I choose to analyze the movie Titanic. It was released in 1997 and made the AFI’s list of the 100 Best movies of all time in 2007, ranking 83rd. After reading Roger Ebert’s article ”How to Read a Movie” I instantly began to recall key scenes that use many of these elements. When the boat begins to sink they restrict the life boats to only women and children. It takes both Cal and Jack to convince Rose to get into the life boat. She finally gets in after Cal says that he has a boat on the other side that will allow both him and Jack to get off safely. As her life boat is lowered down she looks up toward the rail at Cal and Jack. Cal is on the left and Jack is on the right. Roger Ebert says that “Right is more positive, left more negative. Movement to the right seems more favorable; to the left, less so. The future seems to live on the right, the past on the left.” I couldn’t say it better myself! This is exactly what is happening in this scene. To the left is Cal, the wealthy man that she is supposed to marry but does not love. She has decided that she does not want to marry him, she has fallen for someone else. Jack is on the right. He is the man that she has fallen for and wants to spend the rest of her life with. Cal is her old companion and Jack is her new one that she can see her future with.

When Rose disappears, Cal sends a man to go look for her. It turns out that she is with Jack dancing in the lower level of the boat. As the man sees Rose dancing with Jack, he is above them angrily looking downward. There are also many other scenes with this same theme as this, others looking down (physically) on Rose and Jack. This technique of placing them below others not only shows that them together is frowned upon, but also that Jack is of a lower social status. Jack being shown lower demeans and belittles him. It also shows that he does not have much to offer Rose. Cal comes from wealth and power and is often shown above others.

There is also a scene where the boat is sinking and it goes up in the air on a diagonal. Many people die horrible deaths in the scene. This is something that none of them never imagined would happen. Their worlds are being turned upside down. Their world is definitely out of balance and this is definitely shown. They are looking downward at the deep dark ocean that they will soon be meeting. The angle shows that they have no choice. They are all going down towards the ocean. They have little control over their futures, the boat is sinking whether they like it or not. It shows their helplessness and it is truly a depressing scene.

This movie is definitely a romance. For anyone who has seen this movie this is extremely obvious what the genre is. The movie tells the story of Rose and Jack meeting and the sacrifices they make for true love. Move specifically it can be classified as the “Star-Crossed Lovers” genre as defined by http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenreTropes. The name obviously comes from the play Romeo and Juliet. This movie definitely contains some of the same themes. Once Rose and Jack have survived the boat sinking they are left in the icy water. They find a piece of wood but it can only hold one of the out of the water. Jack hold onto the wood with his entire body in the water as Rose lies on the wood. She falls asleep and when she wakes up she is saved, but finds that Jack has died from the freezing temperatures. Like Star-Crossed Lovers trope, Jack and Rose were young and in love, but not wanted to be together by others. They come from different social classes. He was a poor boy and she was a beautiful girl who had the opportunity to marry a very famous man. Although they do not die to be together, he sacrifices his life for her. Because of that she lives her life to the fullest and never forgets about him. In the end she dies in the same place he did years ago and she is finally with him again.

The following videos support my previous statements: