I
tried not to be moved by Titanic. After all, my suspicious antennae go
up whenever I see nearly all members of a "group" stereotyped in a
negative way. In the case of Titanic it is most of the adults,
especially wealthy ones and their paid proxies, who are portrayed as
blind, selfish, arrogant, you name it!
For example, the first
officer of the ship, Murdock, is portrayed as someone who first took a
bribe, then shot a third class passenger in cold blood and then blew
his own brains out. In real life he did none of these things. The real
Murdock spent his last hours helping people into boats and when the
boats were gone, threw reclining chairs into the water so that people
would have something to hold on to. Twentieth Century Fox has
apologized and given a donation for a memorial to Mr. Murdock in
Scotland.
Of course the owners of Titanic did act with callous
irresponsibility for the lives of their passengers. Arrogance and blind
self-interest are a reality (although it often takes new and unexpected
forms, but that is another discussion). In any case, nearly every movie
casts someone or some group as an enemy to be resisted.
What I
liked about Titanic is what most people do the love story between Rose
and Jack Dawson. Jack Dawson is an engaging, carefree spirit. He lives
by his wits, loves life, but risks it to help a girl struggling to find
a life worth living. As pouty and self-centered as Rose is, I found it
impossible not to sympathize with her struggle and with her joy at
discovering a larger world she'd never known before.
The scene
where Jack helps her up to the bow of the ship at sunset and asks her
to spread her arms and she exclaims "I'm flying!" and the one at the
end where Rose is reunited with her love, after death, are two of the
many best, lyrical moments in the movie.
I do have some
questions about how teenagers will interpret the movie and apply it to
their own lives. Rose rebelled against a mother who tried to force her
into a loveless marriage based solely on greed and social status. Not
very uplifting. Who wouldn't try to rebel against that?
On the
other hand, I think today's teenagers face a starkly different reality,
adults who are so busy pursuing their own lives that they scarcely give
any guidelines to their teens. Many teens are left on their own to seek
their "salvation" in the love of romantic "heroes" who turn out to be
much less sacrificial and selfless than the character of Jack.
In
today's world, the Social Victorianism pictured in Titanic has been
replaced by Social Darwinism. The free "love" marketed in the mass
media as a replacement for Titanic era social restrictions has not led
to a paradise, but instead to millions of children born every year with
no fathers. Movies and TV shows equate love with sex, being loveable
with being sexually desirable. In the free sexual marketplace it is
fatherless children who pay the highest price.
Ironically, it
is the profit-driven media industry which pushes the envelope of
violence and sex, and often portrays parents as "out of touch," inept
fools to be rebelled against, or just ignored. It is they who hold the
editing scissors of manipulated reality. How convenient for their
marketing plans!
The messages of Titanic seem to be: follow
your deepest heart, live life to the fullest. These are important
messages, but I would add that the world of parental love has much more
depth, wisdom and heart than pictured in Titanic. (It would have been
interesting to know a little about Rose's father and what impact he had
on her life.)
I hope that the Rose's and Jack's of today find
adults who can help them find a true way in their lives, adults who can
share real guidance based on their own well-lived lives. So while
teens watch Titanic for the fifth or tenth time, I hope they enjoy a
love story well told (not to mention with violins and the ethereal
voice of Celine Dion singing over the sound track) but remember, while
romantic love is a beautiful part of life, it's not the only kind of
love or the most long-lasting, or even the most fulfilling.
Of
course since one half of America's kids today don't live with their
fathers they might have a hard time believing that love of any kind
could be eternal. All they see is the fireworks images of passion that
sputter out quickly, like cotton candy without any substance.
But
aren't we all looking for a love that will last? Isn't that what Rose
finds, at least in her dreams, at the end of the movie when she is
reunited with her long, lost love? What I really wish we could see is
Rose and Jack Dawson grow old together, have a family and
grandchildren, see their love be challenged and deepen day by day. But
that's another movie...
