Textual analysis final-Shannika

Titanic

The similar product that i'll be looking at is 'Titanic'. This film is a 1997 hybrid of an American drama/romance which was released on december 19th 1997, directed by James Cameron.

Titanic is a classic Hollywood movie that begins with an equilibrium, crisis, and then closure with a new equilibrium. The initial balance of the film is when an ambitious fortune hunter called; Bill Paxton is determined to dig up the treasures of the titanic ship. With his determinations he discovered many items from the ship such as a drawn picture of a girl. This then brought him to receive a call from a lady who was on the ship whose picture he found drawn of. This then brought to surface a story left untold.

The storyline is a hybrid of drama and romance. For example it has the main theme of love for the genre romance and conflict and death for the genre drama. The typical element for the romance genre seen is two binary opposites fall in love with each other. We see Rose and Jacks love for each other by their intercourse with one another such as kissing. Even when the ship was sinking and Rose could have been brought into the ocean on a mini boat she said "I'm not leaving without you". This shows her genuine care and love for this character Jack. Equally in the film Romeo and Juliet we see that these characters likewise Jack and Rose feel like they cannot live without one another. This is what causes Juliet to kill herself at the end when she mistakenly thinks Romeo is dead. However, he then kills himself when he see's she is dead. This is comparable to Jack and Rose because Jack risked his life for his loved one which resulted in his death from freezing to death. The typical elements of the drama genre in this film are the conflicts. For example, the one between Rose and her mum as her mum doesn’t agree with her talking to Jack. For example, Rose felt that her mum "looked down" at Jack "as if he was an insect”. There also is other ones such as when her mum says she has to marry her fiancé.

The narrative of Titanic is a fictionalised film based on the event of the actual ship Titanic.Throughout the movie, it is told in first and third person narration. The first person narration is told by the survivor Rose. By using this type of narration helps present a subjective point of view of the central character. This allows Rose's thoughts and emotions to be shown very precisely. However there’s also an omniscient narrator. By this allows everything to be known in the film which allows the target audience to make their own judgement on what’s happening. It also allows them to become the characters shown. This film is a closed narrative, Likewise Romeo and Juliet. This is as both films have a clear conclusion and answers the target audience’s question not leaving them to think what is going to happen next.

Titanic is in a non-chronological order. The film begins with the present which is when a treasure hunter finds items from the sunken ship and finds a survivor. Then the survivor Rose then begins to tell her story 83 years ago which is shown through as flash back. After this we are brought back to the present where she’s finished telling her story

The hybrid of this romance and drama and has a mixture of both these conventions. Rose’s character is typical to the romance genre as she is presented always wearing bright red lipstick which represents seduction, love, lust etc. Her behaviour is very outgoing for example, "Jack I want you to draw me like them French girls in just this (naked). She’s always is wearing dresses that show her cleavage which emphasises lust of her character. She wears pale makeup on the face. In the time of films story line, pale white makeup on the face was seen as beautiful. This always enforces the romance genre. However, her narrative function has elements for a typical drama. For example, there is always conflict in dramas and Rose and her fiancé sometimes have disagreements. By this sometimes resulted in physical contact. For example, in the middle of the film there is a mid-shot of Roses fiancé slapping her across the face.

In this film we are presented with binary opposisitons of the rich and the poor. This is revealed to the target audience by two of the main characters, Rose DeWitt Bukate and Jack Dawson. Rose is an upper class teenager whose expctations ae of the Edwardian society who falls for Jack who is of working or even under class. When they become friends we can see the contrast in these two social classes. For example Rose's fiance is smartly dressed with his hair brushed back whereas Jack isn't smartly dressed and has his hair hanging down. Similarly in when applying the Levi theory of 'binary opposisitons' to Romeo and Juliet we see Romeo and Juliet's family are enemies and Romeo and Juliet falling in love.  This emotion of "love" is comparable to Titanic because Jack and Rose didn't care what anyone thought and perused their feelings likewise in Romeo and Juliet.

Non digestic sound is used in the middle of the film when the characters are going to a party that Jack normally would go to. The music in this scene is used to represent the mood which is happy, energetic and laid back. This music signifies that even though Rose if of upper class heritage she is down to earth and enjoys the atmosphere of others that are from a different heritage background. There also is a lot of digetic sounds. For example, “time for me to roll with the other slaves”. The use of dialogue is very common. As it helps define the relationships between the characters.  Another example of non digestic sound is when Rose and Jack was on the ship (when he rescued her from committing suicide) the digestic music is heard is from Celine Dion which is a romantic music is played as the character Jack was standing behind Rose holding her, kissing her etc. These sounds are typical to the genre because it is used to show the romance of the films equilibrium. It also signifies the love, passion and extends of the love for each other. The mid-shot are used of jack and Rose being intimate on the ship. These kinds of shots are typical to both genres as they are focusing on relationships. This kind of shot also emphases how when the characters can they’ll try spend time with one another which reinforces the tragic drama as there time is limited together. With their close body language they seem to be inseparable which could be foreshadowing the ending as the pair seemed inseparable. In the film there were mainly cuts, shot reverse shot and jump cuts. The use of Continuity allows smooth transition of time and pace which makes the film easy to watch. Using jump cuts allowed the pace of the film to speed up which could be a representation of time and there’s a limited of time with some of the characters relationship. However, on odd occasions there were different types of editing. For example, a zoom in of Jack looking at Rose seeming to fall in love with her.