Things In Titanic That Only Adults Notice
Titanic is one of the most iconic and beloved films in all of cinematic history. Released in 1997, the film was nominated for a staggering 14 Oscars, winning 11 of them, including the one for best picture and the one for best original song for Céline Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." According to Paste, it's still one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, decades after it was released.
Many of us first saw this movie when we were young, crying at the story of star-crossed lovers on board the Titanic. The luxury liner famously sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, and most of the passengers perished, some of whom could have changed the world had they survived and others who were a part of the richest couples in history. The heartbreaking film is certainly a memorable one, but is it deserving of all the hype it gets? Just how good is this movie when viewed from the critical lens of adulthood? Is Titanic a cinematic treasure, or is its melodrama better suited for younger audiences? This is what you notice when you watch Titanic as an adult.
Why would Rose display paintings for a week-long trip on the Titanic?
It's clear from the beginning of Titanic that Rose is pretty high maintenance. From her clothes to her speech, it's clear Rose — who is played by Kate Winslet, an actress who's embrace her natural beauty over the years — has obviously always had the best of everything. She is a budding art connoisseur, which is all well and good, but just how many paintings did she buy while in Europe and why does she feel the need to display them all in her room on the Titanic?
This trip is supposed to take what, a week? Wouldn't it be easier to leave her Monets and Picassos packed? Who decorates their room on a ship? Also, ships are known for swaying a bit. Sure, this is the Titanic, a supposedly unsinkable ship, but the ship is still on the ocean and water moves. Propping up paintings here and there isn't just silly, but it is also kind of risky. One choppy night and those paintings could topple to the ground.
Either Rose is wildly impractical or she is being childish by putting up the paintings just to annoy her fiancé, Cal, who is convinced that Rose has terrible taste in art.
Jack's tactics to save Kate from taking her life in Titanic are dangerous
When Rose considers jumping off the Titanic, Jack — who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, a huge star who lives like a normal person — quickly comes to her rescue. Jack goads Rose, telling her that if she had really been serious about taking her life, she would have done it already.
We don't expect a young man from 1912 to be well-versed in mental health, but taunting a person having these thoughts is one of the worst things you can do, according to She Knows. Doing this can convince them to go through with it, having the opposite effect of what Jack intended.
Fortunately, Jack's tactics work, but we still wouldn't recommend trying them out in real life. Of course, Jack had limited resources in the 20th century, but things have changed a lot since then and the present day offers us better advice on how to help someone who is considering ending their life. According to Psychology Today, the best thing to do in this sort of situation is tell the person that you're concerned about them, encourage them to seek help, never leave them alone, and call 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Why did Rose wait so long to defend Jack in Titanic?
As Rose moves to climb back on to the deck of the Titanic after nearly taking her own life, her dress catches on the ship and she loses her footing. She begins to scream for help, and Jack manages to pull her back on board. The pair land in a heap on the deck of the ship, with Jack on top of Rose, and they're in this position when members of the crew find them. Rose is immediately comforted and has a blanket placed around her shoulders, while Jack is interrogated by the ship's crew. Rose finally speaks up, saying that she lost her balance and that Jack saved her life. Still, Jack is viewed with suspicion, especially as he had taken off his shoes and jacket (in case he needed to jump in to save Rose if she did decide to jump), making it look less like he was saving Rose's life and more like he was sexually assaulting her.
Why didn't Rose speak up in Jack's defense sooner? Instead of immediately saying that he was saving her life, she waits until her fiancé is yelling at him and Jack is in handcuffs before saying a word.
Jack is a total homewrecker in Titanic
We get that Jack and Rose are star-crossed lovers doomed to be together for only a couple of passion-filled days on the Titanic, but, soulmates or not, Jack is a homewrecker. Rose is engaged and Jack knows that, but does he respect that she's in a relationship? Nope. He pursues her anyway.
