Titanic Day

"You can be blase about some things, Rose, but not about Titanic!"

(Reposting this from 2012 - in memory of the ship sinking 103 years ago today.)

TITANIC... back in 1997, I was drawn in by the epic previews ("ICEBERG, right ahead!!"), but wondered whether it would live up to the hype or be another letdown.  We saw it on the opening day -- December 19, 1997 -- when I was in eighth grade.  I remember feeling in awe as I left the theater, and spending most of the following day thinking through different parts of the film and pondering the size of the ship.  Over the next several months, my Mom, Rach, and I (with different friends and cousins each time) saw it 12 more times in theaters.  Yes, I was one of those girls.

Now (100 years after the ship sank) it has been re-released in 3D.  I wondered whether it might lose some of it's grandeur and appeal... you know, now that I have it memorized, 15 years have passed, and I'm no longer so enthralled with Leo Dicaprio. 

Mom and I saw it yesterday (#14 for me)... and I can gladly say that the answer is no.  I found nothing about it cheesy or ridiculous.  I identified with Rose more than ever before, and cried more than once during the ending, which surprised me.  I don't know that I can put it all into words, but I LOVE everything about this movie. James Cameron = a brilliant director!

For starters, I so love that older Rose has a little white Pomeranian dog to keep her company. ;)  I love Mr. Andrews, Molly Brown, Fabrizio, and the captain.  I love the way it brings history to life and helps you understand what happened and why it mattered so much.  And it gets me every time that (in real life) the last words they all sang at their church service that last Sunday were: "Lord, hear us when we cry to Thee for those in peril on the sea."

Rose's entrance in this scene is so fantastic... I remember sketching this dress and hat during church one Sunday. lol  I love it, and really, I love every dress she wears throughout the movie -- I want the elegance, the hats, the long dresses, the gloves, and even the corsets to come back in, please!  Even the long cigarette holders seem classy.  I also want her long, red hair with natural curl, and to be that exact size!  Okay, moving on.....

She steps outside, desperately needing a break from her family, and Jack is smitten from the first moment he sees her.  I even love that.

Rose is engaged to a man she doesn't love and feels trapped in a world full of pretentious people who do not care to really know who she is or what she thinks about anything.  She describes herself as"standing in the middle of a crowded room, screaming at the top of my lungs, and no one even looks up."  In this scene, she is seriously contemplating suicide as a way to escape it all... enter Jack Dawson, who literally pulls her off the ledge.

Rose:  "You have a gift, Jack.  You do.  You see people..."

Jack:  "I see you."
Rose:  "And??"

Jack:  "You wouldn't have jumped!"

 In this conversation, I used to think Jack was mocking/teasing her.  I don't think so anymore.  When Rose says he "sees people," she is talking about him seeing through the external image and seeing the value in people society looks down on (obvious in their conversation about his sketches).  He says, "I see you."  And she immediately goes for the flirty, image-centered, "And?" clearly expecting him to hit on her or compliment her beauty.  His answer, "you wouldn't have jumped" is kinda perfect.  He sees past her shaky, emotional fragility to her inner strength and spirit (a familiar combo to me).  It's a compliment, not a jab, and the best part is that it's not at all shallow.

"They've got you trapped, Rose. And you're gonna die if you don't break free.  Maybe not right away, because you're strong, but sooner or later, that fire that I love about you, Rose... that fire is gonna burn out."

"It's not up to you to save me, Jack."

"You're right.  Only you can do that."

Brilliant, and again, making her heart central (something that never occurs to her arrogant fiance). 

The "Hello, Jack... I changed my mind" line was better than ever to me this last time!

I love this scene - where she finds the gumption to tell off her incredibly selfish mother and fiance... leaving them to go after the one person who truly cares about her, fully knowing she may never see them again.

And finally, there is the ending, which John Eldredge called "the secret of the film's success."  

It had never occurred to me before reading that, but I completely agree now.

You see the sunken and decaying ship, sitting in the darkness... and as the camera moves across it, it transforms to the grandness of the ship when it was just built, light shining through every window.  Every person you love from the film is there, and Jack is at the clock waiting for her ("Make it count.  Meet me at the clock" = the only note he ever wrote her.)

I. love. it.  (And again, love her hair and dress in this final scene.)  They kiss and the crowd applauds, then the camera moves up to show light shining through where the chandelier had been before, to me, implying that they're in heaven.

Either way, instead of leaving the theater with a feeling of loss, despair, and sadness... there is a quick glimpse of joy and restoration and awe.  

Epic.  

(And a fantastic metaphor for creation, the fall, and being restored to paradise with God.)

Rose says of Jack that "He saved me, in every way a person can be saved."

Jack, who pulled her off the ledge when she lost heart in the beginning, says these final words to her as they are both freezing and near death: "You must promise me that you'll survive.  That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless... and never let go of that promise."

More than ever before, I love that!