movie is supposed to be at night, and since the entire movie was filmed indoors, it would obviously have taken quite a bit of work by the director to make this convincing.

Also important are the vibrant costumes. An underlying theme in Titanic is social inequality, therefore, one can contrast the livid colours of first class passenger, Rose's, clothing with the dull pastels of the third class ladies' dresses.

There is one particularly poignant scene where the director shows the chaos aboard the sinking ship, only to pull away completely in the next scene, showing the ship as a tiny speck in a massive black ocean. This transition is stunning for two reasons: firstly, it shows how insignificant these people's problems are to the larger world and secondly it shows how hopeless their situation is.

Seeing that it is a period film, Titanic does not feature the use of cell phones, televisions and email. However, it does notably feature a spark transmitter, which was a device used to send wireless signals from aboard ships, it was from this that the operator sent the fateful S.O.S. signal.

Total: 600 words.

Let's not get witty, this is for a course...

Titanic