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SPOILER WARNING:
If you haven't seen the movie "Titanic" yet but plan to soon,
you might want to skip this article. But I will give away part
of the ending: The Boat Sinks. Sorry.
"Titanic" is a gorgeous, romantic movie. A return to the epic scale of the old time cinema, but with the special effects a bit more breathtaking (and the sex a tad more explicit...hubba hubba) I watched the movie with Mo, thrilled at the thrills, was chilled at the chills (especially the thought of water that cold), was teary-eyed at Jack's death, and touched by the uplifting ending. Yet something bothered me about the movie. There was a detail that seemed amiss, unsatisfying, but I wasn't sure what it was then.
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A few days later, I realized what seemed wrong with the movie.
Jack didn't have to die. From the point of view of the
story, from the point of view of romance in general: he could
have lived, should have lived. His death and willingness to
sacrifice for Rose was noble, and it made (for Rose and for
the audience) him very easy to love, but as a scene it was
present for all the wrong reasons. Pop culture loves the
Romeo and Juliet vision of young starcrossed lovers,
loves to get swept away by the sound and fury of newfound
love, loves to think of love as pristine, heart-thumpingly
beautiful, and never changing, perfect from the outset.
Pop culture is a little slower to embrace two people progressing
from infatuation to solid romance, loving each other blemishes
and all, in sickness and in health, in a love that changes, the
same way that people do.
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If that piece of flotsam (or was it jetsam?)
Jack clung to was a bit bigger, enough to hold both
Rose and Jack out of the deadly water, could that have
made a beautiful scene as well? Could we have seen the
suggestion of decades together, (struggling to mutually
support his career as an artist and hers as an actress,
working to achieve the mad balance of having kids, suffering
through the Depression and two world wars,) as something more
moving than "Dying Young and Leaving a Beautiful Corpse"? Jack
could have lived to a ripe old age, dying of natural causes, Rose
could have still gone back to the Titanic's final resting place,
could have still cast the "Heart of the Sea" to the Ocean as a
testament of the once secret love they shared.
So maybe I should make my own film…
I'm getting a sudden vision… Here it comes…. |
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