Dramatic Titanic

I was 11 years old when Titanic premiered in movie theaters. And boy, did it move me! The Romeo and Juliette tragic romance is probably the reason why Titanic was my favorite movie for years. Like I said, I was also 11.

Last night, I revisited this old favorite for the first time in probably two years (yes I loved it for THAT long). After taking a class in college about stereotypes used in film, it has been a lot harder to enjoy films because I am realizing that they are everywhere! So when I was watching Titanic last night, I started to catch handfuls and handfuls of stereotypes. And it made me amazed that I never realized this before- even at 18 years old.

The most obvious contrasting stereotypes I caught last night was that of the stuffy, cold, and heartless Briton vs. the warm, caring and lovable Irish. For example, Mr. Ismay is actually a historical character who was the Managing Director of the White Star Line. He was in fact British and also did indeed shamelessly climb into a life boat while there were still women and children aboard. What director James Cameron exploded in his movie was that Ismay bribed Captain Smith to speed up the voyage beyond safety- making him at fault for the tragedy. Accroding to Wikipedia, this was a rumor that circulated but was never proven true by any of the ship's surviving crewmen. More British stereotyping is seen in the crew characters when they are trying to control the frantic passengers during the ship's sinking. They themselves go insane and start screaming and man-handling passengers. Also, the characters Rose and her mother Ruth were portrayed as snobby American socialites (Rose in the beginning) but I find it interesting that these actresses are both British. I guess Cameron thought only Britons could play snobby and wealthy well.

The Irish in the movie are all composed and just plain lovely. All of the doomed third class children who have lines in this movie happen to be Irish. A conflicting portrayal is given to the historical Irish character Mr. Andrews who was responsible for the ship's design. Andrews is seen in a positive light and manner the entire film even though it was his fault for the ship's lack of boats and its design that increased its sinking potential. Still- we love and sympathize for Mr. Andrews. Also- all of the lovely romantic music seems to have an Irish influence. So I guess Americans will always love the Irish and hate the British.

I was also bothered by the typical tragic portrayal of the lost woman whose only answer to her problems is to kill herself. How many times have we seen this?! Why must women be so helpless that the only thing that can save us is a swaggering male?

A British shopping website called Ciao has an interesting review of Titantic because it is from a British citizen's point of view.