The most expensive movie ever made, and also the most successful! Read about here, with images and sounds from the film. Starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Photos ©1997 by Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox.

The film is all about what happened on the ship Titanic in April 1912, in particular the relationship between a young American man called Jack and an Englishwoman called Rose.

Rose is engaged to be married to Cal, an evil man whose wealth is needed by Rose’s family as they are poor, so her mother keeps reminding her. Cal only wants to use Rose for his own gratification and does not love her, nor does she love him.

She gets very depressed and attempts suicide by jumping off the end of the ship. But Jack notices her and stops her. He is rewarded by being invited to dinner with Rose and her family and Cal. After that they love each so much they run about the ship, just as it hits the iceberg. People panic, there are not enough lifeboats, Jack is handcuffed to a pipe, and Rose won’t leave without him. She rescues him, then they try to escape but the ship is almost completely sunk. They get off, float in the sea, Rose is on a makeshift raft and survives, but Jack dies. Cal also survives but Rose escapes from him.

In the present Rose is an old woman retelling her story.

Overall, it is a very good film, it shows what it was like for those on Titanic. The story between Rose and Jack contains a lot of symbolism, and here is my view on that:

The film was full of symbolism. The woman represented the Church. Her fiancee Cal symbolised the devil, and Jack was Christ.

The love story between Jack and Rose was very well done, symbolic of the great love between Christ and His Church. They met when he saved her life. She had nothing to live for, and was going to commit suicide. She was fed up with her world and longed to escape, but Jack, like Christ, pulled her to safety by offering her hope. She was like all of us in the Church, at one time going the way of the world and then our lives turned around by the love of one who wishes to save us. She did not fully accept Jack, because her fiancee Cal (the devil) was very strong and he intimidated her, bullied her, and promised her lots of money. But Jack persisted, and won her heart. Sometimes it seems that maybe we don’t fully appreciate Christ, and He needs to keep getting out attention because of His love for us.

When the ship was sinking, that was like the great tribulation to come. Rose could have left in a lifeboat, but by then her love for Jack was so strong that she refused to leave without him. He looked after her and kept his head, and saved her life. Cal tried to kill Jack (like the devil tried to kill Christ in the flesh as a baby), but he escaped. Finally, the ship went down and they swam away. He sacrificed himself for her, so that Rose could live. You see the symbolism. Then she is rescued and taken to the ship Carpathia, which was like a place of safety. Only 700 of the passengers/crew survived the tribulation of the sinking ship. But the devil went looking for her on there, and she hid from him. Then, at the end, when she is the old woman she has a dream, of what might have been, with her going up the stairs on Titanic to meet Jack, with all the people, rich and poor, cheering her on. This is surely symbolic of when Christ returns, and the Church rises up to meet Him, surrounded by all the saints/angels.

David King

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