My reflections on Titanic

       Yesterday, 14 April 2012, I watched the movie Titanic in IMAX 3D edition in Jcube Shaw movie theatre. It was a memorable day for both me and the ship. It was special for me because the original Titanic which was shown in 1997 was the first movie I saw in the theatre. And it was significant for the ship because just one hundred years ago on 14 April 1912, the Titanic, the largest and most luxurious liner that had ever been built, encountered an immense iceberg in its maiden voyage and thus ended its short but splendid journey. The movie vividly described the most disastrous tragedy that happened in peaceful era and there are two parts that impressed me most.

       Love is the forever classic topic for all movies. In this film, it happened between a girl from rich family and a poor boy who was a painter. It was all begun in the Rose’s suicide that they met. Jack had already fallen in love with Rose in the first sight. Rose was also deeply absorbed by the quality of free and optimistic of Jack. Once, Jack even taught Rose how to spit to the sea which had become one of the most classic scenes of the movie. But the time for happiness is always short. After four days of the sailing, the tragedy happened. When they all fell into the cold ocean, Jack knew that he was going to die. When he said to Rose “Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me. It brought me to you.”, I believe not only me but all the audience was moved. How deep the love was that could give people courage to face death. And how deep the love was that could enable a man to sacrifice himself to save her that they only met for less than four days. They met because of the Titanic, they loved because of the Titanic, and they separate because of the Titanic.

       In addition to love, the movie put much endeavour in depicting people’s behaviours when the ship was sinking. Living or dying is a choice that matter everyone no matter young or old, rich or poor. And at this time, the realest and deepest part of people’s minds was exposed to everybody. Fortunately, most people follow the order to let women and the young escape first. At the final moment, the captain locked himself in the master room, the chief architect walked in to the first class smoking section desperately, but the president of white star line, Joseph Ismay, abandoned his ship and crew and escaped before all women got saved.   According to statistics, there were 1503 out of 2208 died in this shipwreck and only 6 out of 1509 who were not able to get in the lifeboats were saved. Life is priceless. It doesn’t mean that women’s lives are more valuable than men’s. If all people were fighting for the lifeboats, most of the women might not be saved. But man choose to give the chance of living to women because that is how human and animals be distinguished. The most notable difference is not in intelligence but the morality.

       Titanic is one of the few impressive movies that can be watched for many times. And in my opinion, it was also the best movie I have ever seen.