Sure, Rose's intended husband is a jerk, to say the least, and Rose clearly deserves better. But why does Jack feel the need to seduce her with so much urgency? Couldn't he have wooed her more subtly? He could at least have waited until they docked in New York and Rose broke it off with Cal to sleep with her. Instead, he kisses her like it's the only night they'll ever have together, which, of course, it is, but Jack and Rose couldn't possibly have known that their unsinkable ship would sink. For all they knew at that point, they had all their lives to spend together.
While we sympathize with Jack, that doesn't change the fact he should have waited for Rose to break things off with Cal before openly courting her. Though we are glad for their union, as it gave us one of the best first kisses in movie history.
Rose is lucky she didn't break an ankle in Titanic
As anyone who has ever studied ballet knows, going en pointe is pretty serious business. According to Dance Magazine, it requires years of building up muscles in your body, and there are special ballet slippers that help protect your feet when dancing like this. Dancers are cautioned about going en pointe too young, as many professionals worry that the strain on a body that is still developing can be too much.
When Rose goes up on her toes while barefoot during a party on the Titanic, it isn't only dangerous, but it also seems unlikely that she'd be able to pull it off. It's not long before she loses her balance and cries out in pain, falling into Jack's arms. Things could have gone a lot worse for the former ballerina.
As Rose herself says, she hasn't done that in years. We can assume she's had some sort of extensive training to have that kind of control, but, if she hasn't danced in a while, those muscles aren't very strong. She's lucky she didn't injure herself.
Rose in Titanic is too immature to be in a relationship
The old Rose we see at the beginning of Titanic is a fascinating woman who has lived a full and exciting life and has learned from her experiences. Young Rose is... kind of a brat. She's immature and, to be honest, kind of a pushover. She lets her mom and Cal bully her around and dictate her life. She even lets Jack tell her what she should do. She's too immature to get seriously emotionally involved with anyone, let alone someone who is basically a rebound from her terrible engagement.
Of course, in 1912, most women were expected to marry young. Women weren't even allowed to vote at that time. Rose finally learns to stand up for herself while on the Titanic, but she still fails to stand on her own two feet. Working on yourself wasn't much of a thing in 1912, but Rose really could have benefited from being single for a while.
If Rose had stood up for Jack in Titanic, he might have survived
When Cal frames Jack for stealing the Heart of the Ocean in Titanic, Rose pretty much stands there and lets it happen. Again, she is slow to come to his defense. She could have accused Cal of setting him up. She could have even lied and said that she had taken the necklace and given it to Jack for safekeeping. But nope, she just lets the man she supposedly loves be taken into custody.
Because of this, Jack is handcuffed to a pipe when the ship starts filling with water and is unable to get his life jacket or get to a life boat. Rose eventually comes to her senses and goes after Jack, freeing him from his restraints as the room he is in floods with water.
If only Rose had freed him sooner or had prevented him from being taken away in the first place, she and Jack could have made it to a lifeboat. At the very least, they might have been able to find another flotation device to help Jack survive in the icy water after the Titanic sank.
Rose cutting off contact with her mom at the end of Titanic seems pretty harsh
The sinking of the Titanic changes Rose. She finally evolves into a confident young woman determined to make her life her own. She changes her name, telling her rescuers that her name is Rose Dawson in honor of her true love, Jack Dawson.
While we can't blame her for wanting a fresh start and letting Cal think she was dead is understandable, what about her poor mother? Rose's mom was a bit pushy and overwhelming and she guilt-tripped her daughter into getting engaged to Cal in order to preserve their wealthy lifestyle, but she does love her kid. Letting her and, presumably, other family members and friends think she had died on the Titanic was a pretty harsh thing for Rose to do. Would it really have been so hard to stand up to her mom and Cal and tell them she was going to live her own life? Faking your own death is a pretty extreme way of gaining independence.
How did Rose get by after surviving the Titanic?
What exactly did Rose do after she survived the Titanic? She has no clothes, no money, and no family to help out. How did she get by? While there was a Titanic Relief Fund, it seems unlikely that she would have been able to benefit from such a resource as she changes her name to Rose Dawson, a name that did not appear in the ship's manifest. The name change and the fact that everyone thinks she is dead would also prevent her from claiming any sort of money or property that she had in her home or in a bank.
