I can't tell if the writer is serious or if this is meant to be tongue-in-cheek.
From The Conversation, February 7, 2023:
When it was released 25 years ago, James Cameron’s Titanic was enormous. It made stars of its two leads, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Reviews overwhelmingly heaped praise not only on the technical aspects of the film but also the acting and storyline.
In 1997, Titanic was, in the oft-quoted line from the film, “king of the world!”
At the time we were all swept up in the romantic tale of Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, the star-crossed lovers whose infatuation on the doomed ship ended when Jack made the ultimate sacrifice, freezing in the icy Atlantic to save his truly beloved.
But over the years, critics and audiences alike have re-examined the film and found, like the ship itself, it is a bit of a wreck.
When it was originally released, a small number of critics deeply disliked Titanic.
Today, more and more people are re-evaluating their originally positive response to the film and are changing their opinions. From the characters, to the story, to the ending, there are a number of issues with Titanic that appear questionable at best, and deeply unsettling at worst.
It’s even gone far enough that some critics are calling it the worst film ever made – but that may be taking it too far.
An unhealthy obsession
At the beginning of the film, we find upper-class Rose being forced into marriage with “Cal” Hockley by her widowed mother, Ruth, to save the family fortune and keep their status in society. So unhappy with her situation, Rose decides to jump from the ship. She is rescued by the penniless drifter, Jack.
So begins the plot of the film as the pair constantly run and hide from the authorities to be together.
Jack’s relentless pursuit of Rose around the ship is obsessive. We learn virtually nothing about the character of Jack Dawson apart from him being a poor orphaned artist, he wants Rose, and he will do anything to have her – even though they’ve only known each other for a few days.
Is this a healthy relationship?....
....MUCH MORE
Titanic: Kate Winslet Admits Leonardo DiCaprio Didn't Have To Die
Well he did have to die, because that's the way the story was written but he would have fit on the door.
From the Washington Post:
Even Kate Winslet thinks Rose let Jack die in ‘Titanic’
It’s considered one of the greatest love stories of the past century. A young man and woman of vastly different means meet in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean aboard a ship bound for a tragic end. One dies to save the other, he, sinking into the freezing deep, while she, wistfully promising that she’ll never let him go.
“Titanic” did a lot of things for people alive in the 1990s. It made us weep. It pushed us to rethink boundaries between the rich and poor. And it taught us about the human devastation of a real-life disaster.
As Celine Dion soulfully crooned, our hearts have gone on and on and on for the ballad of Jack and Rose. Some, however, have had more trouble than others with moving on.
These people know who they are. They’re the ones who were mere teenagers when they watched “Titanic” for the first time, their conceptions of romance forever shaped by the sight of a destitute artist and a wealthy heiress dancing an Irish jig. They are, in fact, the numerous letter writers who wrote pleadingly and accusingly to director James Cameron years after the movie screened with a single question:
“Why did Rose let Jack die?”
This is the crux of a viral meme that started making the rounds a few years ago, more than a decade after “Titanic” came out in 1997. The idea is that there was ample space for both Rose and Jack to fit on the makeshift raft on which Rose staves off hypothermia before being saved. But instead of sharing, Rose lets Jack cede the entire board to her, leaving him to freeze in the water as she dramatically grips his hands.
The theory was buoyed, if you will, by a couple who decided to try it out themselves....MORE
“I think you guys are missing the point. The script says Jack dies. He has to die. So maybe we screwed up and the board should have been a little tiny bit smaller, but the dude’s goin’ down.”
We have quite a few posts on the Titanic including:
I'm thinking if I were going aboard back in the day I would be tempted to ask if that Arthur fellow was on this ship.
According to one source his reaction to the grinding sound of the collision with the iceberg was "What now."
