You Jump I Jump Jack

I saw Titanic in 3D today.

The first time I saw it I was eleven years old. Which was a big deal when you’re eleven and it’s a 3 hour movie and there’s nudity and a sex scene in it and your mom tells you to close your eyes. (Seeing it as an adult, that sex scene was pretty tame and I would say tastefully done.)

There are three reasons I know I was eleven when I saw Titanic:

1. When I was eleven I took a dance class and our instructor put the soundtrack on one day during our warm ups. That was why I wanted to see the movie in the first place. My friends had all gone to see it already but I wasn’t interested until I heard the music (more on that later.)

2. When I was in sixth grade those same friends and I would sit in this one place outside after lunch and I remember singing the theme from Titanic during this time while we were out there. (Dork to the core.) Not the Celine Dion song, I mean the “oooooooooooooooo” song from the actual soundtrack, which was my favorite part.

3. But speaking of “My Heart Will Go On” yes, I listened to the radio constantly so I could record it on my radio tape. Luckily it was on the “Top 5 at 9” for several weeks so it wasn’t hard. Also, three words: Junior High Dances.

It really is a good movie. And of course I loved the costumes and the set design. It makes me want to watch Downton Abbey again, which is basically Titanic anyway but without all the water. Sort of.

And can I just give props to Kate and Leo for their performances? Not only were they good in this movie but they continued to be amazing actors and have become the best in the business today, which, let’s face it, was due in large part to their roles in Titanic.

              
                                         I remember seeing it in a magazine (which of course I had to buy).


I was wondering how I would react to it as an adult, 15 years later. I was able to appreciate some things I didn’t catch the first time around. For example, when the big gruff guy is explaining the sinking with a computer program? During the backstory there is a minor character at every checkpoint he presented (Fabrizio is crushed by the falling smokestack, the ship breaks apart right where Lovejoy is standing, etc.) I think being in the room with James Cameron while he wrote the screenplay would have been interesting “What can I do to make sure Jack and Rose stay on the ship right until the very end? Oh I know, I’ll just keep making them run below deck!”


The interesting thing for me about watching it the first time was how emotional I was during the movie. I wasn’t upset because Jack died, I mean I basically started weeping when they locked the 3rd class passengers below deck and just kept on sobbing all the way through the scenes of the old couple, and the mom and her kids. I didn’t cry this time but I will say I did tear up when the musicians started playing "Nearer My God To Thee” during those same scenes. It was traumatic at eleven and it stayed with me for a long time. I used to listen to the soundtrack over and over, thinking about the people on the ship, in a way that only a preteen with morbid tendencies can understand.

Yes I owned the soundtrack, both actually. You didn’t know there was a second one? There was and it’s better than the original. It’s better because it has the piano version of “Rose” and the full recording of “Come Josephine in My Flying Machine” AND most especially because it has the Irish music from the party in 3rd class.  I’m a sucker for bagpipes.

If you’re in junior high and you want all the other kids to think you’re cool you should take piano lessons and then get the sheet music to the theme song of THE movie at the time and casually play it one day in the band hall. Groups of fascinated and shrieking peers will be drawn to you. You’ll have to play it a few more times until the novelty wears off. Unfortunately for today's youth they don’t really have any big songs at the end of movies anymore so this may not work. I think it was more of a James Horner thing anyway (name a film score by James Horner that doesn’t have a big song during the credits and I’ll give you a high five.)

(Nevermind. Braveheart, I’ll high five myself.)

**No memories were exaggerated in the writing of this post.


BONUS!

I get extremely annoyed with people who think they're being smart and clever and say stupid things. Like how there was "enough room" for two people on the "door" at the end of the movie.

1. I don't think it was a door. If you look at it, it appears to be more of a mantlepiece (you know, like above a fireplace) with a lot of heavy carving at the top and a curve at the bottom. Even if it was a door...

2. It has nothing to do with "room". It has to do with buoyancy (the ability of matter to float). Their combined weight on the "door" caused it to capsize when they tried it. Jack saw what was happening and he knew it wouldn't work. They clearly show this in the film.

3. He made the sacrifice for her because he loved her. She was really traumatized by the nights events and he was more clear headed than she was at the time. So instead of calling her a "bitch" you want her to let him  take her spot? Because that's what real men do, they push women they love into freezing waters. It's part of the storyline, and it's the only ending that makes sense.

Even I understood this when I was eleven. *mumbles judgmental expletives*