Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
T h e audience witnessing this spectacle goes through an ordeal along with the
characters. Joseph Campbell used to say that the purpose of ritual is to wear you out,
to grind down your defenses so that you fall open to the transcendent experience.
Wearing you out seems to be part of Titanic's strategy, making you feel something of
what the passengers felt by immersing you in the Titanic world for so long.
In this cynical, jaded time, it takes courage to be so nakedly emotional, for
both the filmmaker and the audience. Movies like Titanic, The English Patient, Braveheart,
Dances with Wolves, and Glory are taking a big risk in being sentimental on a grand
scale. T h e darkness of the theatre offers the audience some protection — they can
cry silently and few will witness their emotional vulnerability. But the filmmakers
must expose emotions in public, under the full light of a cynical society, and deserve
some respect for this act of courage.
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