We know that she worked as an actress in the 1920s, but that still leaves eight years unaccounted for, as the Titanic sank in 1912. Rose is 17 and very likely doesn't have any sort of professional training considering that she was basically groomed to be a young bride, so how is she supporting herself? It's possible Rose got a job as a governess or as a dance teacher. Or perhaps she let a family member in on the fact that she was alive and got some secret financial assistance.
Why didn't Rose just sell the necklace in Titanic?
There's one way that Rose could have gotten by quite comfortably after surviving the Titanic. She could have sold the Heart of the Ocean, which she finds in the pocket of Cal's jacket, which she is still wearing when she is rescued. The priceless necklace could have likely supported her for the rest of her life, but Rose doesn't sell it. Instead, she keeps it hidden away, dropping it into the ocean at the end of Titanic.
While we can appreciate the symbolism in play of Rose finally letting go of the past, it's also wildly impractical, not to mention foolish, to drop the necklace. Even if she hadn't wanted to sell it in her younger years (and we can understand why she wouldn't want to do this, as the money would have technically come from Cal), she could still have later donated it to a museum, or sold it and given the money to charity.
There's also the unpleasant tidbit that, had she returned the necklace to Cal, he might not have taken his own life after losing all his money in the stock market crash of 1929.
Fabrizio's family won't know what happened to their son in Titanic
Rose may have faked her death after the sinking of the Titanic, but Jack's friend, Fabrizio, actually did die. He's the guy who wins someone else's ticket to sail on the Titanic at the beginning of the movie in a game of cards. Jack tells him he won't see his mother for a very long time since they're going to America.
Considering that Jack and Fabrizio ran to board the Titanic, a ship that's since been plagued by myths, right after this scene, it doesn't seem likely that he had time to contact his family to let them know what he was planning to do. It's possible he sent them a telegram from the ship, but, considering that Fabrizio didn't have much money, it seems more likely that he would have planned to wait until he arrived in New York to write a letter to his loved ones.
If he wasn't able to contact his family, they'd have no way of knowing what happened to him. Fabrizio's name wasn't on the ship manifest, so there's no way they'll know he died on the Titanic unless a survivor who knew him manages to track them down.
How is the drawing of Rose so vibrant nearly a century after the Titanic sank?
One of the more perplexing aspects of Titanic, which nearly had a very different ending, is the drawing that Jack makes of Rose. Not only does it somehow survive more than 100 years locked inside a safe that is flooded with ocean water, but it also doesn't look like it's aged a day. Drawn with charcoal, it seems unlikely that it would have survived under such conditions without so much as a smudge.
For that matter, why on earth was the drawing preserved at all? It's rather surprising that Cal, coming across a naked sketch of his fiancée, would choose to save it instead of immediately throwing it out, especially considering the angry note Rose leaves with it. Considering Cal's violent temper, he seems more like the type to tear up such a drawing. Yet somehow, the drawing not only survives Cal's wrath, but also the sinking of the Titanic and being submerged in water for decades. Well, at least it contributed to one of the most romantic movie scenes in history.
Rose and Jack wouldn't have worked out happily if he had survived the Titanic
Even if Jack and Rose had both survived the sinking of the Titanic, what are the chances that their relationship would have been successful? Young love is a beautiful thing, but Jack and Rose are from different worlds and barely know each other. If they had stayed together, it would have no doubt put a strain on Rose's relationship with her family, and there's also a good chance that Cal would have continued trying to exact revenge on Jack. If Rose had still faked her death if Jack had survived, they would have been a penniless couple trying to make their way in the world. That's a lot of pressure to put on a couple who have only known each other for a few days.
There's also the trauma that they would have carried with them from surviving one of the most tragic incidents in history. All of these things would make it unlikely that they'd have a happy relationship, even if they did end up staying together.