Scene Description Spotlight: “Titanic”

Before Avatar went on to gross $2.72B worldwide, writer-director James Cameron created another movie phenomenon called Titanic (1997) which grossed a mere $1.84B worldwide.

One key to the success of Titanic was its appeal to adolescent girls, a significant number of them attending the movie multiple times. That’s not surprising because while the Plotline of the story follows the disaster of the ship’s sinking, the Themeline tracks the star-crossed romance between Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet), a romance that resonated strongly with audiences around the world. But why? Here’s one reason.

The scene below recounts the last moments of the couple together after Jack has said to Rose, “You must do me this honor… promise me you will survive… that you will never give up… no matter what happens… no matter how hopeless… promise me now, and never let go of that promise.” Note the use of psychological writing infused in the scene description in which Cameron dips into the inner emotional lives of the characters, particularly Rose, to create a kind of metaphysical moment befitting what transpires.

Here is the scene from the movie:

Look more closely at what Cameron does with his scene description:

Cameron creates an almost celestial feel, as if Jack and Rose are somewhere near Heaven. And then into this almost pastoral moment, he provides a contrast:

You have two dimensions created here: Heaven (Death) and Earth (Life), both of which beckon to Rose. Indeed, the “peace” she feels in Heaven offers a stronger pull at the moment than the sounds and sights of Earth with the “VOICES of the men… slow and DISTORTED.”

And then there is Jack:

Cameron’s description uses the realization that Jack is dead to push Rose even further toward Heaven and further away from Earth. But she has made a promise to Jack:

Spurred by the promise she made to Jack, Rose turns away from this Heaven’s gate and plunges back toward Earth, in effect ‘resurrecting’ herself, a final gesture of her love and commitment to Jack as he departs this mortal plane.

In effect, what Cameron strives to do with the psychological writing in this scene is add yet one final, metaphorical dimension to Jack and Rose’s love: its almost transcendent beauty. For Jack’s death and journey toward Heaven and Rose’s life and journey toward Earth may separate them temporally and physically, but binds them together permanently and spiritually.

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