Happily Ever After Cafe discussion
HEA in Movies
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Titanic: Is it just me, or is the ending unbearable?
message 51:
by
Pamela(AllHoney), Fairy Godmother
(new)
May 30, 2012 06:25PM
@Ian yes, Titanic is very visual, I agree. Probably what I was most impressed with. (The effects). But I wasn't in love with the story itself.
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I saw Titanic when it first came out in the movie theater. I was so deeply moved by it. I then went back to to see it 2 more times and I am not sure why I did that. I will not watch it again. The ending is very sad. I do not like sad endings to love stories. One of the reasons I read romance novels is because I know the ending will always be a happy one. Who the heck wants to read a romance novel where the relationship is cut short by death. My favorite romance stories are Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South and Jane Austen's Persuasion. If you have not watched the BBC adaption of North & South it is a MUST watch. You will love Richard Armitage as John Thornton and Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret Hale. The ending will have to grinning from ear to ear.
I keep hearing about North and South and I may just have to watch it someday ☺
Oh, yes, Xenia! Love those books. I don't think I've seen the BBC adaptation of N&S. I'll have to look for it. Thanks!
I shall have to look out for the BBC adaptation too; sounds right up my street.
I am with you Rhea. I stay clear of romance books that do not have happy endings. There are lots of books out there that contains romance but they do not have happy endings. One of the formulas of a true romance novel is that it is supposed to have a happy ending. All of the books in the romance section of bookstores are supposed to be happily ever afters. If it isn't I am pretty sure it is supposed to be only under fiction books or something like that. When all is said and done the hero and heroine must be together and looking forward to a long happy life by the end of the book.
Absolutely. In fact, when I pick up a romance book, get lost in the love story and then discover it has a sad ending, I feel cheated somehow - because I've put time, effort and money into something that's made me feel down, not happy. Perhaps all books with sad endings should have some kind of warning sticker, like the film classifications PG etc.!
LOL! I like that idea, Hannah!
Any of you ladies who love a beautiful HEA you must get your hands on a copy of the BBC's North and South. It is the best historical mini-series I have EVER seen, bar none!
ok, thanks! Will do. Maybe netflix has it.
I think Netflix does have N&S, I remember seeing it when I was watching loads of historical period movies when we had NF for a brief period a couple months ago.As for the Titanic... I went and saw it 3 times in the theaters when it first came out. I think I was like 12. I had the major hots for Leo... I saw it with my mom and grandma the first time, and all three of us were bawling! I bawled like three different times, the first time, when he's chained to the pipe and the water's coming in, and she's looking for him, I thought he was gonna die there, so I cried. And then when they were trying to escape and they came to the gate that was locked and the water's overtaking them, I thought he was going to die there too, so I cried again, then at the end when he really did die, I cried some more. I've since watched it a few times, I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite movies, but it's one I like and would probably stop and watch if it were on tv and there wasn't anything more pressing on to watch. But yea, I wish he would've lived, kinda ruins the whole romance and everything special they had... Yea, I get that she was stronger afterwards and had a good life, but still!! I want my love stories to have HEAs! :O
Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Any of you ladies who love a beautiful HEA you must get your hands on a copy of the BBC's North and South. It is the best historical mini-series I have EVER seen, bar none!"I think I have this on DVD... I'll have to go dig through them. It seems like I watched this when I was younger and loved it.
See, this is always the dilemma I've had with Titanic. Here's one thing I've realized... I don't think that the Jack and Rose romance was *really* a love story. The real story is about Rose finding *herself* and learning to become independent and free from the oppressive life she was leading. Jack was merely the force, or conduit, by which Rose comes to find the inner strength she needd to break away. I don't think Jack and Rose were really in love. I think they shared a passion. I think Rose admired Jack's freedom and his self-confidence, and she sought to mirror that in herself. When you look at it that way, it becomes less tragic. I mean, still tragic that Jack dies, I suppose, but I think in terms of the Rose character, he was not the love of her life. I'd like to think that the man she wound up marrying and having children with was her true love.
You would think, Mary B! But then, there is Jack...waiting for her in the afterlife...not her husband.
Lisa Kay wrote: "You would think, Mary B! But then, there is Jack...waiting for her in the afterlife...not her husband."That's a great point, Mary and Lisa Kay. You would think that her husband of many years and the father of her children may feel a little short changed in the deal...LOL.
I would, in his shoes, Lisa!
Lisa Kay wrote: "You would think, Mary B! But then, there is Jack...waiting for her in the afterlife...not her husband."Nah, see I think that was symbolic. It was meant to show that she finally found her freedom. That's the way I choose to look at it anyway. I was not a fan of that romance. But I'm also madly in love with Billy Zane, so I was biased from the start. ;-)
LMBO! For you, Mary!Billy Zane
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Lol yea, Billy Zane... If I were Rose I think I'd've been doing him in our fancy stateroom, and not running off with the penniless guy... but they're both good looking, so I can't blame her for going for Leo... but still! Lmao... :D
I can't watch the movie again. And it has nothing to do with Jack dying. It's the rather graphic scenes with the steerage children dying. I was crying so hard at that that I was a gasping mess! And to know that it was TRUE. That that era was ssoo classcist that they locked those people down there. That they never had a chance. That so many children DID die on the Titantic.Too much. Can't handle it. I cannot handle child harm nor death in movies. I can't watch it.
I'm a Titanic history buff and enjoy documentaries of it and the history of wreck as it is now. A silent graveyard for so many people who didn't have to die. But that's different from watching a grissly retelling of their horrible and tragic final moments. Both of those who died of hypothermia on the surface of the water and those who were dragged down to the depths in the stern section.
