Scene Deconstruction:Titanic

Titanic Ship Sinking


The theme of the movie Titanic is that there is no greater power in life then love. Love can conquer all whether that be through two rival families, two different countries, or in the Titanic’s case through two different class distinctions. This scene portrays that very morbidly. Even though the ship is sinking Jack is still trying to help Rose because he loves her. The theme is active because near the end of the movie Rose says that she will ‘never let go’ as if we didn’t already know that she loved him.



This scene is very important in the film. The theme is a very simple one, so they needed a chaotic scene to contrast the simple theme. Lines are used in the scene to help create that chaos. When the outside of the ship is shown most of the actual lines are pointing to the top of the ship, which is where everyone is running. When life boats are shown the lines on the boat form an arrow away from the ship. The linear straight lines from the outside of the ship contrast the curved lines from the inside. There are circular windows and various light fixtures that are circles. A clock is also shown. Movement is utilized in a similar way. The movement from the outside of the ship is all up to the top of the ship beside some people falling off. The movement used in the inside is much more complex. Inside there are many objects and people moving in various different directions almost the whole time. The outside is contrasting this by having most people moving one direction. Inside there is much more object movement and on the outside of the ship they used a lot more camera movement. There is also a lot of subtext in the scene. The main one is that the ship, a huge penis shaped object, sinks and Jack dies but Rose does not. A lot of the windows they show breaking and other objects that break are also penis shaped. Only a few boob shaped objects are destroyed which adds to the fact that women and children got off the ship and survived, but most men did not.