The "message" in Titanic

[Trekker4747]

So in the movie "Titanic" one of the messages it seems to want to convey is that rich people are stuff full-of-themselves snobs and poor people are fun-having ordinary people. And the rich people aren't accepting of the "lessers" in their society.

This is no more evident than in the dinner scene where Jack is invited by Cal Hatley to join him and others to dinner in First Class as a "reward" of sorts for saving Rose from falling off the ship. The movie seems to want to suggest the rich people aren't as accepting. Later, Jack brings Rose to Third Class where there's a party going on and the Third Class rather openly welcomes Rose to the party.

...

This doesn't add up to me.

During the First Class dinner scene everyone seems rather accepting of Jack and his conversation. The only people who are not is Cal (who dislikes Jack for drawing Rose's affections) and Rose's mom (who dislikes Jack for drawing for being poor, and pulling Rose away from Cal whom can save their family from debt.)

So, yeah, I don't think the message works.

Kate Winslet was hot in this movie.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

You're barking up the wrong tree, sorry.

[RoJoHen]

I really don't think this was meant to be the message so much as it simply being a sign of the times. I think the real message was "Billy Zane is a douche."

[Tosk]

Cal was a douche, and Rose's mom was a bitch. That's about the extent of "the message" there.

...Why does there have to be a message?

[Robert Maxwell]

Man, I thought the message was about mackin' on hot rich chicks and getting them to do the nasty with you in the backseat of a car.

I totally missed the point.

[RoJoHen]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Man, I thought the message was about mackin' on hot rich chicks and getting them to do the nasty with you in the backseat of a car.

I totally missed the point.

I mean, that's part of the message...

[Brikar99]

I thought the message was to feel really bad for whichever second-stringer Rose eventually married and popped out a couple kids with...

[J. Allen]

I always figured the message was "climb on the fucking door, Jack. There's plenty of room and it's not going to sink."

[Trekker4747]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

---

Man, I thought the message was about mackin' on hot rich chicks and getting them to do the nasty with you in the backseat of a car.

I totally missed the point.

Well, there's that too...

[Timby]

Trekker4747 wrote:

---

So in the movie "Titanic" one of the messages it seems to want to convey is that rich people are stuff full-of-themselves snobs and poor people are fun-having ordinary people. And the rich people aren't accepting of the "lessers" in their society.

This is no more evident than in the dinner scene where Jack is invited by Cal Hatley to join him and others to dinner in First Class as a "reward" of sorts for saving Rose from falling off the ship. The movie seems to want to suggest the rich people aren't as accepting. Later, Jack brings Rose to Third Class where there's a party going on and the Third Class rather openly welcomes Rose to the party.

...

This doesn't add up to me.

During the First Class dinner scene everyone seems rather accepting of Jack and his conversation. The only people who are not is Cal (who dislikes Jack for drawing Rose's affections) and Rose's mom (who dislikes Jack for drawing for being poor, and pulling Rose away from Cal whom can save their family from debt.)

So, yeah, I don't think the message works.

Kate Winslet was hot in this movie.

Your reading of the film is simplistic to the point of inanity.

At the most basic level, Titanic is about the idea that massive enterprises are ultimately empty and, more importantly, dangerous. The only true happiness, real emotion is at the very end, when, free of any technology whatsoever, alone from anyone else, and at the mercy of a chunk of frozen water, Jack and Rose are finally and truly honest, not just with the world but with their own existences. And even then, as a result of that massive effort of enterprise, one of them dies -- horribly.

At a much deeper level, you can read Titanic as being influenced by Spielberg and being a story about the ultimate futility of recreating the past through an embellished simulation -- that in the end, it will all fall apart, anyway, and the important part is to look forward.

Obviously, art is in the eye of the beholder. But, for my money, to say Titanic's message is "poor rule, rich drool" ... that's doing the film, and Cameron himself, a pretty massive disservice. I'll fully admit that I am a big fan of Barthes' The Death of the Author, and as an example, I read True Lies as a relentlessly misanthropic film. So, your mileage may very.

[Trekker4747]

Not saying that this was the only message, just that it's one of the implied ones of many that are in the movie.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It's really not worth mentioning.

[RoJoHen]

I just don't think it counts as a "message." These people were wealthy, and as a result they were stuck-up snobs, but that's just characterization...there's no message there.

[JarodRussell]

I always wondered what happened to Kate Winslet's boobs between Titanic and The Reader. Where's the message in that?

[Greg Cox]

The most important message is: "Watch out for icebergs!"