Blog Post #8

• Blog post #8: Define your working thesis statement and discuss your plans for this paper. What will you be discussing and how does the research you’ve completed tie into your thesis statement? This is your chance to address anything that hasn’t necessarily made its way into your draft and outline what it is you plan to continue to work on before the final draft is due. Identify at least 2 questions you want your peer responders to address in their comments.

My working thesis will sound something along the lines of, “The 1997 version of Titanic, featuring big name actors and including one of the biggest budgets of its time, is the most popular and most remembered remake of the tragedy.” My plans for the paper will be to introduce the topic of why the titanic is a crisis in history is such a big deal to Americans and why it catches our attention. I will then compared the 1997 version to other remakes of titanic, including the 1953 version which I have a lot of information on, and talk about why the 1997 version is the most remembered. I will then build off of that and go into details about each individual point of why that version is the most popular. Most of my research, aside from the reviews I’ve had to list, have been about the titanic, the remakes, why it touches the hearts of americans, and why the 1997 version is the most popular. Some things I am still working on and plan to add into my final draft will be more reviews on other remakes of titanic. The reviews I have in my annotations are reviews from the 1997 and 1953 version, and I think it would make my paper better if I also added in reviews on the television show and short movies. This may allow for me to tie in with the genre of the 1997 version, and talk about how it is popular compared to a television show or documentary.

2 Questions:

1. Even though this is just a rough sketch, does my paper seem to have purpose and a soul topic?

2. Am I using my notations correctly?

Annotation #10

Nunn, James. “Movie Review: Titanic (1953).”jamesnunn.net. N.p., 1 May 2007. Web. 8 Mar 2014.

This is the last review that I will use in my paper. This is a review of the 1953 version of the titanic. All in all, this sources gives a good overview of what the movie was about. It even throw in some good material on how this movie is different in comparison to the 1997 version of the titanic. They stated that this version is more about the passengers and crew versus the love story the 1997 version is based off of. I will be able to use this source in my paper to come this version to other versions of the titanic, considering that is the main stem of my purpose of this paper. This review is different from the other reviews I have throughout my annotations because it is a review of the 1953 version instead of the 1997 version. This source is biased because it is a review, but since we are required to have a total of four reviews in our annotations, I thought it would be important to include another front runner of most popular versions of the titanic.

Annotation #9

“Academy Awards: Titanic.” boxofficemojo.com. Academy Awards. Web. 8 Mar 2014.

This source is not an article or journal entry, but it is a list of the budget for the film of 1997 version Titanic. This source also gives us a list of all of the awards it won. The reason this source is credible is because it comes from the list of academy award movies and I am also able to look up the funding and awards given to the 1953 version of the titanic. I will be able to use this source in my paper because I will be able to take into account the funding the movie, the awards it received, and when the movie came out to back up my claim that the 1997 version of the titanic is the most popular. If I take into account the funding and the awards, I will be able to compare it to the other versions of the titanic, especially the 1953 version, and be able to put all of these factors and statistics into my paper. I believe that the audience of my paper will appreciate it and find it more credible if there is funding and awards in the calculation for why the 1997 version is the most popular. 

Annotation #8

Burns, Laura. “Compare and contrast Titanic (1997) and Titanic (1953).” blogspot.com. N.p., 10 Sep 2012. Web. 8 Mar 2014.

This source is pretty much a summary of exactly what I am wanting to hit on in my inquiry. This is a perspective on how the 1997 version of the titanic compares to the 1953 version of the titanic. It talks about why Hollywood remakes movies, and how they do it to bring up that some things are still needed to be discussed in modern day. It talks about the different plot lines of both movies and many, many different similarities and differences between the two movies. I know that this is a blog site, so at first glance it would appear that this source is not reliable or credible. However, at the end of this source, the author has included many sources that she used to write her post. She sites them accurately throughout the post and it seems as if this source is completely reliable and credible. I will use this source more than any other source, I believe, because it hits on exactly what I am talking about in my paper. Especially since the 1997 version and the 1953 version are the biggest and most popular versions of the remake of titanic. This source is unlike any of my other sources because it doesn’t focus on a review of the movie or why titanic is still important today, but it sincerely focuses on the differences between these two movies. 

