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Titanic
Movie

Titanic

1997 • Drama, Romance

Woke Score
7
out of 10

Plot

84 years later, a 100 year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell and Anatoly Mikailavich on the Keldysh about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called Titanic when young Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship in a game. And she explains the whole story from departure until the death of Titanic on its first and last voyage April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning.

Overall Series Review

The film centers on a love story that functions as a strong critique of social hierarchy and traditional gender roles within Western civilization's elite class structure. The narrative frames the wealthy aristocratic world of the early 20th century as oppressive, hypocritical, and financially abusive, especially toward women like the protagonist. A poor, working-class male is championed as the morally and spiritually superior counterpoint to the corrupt, wealthy elite, creating a clear victim/oppressor dynamic based on class and privilege. The female protagonist's arc is an explicit journey of rejecting her societal confinement, including a forced marriage, to pursue a life of self-determination and sexual emancipation. The film heavily promotes the idea that personal freedom and authentic selfhood are achieved by breaking restrictive societal institutions. While the central pairing is heterosexual, the core message is one of radical self-liberation from traditional family and social expectations. Religion is largely absent from the protagonists' lives, but it is not actively vilified, with a brief appearance by a clergyman offering comfort during the crisis.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics8/10

The plot sets up a clear class-based hierarchy where the corrupt, wealthy white elite (Caledon Hockley, Rose's mother Ruth) are the villains and the poor, white, and ethnically-coded lower classes (Jack Dawson, Irish/Italian steerage passengers) are morally virtuous. The story relies on a systemic oppression lens where privilege is vilified and the hero's merit is tied to his lack of status. The rich are depicted as selfish and cruel, willing to lock the poor below deck to save themselves.

Oikophobia7/10

The movie attacks the established, aristocratic institutions and restrictive social norms of Edwardian high-society as suffocating and corrupt. Rose's 'old life' and culture are presented as a prison she must escape to achieve a full, free life. The hero, Jack, functions as a 'Noble Savage' archetype, an unrefined drifter whose authentic, free spirit is spiritually superior to the decadence of the upper class.

Feminism9/10

Rose's primary character arc is a direct rejection of the traditional role of a woman—marriage for financial security and adherence to patriarchal expectations. The film explicitly frames her journey as a 'feminist awakening' and a pursuit of total personal independence. Her escape involves defying her mother, rejecting her abusive, wealthy fiancé, and achieving sexual self-emancipation outside of marriage. She adopts the role of an assertive, active hero, even rescuing her male love interest.

LGBTQ+1/10

The core of the movie focuses on a traditional male-female relationship. There are no explicit LGBTQ+ characters, themes, or political lectures concerning gender identity or alternative sexualities. The focus on sexuality centers on a heterosexual liberation from a repressive social environment.

Anti-Theism3/10

Major characters, including the protagonists, express no Christian faith or religious devotion. Morality is purely subjective, based on 'true' human emotion and self-determination, rather than transcendent law. However, the film is not actively hostile toward religion, featuring a sympathetic clergyman who offers comfort and quotes scripture to a small group of passengers during the sinking, acknowledging a hope beyond death.