Titanic

Recently a reader rebuked Camille Paglia’s defense of the movie “Titanic”, I’m guilty too of liking a lot about this movie despite its shortcomings. As Paglia points out, the sinking of the Titanic is one of the great all time stories. What also appeals to me about this version is the way Cameron emphasizes the passage of time and the hold that memory has on us. Of course, using flashbacks is a common device in Hollywood, but the photography of the wreck at the bottom of the ocean, contrasted with the grand ship on its maiden voyage, provides special poignancy here. We can’t help but be fascinated by the remains of a lost world, just as we are with the Pyramids and the ruins of Pompeii. At various points in the movie the camera switches from the young Kate to the old one and from the ship of the past to the wreckage at the bottom of the sea. At the end of the movie we see photos of Kate’s life since the sinking. I like the way it shows that she has moved on and built a new life, but the past still has deep meaning for her. That’s want the theme song is about and I think it’s responsible for a lot of the film’s popularity, not just the teen girls’ infatuation with Leonardo DiCaprio. I’m fascinated by the old Kate’s line that Jack only exists in her memory now. A shipboard romance or a college relationship can have huge power over us many years later. It may not be the most original theme but it’s powerful since memory is really all we have.