Titanic, the greatest love story on this Earth (exceptions may be for Bella and Edward in the Twilight series) to some people but to others it's one of the sappiest stories ever created. I'm on the fence for whether or not I like this love story...but looking at it from a 'cultural perspective', it's a story that's horribly 'feeling centered' and it makes us feel like 'awwwww! that's so cute!'. It's a great movie but it's loaded with the things we've been talking about in class and THIS is WHY! (continue reading and you'll get my point)...So, Titanic, a story about a low class guy falling for the typical upper class girl that he can't have...which is basically a remake of the romance between Romeo and Juliet and the 'perfect' relationship most of the population strives for (think about the dating site E-Harmony that says 'true love' is out there)...which may or not be true but a majority of the time people never find true love however culturally speaking, 'true love' is out there and can happen to anyone...
Titanic deals with feelings over reason or fact, the individual over self, and all that mushy-gushy stuff that true love is supposed to be all about, or even love for that reason. The 'romantic' is constructed all throughout this movie and goes like so: first Jack loves Rose after only seeing her for like 10 seconds and somehow knows within those 10 seconds that he's gonna love her forever and ever and only her (yea right) even though he knows that he has no chance with her simply because she's wealthy (although her family is broker than broke) and in a different social class, he ends up committing suicide for her at the end of the movie by staying in the freezing water and insisted that Rose stay afloat on the random door that happened to be near them when the ship sunk, Jack's intuition says that he can never be with her simply because that's the way society works and still works, there's also the 'innocence over experience' (Rose is the innocent virgin corrupted by Jack who's been 'around the block' more than a few times), this is also a story about the poor over the rich, even though Jack is poor he still gets the girl which says a lot...all throughout the movie we see their relationship develop, we see the 'reality' of their situation, their hardships, their downfalls, their happy moments, but most of all their 'perfect love'...
The political ideological position that it's saying is that love is attainable for everyone...even when it seems impossible. And that being in love is something you should cherish and protect even when your family and situation says its wrong. To a certain extent one can say that your actions shouldn't be dictated by what others think, if it's right to you then 'F$%& what everyone else thinks'. I wouldn't say that its all about being individualistic because culture is all about conformity...but there's some element of being a rebel in here.
I think this movie appeals best to our hearts rather than our brains. Our brains tell us that true love or a love like Jack and Rose's is something we all should strive for...isn't that what marriage is all about? Trying your best to please the other person? (I'm not against love or marriage i'm just trying to look at this from a cultural perspective)...this movie makes us feel good, feel like we can do anything. I don't know about anyone else but it makes me feel great seeing the 'fantasy' part of life and creates a contemporary escape from reality especially pertaining to relationships. It also plays into what we 'should' like...most people that like Titanic are probably going to buy other chick flicks (so the movie Titanic and other chick flick movies are doing great off of making a profit off of people's emotions (Twilight, P.S. I Love You, Sense and Sensibility, etc). Serving the emotions 'love and happiness' are perpetuated through culture, including Titanic.
Needless to say Titanic says a lot about love...
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