Titanic
Anatomy of a Blockbuster
On April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg off Newfoundland. Taking more than 1,500 souls with her, Titanic sunk on what was intended to be the glorious maiden voyage of the biggest, most expensive, and most technologically advanced ship ever built.
In 1997, James Cameron’s Titanic, the most expensive and technologically advanced movie ever made, hit theaters. In 13 weeks, it became the highest-grossing film in North America, and shortly thereafter, the first motion picture to earn a billion dollars worldwide.
The cultural studies and film scholars who have contributed 13 essays to this collection ask the key question—Why? What made Titanic such a popular movie? Why has this film become a cultural and film phenomenon? What makes it so fascinating to the film-going public?
The articles address everything from the nostalgia evoked by the film to the semiotic meaningfulness created around “The Heart of the Ocean” diamond that figures so prominently as a symbol in the film. Contributors address questions of the representations of class, sexuality, and gender; analyze the cross-cultural reception of the film in nationally specific contexts; examine the impact of strategies for marketing the film through music; and cover the implications of the budget toward the film’s success. Finally, the contributors address the film’s multi-faceted relationship to genre, history, stardom, and contemporary social and economic means.
The contributors to this collection sift through the pre-release stories, merchandise tie-ins, advertising gimmicks, video offers, package tours and the like in order to make clear why Titanic turned out to be such a mammoth, international cultural phenomenon. . . . Keeping to the popular spirit of Titanic itself, the book is designed for a broad readership, and the contributors have made an effort to stay away from theoretical jargon.
Anyone interested in accessible scholarly approaches to film and culture studies or a keener insight into why and how one film can resonate across borders at a particular moment in time will find this a stimulating and useful collection of essays.
A thought-provoking collection of essays that bring contemporary cinema into serious focus. Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster is wedded to movie history, to current cultural attitudes, and to its impact on viewers. Too bad someone wasnÆt around to do this for Gone With the Wind.
If Titanic was not just another film, then this work, with its range of approaches and perspectives, is not just another anthology.
The authors in this volume offer a first-rate examination of a question that has long vexed studies of media and popular culture: what makes a text resonate so extensively, so deeply with its audiences that it becomes a public sensation? Sandler and Studlar have assembled a collection of essays that vividly and persuasively demonstrate the complexity of forces acting on the reception of what became the biggest film blockbuster of them all.
Intriguing perspectives on a major cultural phenomenon.
Gaylyn Studlar is the director of the Program in Film and Video Studies and a professor of film and English literature at the University of Michigan. She is the co-editor of Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film (Rutgers University Press) and the author of numerous books and articles on film and gender.
"Floating triumphantly" : the American critics on Titanic / Matthew Bernstein
The drama of recoupment : on the mass media negotiation of Titanic / Justin Wyatt and Katherine Vlesmas
Selling my heart : music and cross-promotion in Titanic / Jeff Smith
"Almost ashamed to say I am one of those girls" : Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio, and the paradoxes of girls' fandom / Melanie Nash and Martti Lahti
"Something and someone else" : the mind, the body, and sexuality
Women first : Titanic action-adventure films, and Hollywood's female audience / Peter Krämer
"Size does matter" : notes on Titanic and James Cameron as blockbuster auteur / Alexandra Keller
Heart of the ocean : diamonds and democratic desire in Titanic / Adrienne Munich and Maura Spiegel
Ship of dreams : cross-class romance and the cultural fantasy of Titanic / Laurie Ouellette
Bathos and bathysphere : on submersion, longing, and history in Titanic / Vivian Sobchack
"The china had never been used!" : on the patina of perfect images in Titanic / Julian Stringer
Titanic, survivalism, and the millennial myth / Diane Negra
"It was true! How can you laugh?" : history and memory in the reception of Titanic in Britain and Southampton / Anne Massey and Mike Hammond
