Even though the ship sank, it's still a very good movie

Rating: 8/10 (31 July 2005)

Titanic is Hollywood's biggest moneymaker in history and for good reason - it is a great movie. This movie is about sacrifice, selflessness, love, devotion, joy, passion, all occurring on a doomed ocean liner that suddenly and without warning sinks, resulting in one of the worst maritime catastrophes in history. Kate Winslett is magnificent as the young girl, Rose, barely a teenager, who is being pressured by her overbearing mother to marry Cal, a nasty, brutal man who has only contempt for his unwilling fiancé. That Cal is rich just makes his behavior worse. Rose, by nature a gentle spirit, is angry and desperate to escape, so much so that she is about to commit suicide when she is saved by a young man, Jack, who, despite his shabby appearance, is a well-traveled, sensitive and upbeat artist who treats the troubled young lady with gentleness and respect and she responds. Their love for each other is instantaneous and unconditional and they are willing to die for each other. This is not such an implausible scenario and there is absolutely nothing immoral about their behavior. Rose willingly gives herself to Jack out of love for him, and even decades later still thinks of him as her one and only true love, the man who died for her so she could live. That is love. That is sacrifice. That is life. That is Christian. That they were not formally married is a mere technicality. Given the circumstances of their meeting. a loving and understanding G-d will forgive them. Now regarding the diamond that was given to Rose, instead of cashing it in like she could have, she kept it as a memento to her one true love. That is called character. Nothing unchristian about that. Indeed, the movie is actually about how Rose undergoes a complete transformation from a passive, unhappy, moody adolescent into a composed, mature, independent and beautiful woman, even changing her name, now prepared to go on to live a long and active life. That is, she experiences an epiphany. That is called personal growth which is quite Christian and most exemplary. As for Jack, he is with Rose in spirit and she lives her life accordingly, knowing that if it were not for him she would not have survived. Jack gave his life for Rose so she could live. That is powerfully compelling and completely consistent with Christian teachings.
Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I will: I was waiting for the ship to sink because I was hoping that when the ship sank the movie would end ... but it didn't, and for that I was disappointed. To me, the story of the the Titanic is what happened to the ship, not some contrived, fictional, and highly improbable love story between a Little Miss Rich Girl and a Mr. Nice Guy Ne'er Do Well. The movie is weak for two reasons: First, the movie is asking me to believe that a young lady would dump her handsome, powerful, influential and above-all wealthy fiancé who has her mother's approval in favor of a no-account nobody who didn't even belong on the ship. Second, since we already know what's going to happen to the ship, much of the excitement is lost. Nevertheless, the portrayal of how the ship actually sank, and the resulting pandemonium, was effectively done. So if the movie had gotten rid of the love story and concentrated instead on how the passengers and crew coped with the impending sinking of the ship, that could have been the basis for an exceedingly dramatic story. But Hollywood being Hollywood, if the story doesn't include at least a smidgen of sex and a big dose of sentimentality, no matter how contrived, then that story won't be the one that makes it onto the screen, and this movie is proof of that statement. As further proof of that statement consider the final scene in which Little Miss Rich Girl, who's now something like 100 years old and a great-grandmother, tosses a multimillion-dollar diamond overboard in the name of love. Even for a movie that's unbelievable. It would have been better if she had used the diamond to pay for a salvaging operation to recover the divan on which she had posed nude for her boyfriend, Mr. Nobody, who, by sheer coincidence, also happened to be an accomplished artist. (Duh!) Now THAT would have made for a good story. The movie could have been entitled: "The Titanic - The Story of a Woman and the Divan that Made Her Famous." Now if somebody out there would like to advance me 50 or 100 million dollars to make this movie, then we'll be in business.