Annotation #7

Cox, Stephen. “Why the Titanic fascinates more than other disasters.” cnn.com. N.p., 9 Apr 2012. Web. 6 Mar 2014.

This source is fantastic. It practically talks about my topic exactly and it has given me a lot of good information. This source touches on why the titanic itself connects with Americans so much compared to other disasters that have happened in the past 100 years. It talks about why the titanic hit the public so hard and how because there were people on board that had to make drastic decisions in the moment that it doesn’t compare to other tragedies. The only other disaster this articles says the titanic compares to is 9/11. This is because people had to make decisions on whether they should jump or whether they should save other people, but like people on the titanic did. When they were on the ship they had to decide whether or not they should get on a life boat, stay on the ship, or save other people. It is a great conflict story, which is why it connects with the public. I can use this source in my paper to explain why americans enjoy the story of the titanic so much. it will help me to reinforce why the 1997 version is the one people connect with the most. 

Annotation #6

Ebert, Roger. “`TITANIC’S’ ENDURING POWER LIES IN HOW IT TOUCHES OUR FEELINGS ABOUT LIFE, DEATH.” rogerebert.com. N.p., 3 Mar 1998. Web. 6 Mar 2014.

This is probably one of the better reviews I have found about the 1997 version of Titanic. Roger Ebert is a very famous critic and I believe it is reliable and credible when referring to why this version was so popular. The only down side to this source is that it does not discuss why it was better than other versions of titanic, but that was probably not his intent when writing this review. However, there is a ton of great information packed into this review, and it talks about the fact that the movie did such a great job with reaching the emotions of the audience. Because Leo and Kate are so in love in this movie and then death happens, Ebert is convinced that the characters touched our hearts because we have all fallen in and out of love and everyone has lost someone near and dear to us. This also brings me to a different perspective that maybe it wasn’t necessarily the tragedy of the ship sinking that grabs the audience, but that love story that happens during the movie that maybe does not appear in other versions. Or maybe just not nearly as strongly. I will be able to use this source in my paper to describe why the public enjoyed the 1997 version of titanic so much. Robert Ebert had a lot of great quotes that I can use in my paper. I like the way he describes things and words his sentences, so I think this will be a fantastic source for my paper. 

Blog Post #7

 

In my opinion, I think this film is about the exaggerated feelings we get throughout life. What I mean by that is that everyone in the movie had some kind of “crazy” issue, and I believe they each represent the different ways we may feel or act throughout our lives, except they presented it in a very exaggerated way. Some themes in this movie were that being crazy is okay, finding someone like you is what true love is, family always sticks together, and follow your gut feeling with true love and decision making. I have seen this movie before, and I must say that it was definitely more appealing the second time around. I think I got more out of the film the second time I watched because the first time I saw it I really thought it was this super strange movie. I was not a fan before we watched it in class. I think this movie is considered a good film because it brings out the crazy in all of us. Deep down we are have our own type of crazy and I think a lot of the time we try to hide that part of ourselves. I think this movie is a good movie because it reminds its viewers that being yourself, no matter how weird or crazy, is perfectly normal and encouraged. All of the running scenes stand out to me as being extremely important because I think it symbolizes many different things. Number one, it symbolizes that in the beginning of the movie Tiffany was chasing Pat, but then at the end of the movie Pat was chasing Tiffany. I also think it symbolizes where a lot of us stand in life. We don’t really ever truly no where we are going or where we are supposed to end up, so we pick a path, sometimes follow people (whether they are wrong or right for us), and eventually we end up where we are supposed to be. Applying this movie to my research throughout my process in writing inquiry 2, I will definitely try to look at the hidden messages in all of the versions of the titanic and see if there are any roc curing themes that might contribute to why people enjoy titanic movies so much. After watching the film and reading the articles, I have found that I need to look at the deeper meaning of the versions of the titanic instead of just trying to guess why people always remember the 1997 version.