No matter how awful the situation may seem, beauty always has a way of showing itself; if even for a short time.

Rating: 10/10 (9 November 2000)

Titanic opens with Brock Lovett (Paxton) and his crew as they begin to dive down 12,500 feet to the wreckage of the R.M.S. Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic Sea on April 15, 1912. The movie jumps from present day, to the day of that ill-fated voyage, then returns to the present day. That unfortunate day begins with Jack Dawson (DiCaprio) winning a ticket to ride the Titanic back to America where he is from. While on board, he meets Rose DeWitt Bukater (Winslet), a woman being forced to marry a man she does not love. While on board, Jack and Rose develop a loving relationship, and spend all their time together hiding their feelings from all those who oppose. Titanic follows the two as they fall in love, evade the jealous ex-fiancé, Cal Hockley (Zane), and eventually watch as their very short time begins to come to an end due to the sinking of the great Titanic.	Of the many characters that went through changes in Titanic, I chose to discuss Rose DeWitt Bukater, and why she represents a three-dimensional character. When we first are introduced to Rose, we get the impression that she is a little `rich bitch.' She pulls up on the boarding dock in a caravan of new cars, welding a barrage of luggage. When she first lays eyes upon Jack, who is on the lower deck with the rest of the `commoners', she has already formed her inferior opinion of him. It is not until Jack stumbles onto Rose attempting to leap from the aft of the Titanic, and saves her, does she begin to realize that he is not inferior, and instead an interesting man. Rose soon begins to fall in love with Jack, and this is where we see her change from that `rich bitch' to a caring, lovable woman. We later find out that even though she let go of Jack by the end of the film, she carried the memory of him her entire life through the beautiful necklace she wore as Jack sketched her portrait.	Titanic is filled with irony, symbolism, and conflict. The fact the Jack Dawson won his ticket to ride on Titanic, only to perish on it's very first voyage, is the first taste of irony that we experience. Also, how heartbreaking is it that just after finding true love, they are split by the death of Jack? Tragic.	The greatest use of symbolism in Titanic occurs within the scene where Jack attends the dinner with Rose, Cal, and others. This represents the life that Rose is bound to, and desperately seeking to escape. The opposite happens when Jack takes Rose down to the lower deck, and we witness Rose expressing her most comfortable, newfound personality. We also cannot forget the use of the diamond necklace. The necklace ultimately represents Roses' undying love for Jack, which she has held onto all her life. Only after she visits the wreckage of the Titanic is she finally ready to let go, and subsequently releases the necklace to the sea, and passes on in her sleep.	As with many of James Cameron's films, Titanic uses numerous close up shots to convey intimacy. A perfect example of this occurs in the scene when Jack is drawing the nude form of Rose. Another technique that I feel James Cameron has mastered is the use of sound and/or music in his films. A right sound effect, or musical score as in Titanic, helps to complete that scary slasher scene, or that sad death scene, or even that scene where words just cannot express the right feeling as in that beautiful scene in Titanic when the lifeboat is being lowered with Rose inside.	The film Titanic is such that in my opinion could be considered as having both a realistic and romantic ending. The fact that Jack Dawson died at the end makes it a realistic ending; while having Rose walking to the rear of the ship to toss the ever symbolic diamond necklace into the night darkened sea creates the feeling of a romantic ending.	Titanic proves to not only push the envelope, but break it wide open with the masterful direction by James Cameron. While Titanic's photography would reason to be realistic, it is by all accounts formalist. The use of distorted camera angles, wide-angle shots, and camera movements make it such.	As I earlier stated, the use of a great musical score in any film will make, or break that particular feeling the director wishes to convey. It is said that realists films employ minimal musical scores, while formalist films come with big scores that are hard to ignore. Titanic not only has the critically acclaimed `My Heart Will Go On' theme song, but many beautiful scores such as `Rose' and `Southampton' which, in this reviewers opinion, is the main reason this movie was as beautiful as it really was.
Costuming for Titanic was definitely elaborate and by itself is another reason this film is considered a formalist film.	Lastly, the way the story and characters unfold is widely considered formalistic. Formalist films are ones with courageous heroes (Jack) and beautiful women (Rose). The story in Titanic took place on the biggest and most prestigious ocean liner ever built, which coincides with the fact that formalist films take place in exotic settings. The only inconsistency that I have encountered with James Cameron's Titanic being measured a formalist film is the fact that it could be said that the film contains two different endings. The first, by definition, could be considered realist because Jack Dawson ultimately died after the sinking. Since the older Rose was shown tossing the necklace into the sea, achieving a final internal peace and showing that she is ready to let go and join Jack in the afterlife, it is my opinion this proves that it has a happy ending and hence should be referred to as formalist.