Hannah Buchanan September 30, 2013 English 12

Is Titanic an Epic? According to the article What Makes a Film an Epic by Randall Wallace, the movie Titanic is an epic. Randall Wallace states that for a movie to qualify as an epic it must have universality of a myth, heroic achievement, and historical fact. Titanic qualifies under all three of these.

By having universality of a myth Randell Wallace says an epic is more than a cracking good tale, and Titanic does have myth incorporated into it. The movie Titanic is based on a true story, but not everything in the movie is real. The characters Jack Dawson, Rose Calvert, Roses mother, and Roses fiance, Cal Hockley were all fictional. They were put in the movie to move the plot along. Jack and Roses relationship was also made up to make the movie more interesting. Without the love story, Titanic wouldnt be anything more than a documentary. The rare diamond necklace that is talked about throughout the movie that is called The Heart of the Sea, is also a myth. There was no such thing, but it was the main problem that starts the movie.

Randell Wallace also says along with having universality of a myth that an epic should have the enchantment of a saga which means that the story has heroic achievement. There is no doubt that Titanic has heroic achievement. For example Jack saves Rose from her fiancee. Jack shows Rose true love and what it means to be in love. They fall madly in love and for the little time they know each other, by the end of the movie Rose refuses to leave Jack behind and risks her own safety to be with him. Rose also comes back for Jack after he is taken by the detective after being falsely accused of stealing the rare diamond necklace from Roses fiancee. She tries

Hannah Buchanan September 30, 2013 English 12

her best to get help and finally has to free Jack with an ax. By doing this Jack does not drown and is able to spend his last hours with Rose. Another heroic act is at the end of the movie when one of the officers in charge of the boat that saved the women, children, and some men came back to aid anyone that had survived. Sadly though they did not come in time and many people had frozen to death.

Lastly, to be an epic it must have historical fact. Indeed Titanic is based on a true story. The Titanic did in fact sink and many lives were lost due to the frigid temperature of the water. As many of the characters on the Titanic in the movie were fictional for the story of the movie, many of the character were actually real. Captain Edward Smith, John Astor, and Molly Brown were real characters on the Titanic. Also the officer that went back for any survivors did go back and search in real life. In the movie it shows the disturbing picture of a woman holding her baby, in which they had both frozen to death. This actually was seen when officer Lowe was rowing past all the dead bodies.

From Randell Wallaces article, What Makes a Film an Epic I understand that Titanic is an epic. It shows universality of a myth by using the love story of Jack and Rose who are fictional characters. Titanic also shows heroic achievement, most noticeably when Jack sweeps Rose off her feet and they both fall in love with each other. Lastly, the movie is very much real. It was based on of the historical event when the ship, Titanic, did sink.