The Essence of Distinction - Titanic Movie Review - Marxist Criticism Approach

The Essence of Distinction - Titanic Movie Review - Marxist Criticism Approach

By Albert C Tongol

In the movie, the old Rose is the one who told the story. The story started when Jack Dawson won tickets to be aboard in the RMS Titanic after playing a card game. On the same night, Jack saw a woman running that pass in front of him. He followed the woman and realized that she is about to end her life. Luckily, Jack manages to talk through her and prevent her from committing suicide. The woman is Rose Dewitt Bukater. Then he was invited to come in the party that is exclusive to First class passengers. There it was explained why she wants to end her life and it is because her family decided her to have a fixed marriage with a rich guy named Caledon Hockley. Because Rose want to run away to her problem she always meet with Jack and because of that she experience what it feels like to be with Third class passengers and be like them. While she is with the Third class passengers she felt important because the third class passengers welcomed her and treat Rose as their equal. The next day came and it is the last day the ship and more than half of the passengers had seen. None of them had expected that an iceberg will hit and make the unsinkable ship sink to the bottom of the ocean. The First class passengers were the first to get ride on the boats while the other class passengers are locked up in their hallways. Cal at the time tried to bribe the officers of the ship to let him get to a boat as fast as they can. While Cal has managed to ride on a boat already, Rose came back inside the ship and tried to find Jack that has been locked up by one of Cal's underlings. She manages to save him and they both reached the uppermost part of the ship but did not get a boat because the boats are occupied already. After a while, the ship breaks in to two parts and then manages to sink fully in the deeps of the ocean. Jack found a wooden door floating near them. He lifted Rose and put her at the top of the floating door. Then Jack tried to get up on the door too but the door will sink if he tried to, so Jack chose to let Rose on the door. After several minutes, only one boat from the ship that sank came back and luckily saw Rose but Jack already passed away because of the freezing cold of the ocean.

Considering the Marxist criticism approach, the movie clearly depicted the social classes that are happening in the world. In all parts of the movie, the first class passengers are given priority by the whole ship. Even when the ship is sinking, the officers gave priority to the first class passengers and even locked up the third class passengers to prevent them from trying to get out of there. At most time, in the movie some of the first class passengers are criticizing other passengers just like Ruth, Rose's mother and Cal that judged all of the third class passengers including Jack. But when they are tested it really showed what kind of attitude they have. Cal who tried his best to safely get a boat and did thought of saving other lives. Rose, on the other hand, showed the other side of a rich person. She symbolizes that love can change a person's attitude. In the flow of the story, it was showed how Rose understood the hearts of the poor people and even risked her own life trying to save her love. Lastly, Jack depicted the poor in our social standings but he did not have any second thoughts and save Rose's live at the end without considering his own life.

Titanic really is a very well-made movie. It has great effects, great actors and actresses, cinematography, music, and story well showed the kinds of social classes. It clearly showed that the attitude of every person is not fixed or unbreakable. The movie showed the types of people and how they will react in front of a disaster. The line of Jack "I am the King of the World" really is the right term for him because he is a worthy king because of her attitude that he will never leave his own love in any problem and is ready to sacrifice his own life to save his love.

Article Source: The Essence of Distinction - Titanic Movie Review - Marxist Criticism Approach