The tragic portrayal of true love

“Love can touch us one time
And last for a lifetime
And never let go till we’re one”

They say that love is not possible without sacrifice, and sacrifice is not possible without love. And he has been the epitome of sacrificial love for decades now; their story has been the perfect tale of true love. It’s the tragic romance that has touched millions of hearts across the globe; Titanic.

The perfect love one could ever ask for touches the upper-class Rose and the third class passenger Jack, during a ship journey. Rose gets on the ship with her mother and fiance Cal, with whom she is marrying for financial reasons. Shattered by the arranged marriage Rose is pressured with, she even contemplates suicide during the ship journey. Her impulse to kill herself is talked down by Jack Dawson, a handsome but broke artist. The couple, who met with that incident then gets attracted to each other which results in a secret love affair. Their relationship goes to the lengths of them making love and Rose telling Jack that she will go with him once the ship docks.

The couple was not fortunate enough to make their dream come true, because later that night, they become victims to the legendary Titanic ship wreck. Titanic meets with a fatal impact with an iceberg. When the ship starts to sink, they go in search of Rose’s mother and Cal, who has eventually discovered the couple’s secret affair. Cal frames Jack for theft by getting a valuable necklace placed in Jack’s coat pocket. Jack is arrested, but Rose goes to his rescue and finds him handcuffed in the master-of-arms’ office. She frees him as water begins to flood the room they are in. Both of them escapes and finally find themselves on the upper deck where Rose is placed on a lifeboat by Cal. Ignoring Cal’s remarks that Jack will be able to escape the ship, Rose jumps back on the deck. Out of a rage of jealousy, Cal chases them but eventually let them go to board a lifeboat where the cowardly fiance of Rose uses a crying child as an excuse for passage.

Simultaneously, the couple was left on the ship as it breaks and sinks even without a lifeboat left. So, Jack helps Rose onto a floating piece of the wrecked ship in hopes of her being rescued later by a lifeboat. Sacrificing his life for the love of his life, Jack dies of hypothermia.

Devastated by her lover’s death, Rose adopts Jack’s last name and renames herself as “Rose Dawson”. She finds the necklace that Jack was suspected of within Cal’s jacket. The movie then comes to its end with the present-day Rose narrating her story. After her narration, she throws the necklace into the ocean.

The romance between Jack and Rose is plotted as a fictional love story, but the writer/director James Cameron has dedicated himself to retaining the historical value and accuracy of the true story. Apparently, some actual underwater footage of the Titanic wreck was used for the film as well. If we talk about how much work Cameron has put into the making of this legendary film, he has gone diving several times to explore the sunken ship to design an almost alike replica of the Titanic.

Titanic was the most expensice film ever made at the time of its production, where it cost them $200 million. Nevertheless, they regained the expenses with profits because of the wide recognition and popularity the movie gained from across the world after the movie was released to the theatres on December 19th, 1997.

One of the major reasons for the success of the film is the actor who played Jack Dawson; the teenage heartthrob, Leonardo DiCaprio. With DiCaprio, Kate Winslet played Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane played Cal Hockley; Kathy Bates played Molly Brown and Gloria Stuart played Old Rose.

It was no surprise that Titanic won many awards and got several nominations. Some of them are as follows:

- - Academy Awards – Best Picture – James Cameron and Jon Landau(1998)
    - Best Director – James Cameron
    - Best Actress – Kate Winslet (Nominated)
    - Best Supporting Actress – Gloria Stuart (Nominated)
    - Best Art Direction – Peter Lamont and Michael D.Ford
    - Best Cinematography – Russell Carpenter
    - Best Costume Design – Deborah Lynn Scott
    - Best Film Editing – Conrad Buff, James Cameron and Richard A.Harris
    - Best Makeup – Tina Earnshaw, Greg Cannom and Simon Thompson (Nominated)
    - Best Original Dramatic Score – James Horner
    - Best Original Song – James Horner and Will Jennings for “My Heart Will Go On”
    - Best Sound – Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers and Mark Ulano
    - Best Sound Effects Editing – Tom Belfort and Christopher
    - Best Visual Effects – Robert Legato, Mark A.Lasoff, Thomas L.Fisher and Michael Kanfer
- - Amanda Award (1998) – Best Foreign Feature Film – James Cameron
- - American Music Awards (1999) – Favourite Soundtrack
- - American Society of Cinematographers (1998) – Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases – Russell Carpenter
- - Annie Awards (1998) – Technical Achievement
- - Art Directors Guild Awards (1998) – Best Production Design – Feature Film – Peter Lamont, Charles Dwight Lee, Martin Laing, Neil Lamont, Robert W.Laing, Bill Rea, Steven Lawrence and Hector Romero
- - Artios Awards (1998) – Best Casting for Feature Film – Drama – Mali Finn (Nominated)
- - ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards (1998) – Top Box Office Films – James Horner (1999)
    - Most performed songs from Motion Pictures – James Horner and Will Jennings for “My Heart Will Go On”
- - Billboard Music Awards (1998) – Album of the year
    - Soundtrack Album of the Year
    - Soundtrack Single of the Year
- - Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (1998) – Favourite Actor – Leonardo DiCaprio
    - Favourite Actress – Kate Winslet
    - Favourite Supporting Actor – Billy Zane
    - Favourite Supporting Actress – Kathy Bates
- - Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (1999) – Favourite Soundtrack – James Horner (Nominated)
    - Favourite song from a movie – “My Heart will go on”

The list of the awards and nominations for the movie “Titanic” could go on and on, so let me stop here.

The title song of the movie, sung by Celine Dion achieved global fame and love and still can be considered as one of the most listened to songs, even in this generation.

With the collective contribution of all the staff, an awe-inspiring movie that was loved globally for decades, and still is, was unveiled to the world. “Titanic” is indeed a legendary work and a tragic portrayal of true love that will leave the audience struck with emotions hard to explain; it will be an all-time favourite movie to hold up for more years to come.