By the time Jack died, I had already watched so many people die in this, had my heart wrecked SSOO many times by watching frantic families try to get to lifeboats. Watched so much tragedy... I was emotionally exhausted. Jack's death didn't affect me all that much because there was no room left for it to do so.
Plus I had already walked into the movie knowing that either Jack or Rose was going to die and the other would live. I think making a HEA out of the Titanic has the potential, if done wrong, to be disrespectful to all the people who died on it. You have to be careful grafting a fictional HEA onto a real life tragedy. It's a very delicate balancing act.
I've read 2 books that made HEA's out of the Holocaust, the Nazi concentration camps. One was done well and honored the tragedy of the genocide. The other was just a schmaltzy and fluffy "YOU SAVED ME!" sort of thing. The first was a wonderful, if sad, story. The second was an offense to anyone who survived the Shoah.
So like I said, a writer has to be VERY careful when putting a HEA onto tragedies the size of the Titanic, the Shoah, slavery, things like that. You have to honor the dead if you will. Because it's not escapism then. It's real life horror that happened to real people.
As an side: If I ever hear that song again I will shoot something. Is it just me or was it the only song played on the radio for like 2 years???
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I totally agree.... LOL
Nomad wrote: "I can't watch the movie again. And it has nothing to do with Jack dying. It's the rather graphic scenes with the steerage children dying. I was crying so hard at that that I was a gasping mess! And..."Yeah, the children affected me too. Hard to take once, much less twice!
Oh, yes. My heart clinched when they locked them there!
The mother telling the story to her children to distract them. Just shoot me right in the heart!There's a deleted scene that they added back in for the extended cut where some poor little boy is crying in fear as the water rises up around him. Jack tries to save him, but the boy and his father are washed away screaming when a door gives way.
Why, WHY would I want to watch that again? As a mother this is my worst nightmare. Trapped in a lethal situation where I CAN'T save my children.
So as you can see, by the time Jake froze to death... I was in an emotional sadness coma. I barely even blinked when his frozen solid body sank below the water.
The elderly couple who chose to stay on the Titanic and gave their seats to younger people are real. They actually existed and it was reported that they went to the deck to sit on the lounge chairs up there and await their fate together. They'd lived their lives and together and died together. I always have softly smiled at that.
There's a great song that was on a documentary of the Titanic taht is very evocative of the tragedy. Here's the link. A fabulous song! Much better than the Celine Dion thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doJcV_...
Nomad wrote: "The mother telling the story to her children to distract them. Just shoot me right in the heart!There's a deleted scene that they added back in for the extended cut where some poor little boy is ..."
I agree and yes this is better than the Celine Dion thing
I would not choose to watch that movie again.
Lisa Kay wrote: "Yes! Love the costumes too. Love that era."
Agreed, much victorian costumes.
Rose killed Jack. As a wealthy passenger, she had not one, but two opportunities to get in a lifeboat and passed them up. Had he been on his own, maybe he would have found the driftwood and survived and they could have been reunited later for their HEA.
Mocha Spresso wrote: "Rose killed Jack. As a wealthy passenger, she had not one, but two opportunities to get in a lifeboat and passed them up. Had he been on his own, maybe he would have found the driftwood and survi..."People can be stupid when it comes to love ☺
Please forgive me for this but...I am busily content day-dreaming about Charlie H. Portman..my fictional hero of my romance novel: A Thing or Two About Love. Sorry about that! would someone please pull me back and demand that I talk about Titanic?
Mochaspresso wrote: "Rose killed Jack. As a wealthy passenger, she had not one, but two opportunities to get in a lifeboat and passed them up. Had he been on his own, maybe he would have found the driftwood and survi..."While a good point, if she had gotten in the boat the first time Jack would have stayed handcuffed to that pipe and drowned anyway.
Melissa wrote: "Mochaspresso wrote: "Rose killed Jack. As a wealthy passenger, she had not one, but two opportunities to get in a lifeboat and passed them up. Had he been on his own, maybe he would have found t..."Haha!! :) True, but why was he ultimately handcuffed to the pipe? Because of his relationship with her.
I would like to add that Mythbusters just recently did Titanic myths and proved Rose and Jack COULD have survived together on the broken door at the end. So she not only killed him, she super killed him. ;)
No doubts now. Proven! 
Not sure how many are you are familiar w/the show Robot Chicken on Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network (it's a show involving stop motion animation), but last night they had a sketch involving jack and rose talking to each other by IM. They had the message bubbles over their head w/the sound effects to go w/it. Before Jack sank to the bottom he IM'ed "brb" and when he didn't come Rose's bubble said, "wtf?". Thought it was funny. Lol
**hee hee** See, I occasionally have a sick sense of humor, too.
Now I have to go find that on YouTube.
Lol I think we all do Lisa, somewhere in the recesses of our minds. Some are less inhibited to show it off *points to self* lol
It was really tough for me to see Jack die....it was kind of shattering that such a couple as Rose and Jack don't get to have their HEA. But still....I cried when jack died. I think it would have been bearable had Rose died instead of Jack.
Sorry, Ruchi. That just struck me as funny. You know, because then you'd have him all to yourself.
:D:D:D That's all right.....I'd love to have him all to myself:))
Lol well I guess we know who among us wouldn't hesitate to push Rose off that board to save herself or Jack. Lol
I watched Titanic once and sincerely wished I hadn't! It played on my mind for days because it was so sad. Who wants to see a woman live her whole life without the man she loves beyond all others by her side. I cried buckets over that ending and would never watch it again, although it was acted well and the costumes were beautiful. I am very much a HEA girl whether it's in books, films or TV! Titanic was my one mistake. I usually don't watch something if I know it ends badly!
