I stuck in a recorded-from-television version of Titanic this afternoon. I had piles of laundry to fold and while I was interested in seeing bits of Titanic again, I was not interested in giving it my full attention. So I happily folded and fast- forwarded my way through to the point where the boat was actually sinking. That was when a screaming tantrum arrived at my back door in the form of Gleek. She and her friend had some sort of falling out and my neighbor had to haul Gleek home by force because the two girls needed to just not be together for awhile. Gleek was in that past-all-reason frantic tantrum stage where she protests absolutely everything including my handing her security blanket to her. On a desperate whim I hit Play on the DVD player. The tantrum stopped cold. Ships breaking in half are far too interesting to let a mere tantrum interfere. Here is the rest of the movie as narrated by Gleek:
“Why is the ship breaking? Why are all the people yelling? Why is the boat falling? Why is the boat going into the water? Why did they climb onto the rail? Are the boy and the girl going to die? Why are all the people yelling in the water? Is the boy dead now? why is she getting on that thing? Why does the boy stay in the water? Why are they talking so much? They are still talking! Why are they shivering? Are all those people in the water dead? Why is she doing that? Why did she drop him in the water? Who is the old lady? I don’t like the old lady, make it go fast. Is the old lady going to jump in the water? Why did she drop that in the water? It was pretty! Can we go back to where the boy is alive? OH there he is! Are they getting married now?
Needless to say Gleek missed most of the drama and romance of the movie Titanic. It was nearly incomprehensible to her. I can’t say I’m sorry. The last thing I want is for either of my girls to latch on to Titanic as some sort of romantic ideal. (Why is it that when Old Rose dies she has a romantic reunion with Jack whom she knew for less than a week instead of with the man with whom she married, raised children, and spent her life?) At least now I can hand off or pitch the low quality DVD. I’ve no desire to watch it again.
Titanic
“Why are they talking so much? They are still talking!” Ha! That was pretty much my reaction too…
I always wondered if her husband was ticked off in the afterlife to find that she’d been (I’m making this up) dreaming of Jack their entire married life. I guess it’s easy to stay in that first romantic blush of love when the other person disappears in the middle of it… it can exist in perfection forever with no tedious distracting real life to interfere with the passion and hone down the fantasy ideal. Or, more charitably, maybe she had a reunion with him because he really did change her life – she wouldn’t have been as happy and done all the things she did if she’d never met him.
I thought it was amazingly stupid and selfish for Old Rose to throw that necklace away, though.
Typical of me – of all the interesting things you write about, my longest post to you is about a movie.
Re: Titanic
Yeah, one of the things I did like about the movie is that they don’t make it “and then she spent her whole life pining for Jack”. She goes on to live a full and apparently happy life. Meeting him is more of a seminal point for her, the point at which she realizes she can make her own choices about what she’s going to do with her life.
I figure the reunion scene is mostly for the viewer’s benefit anyway, since the Titanic characters are the only ones we get enough exposure to for us to care about ’em at all. 🙂
But I shan’t defend the movie any further, since I wasn’t especially impressed or pleased with it in general. 😀
Re: Titanic
It kind of undermines the point that she goes on to live a full and happy life that when she dies she returns to the Titanic as if that were the most important thing that ever happened to her. That reunion scene is definitely for the viewers. The romance loving female viewers in particular.
For me Titanic is like a small piece of enjoyable french toast swimming in a plate overloaded with syrup. That’s why today I picked out the french toast bits and skipped the syrup.
Re: Titanic
They definitely talked too much during the whole movie. That “touching” scene in the water lasts 4 minutes, aren’t they supposed to freeze to death in less than 3 minutes?
Throwing the necklace in the water always bugged me too. It would be much more fitting to give it back saying “I don’t need it now, I’ve put everything it represents behind me years ago.”
I’m glad to hear that stuff I write manages to be interesting. I sometimes wonder about that. I’ve noticed that movies or television shows get lots more comments, probably because it is a shared experience. It can open up discussions about all kinds of other interesting topics.
Re: Titanic
Pretty much everything you write is interesting to me. This is probably because not only are you a smart and interesting person and a good writer, but your life is totally different from mine. I get insights from your LJ that I never had before. I think you’re an amazing mother, by the way. The way you focus on each child’s individual differences, and try to give them what they need, even if it’s not what comes most easily to you, is just astounding to me. My sole experience with parenting being my own parents, it never occurred to me until I read your LJ that some parents actually do that.
Which is also why I don’t usually comment, come to think of it: What do I know? I have neither spouse nor children, nor much in the way of religion, and I hesitate to talk about things I really know nothing about. But movies and tv, I can talk about. 🙂
Re: Titanic
“I’ve had this necklace my whole life, nobody else is worthy! [evilgeniuslaugh]Mwa ha ha ha ha ha[/evilgeniuslaugh]”
I thought that dropping the necklace back in the water was the silliest part of the movie. Should have anonymously donated it to an art gallery or something.
That sounds like Elizabeth’s commentary on Romeo and Juliet. When the remake came out, she was a huge fan of the boy who played “Jack” in Titanic and he was playing “Romeo” so I let her watch it. At the end of the movie she turned to me and said “That was stupid. Why didn’t they just tell their parents?”
Which pretty much sums up Romeo and Juliet.