Titanic

The ship and the movie were icons of the day. The mighty "unsinkable" ship with it's revolutionary technology that closes the water off. The movie with the #1 biggest profit any movie has ever made (until Avatar in 2010). The shocking 1,514 people who perished due to a lack of lifeboats and a lack of organization. The depressing scene when Jack Dawson sinks into the freezing Atlantic. When the living passengers were horrified when they watched the ship snap in half. When the audience was frustrated because the lifeboat was going away and Rose couldn't scream loud enough.

As a small child, I went through information obsessions. Helen Keller, Abraham Lincoln, the Revolutionary War. I had a surprisingly large collection of child-friendly biographies and historically accurate books. I had a book on the Titanic that I read countless times. As an eight-year-old, I practically had the thing memorized. My favorite Magic Treehouse Book was the one about the Titanic. My favorite song as a kindergartener was "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. It was a fascinating subject that I couldn't know enough about. As a first grader, I didn't really get the magnitude of the situation. I didn't understand that fifteen hundred people had died in one of the worst shipwrecks in history. Only 710 people lived to see the Carpathia, the ship that came to the rescue hours too late, sail into the New York harbor.

The movie is definitely a classic. A classic that I hadn't seen until Wednesday. Don't ask me why, because I don't have an answer. But I saw it and fell in love. Rose was a frustrating character but I understood her completely. Forced into a cookie-cutter mold but not quite fitting. In appearance, sure. In personality, hardly. Opinionated in a world where women weren't respected. Controlled by men. Her angst was excellently shown. Jack was your typical poor "hooligan". A mischievous but irresistible smile (I mean, he was Leonardo DiCaprio, let's be real). Bold but not disrespectful. Devilishly handsome. A romantic. How could you not fall in love with Jack Dawson, despite his lack of money? He was a protector. He was in love. He had a passion for life. The movie depicted the view from several perspectives, what it was like for families in the lower class, how oblivious the upper class was, and how disorganized the evacuation effort was. Yes, it induced tears. Naturally. And it made the Titanic so real. It wasn't a part of my childhood fixation anymore. It really happened. The love story? Questionable validity. But the facts? Pretty dead on from what I've read. Hollywood didn't mess this one up too badly.

So, Titanic. A terrible, tragic atrocity of human error. A movie to be adored by millions.

I'll leave off with this: My heart will go on forevermore.