Titanic 3D

image for Titanic 3D

Short takes

Not suitable under 10; not recommended under 13; parental guidance to 15 (length of film, themes, disturbing scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Titanic 3D
  • a review of Titanic 3D completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 12 April 2012.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to themes, scary scenes and length of film.
Children aged 10-12 Not recommended due to themes and disturbing scenes.
Children aged 13-15 Parental guidance recommended due to themes.
Children aged 16 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Titanic 3D
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Mature themes and coarse language
Length: 195 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Eighty four years after the sinking of the Titanic, Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and his crew are searching for lost treasure, in particular a famous diamond known as the Heart of the Ocean, which was lost when the Titanic went down. His search brings him into contact with Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stewart), a survivor of the disaster and now 101 years old. The film tells the story of the tragic event from her perspective.

As a young girl, Rose (KateWinslett) is travelling on the Titanic to America to marry her fiancé CalHockley (Billy Zane). It is a loveless match made necessary by the death of her father, which left her and her mother penniless. Cal is a cruel and possessive man and Rose longs for her freedom. In desperation, she decides to jump off the ship but she is saved from doing so by the handsome young Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio). Jack is an artist and a drifter in life but had won tickets for his passage in steerage in a poker game.

During the two days they spend together, Rose and Jack fall deeply in love, despite their vastly different social backgrounds and fierce opposition from Rose’s mother and Cal. Cal does everything he can to prevent the two being together, including falsely accusing Jack of stealing the famous diamond. It is then that tragedy strikes when the ship hits the iceberg. What follows is a desperate attempt by passengers to save their lives, often at the expense of others, although some graciously give up their place on the lifeboats. As there are only half enough places in the lifeboats for the number of passengers, women and children from first class are saved first and tragically those in steerage are prevented from entering the lifeboats.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Disasters; social class

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Cal is so enraged with Rose he shouts at her and knocks several objects over.
  • Another time Cal hits Rose across the face and calls her a slut and a whore.
  • Cal’s bodyguard Lovejoy punches Jack in the stomach and points a gun at him.
  • The people in steerage are trying to exit from behind a locked gate when they are pushed and shoved by the crew armed with axes.
  • Cal shoots at Jack several times but misses.
  • An officer shoots a man then shoots himself.
  • There are intense scenes of people panicking and fighting as the ship goes down. People are swept away as the water comes in, others fall down the sloping deck, some jump into the icy waters and some are killed by flying debris. There are fist fights and guns being fired.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged under eight, including the following:

  • The scenes of searching through the sunken ship are eerie.
  • Rose nearly falls from the ship when Jack attempts to save her.
  • Many dead bodies are shown floating in the water including mothers and children. Rose (as narrator) tells that 1500 people went into the ocean and only 6 were saved.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above mentioned scenes.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Rose is suicidal and about to jump off the ship when Jack saves her.
  • Some people are shown preparing for their deaths including the Captain, the ship’s designer, an old couple in their bed and a mother with her two children.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above mentioned scenes

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

None of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Several nude drawings by Jack.
  • Jack draws Rose in the nude
  • Jack and Rose kiss passionately and have sex but nothing too graphic is shown.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Drinking and smoking throughout the movie.
  • A man falls over when dancing while drunk

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • shit
  • arse
  • Jesus
  • bugger
  • bastard
  • bleeding  Christ
  • fuck

In a nutshell

Titanic 3D is a classic dramatic movie about the terrible tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic. It is also a beautiful love story of two young star-crossed lovers which clearly shows the disparities between different social classes. It will appeal to older adolescents but is too intense for younger children and is made more so by the 3D effect. At 195 minutes, it is a very long film for children to sit through and parents may be also concerned by some of the coarse language.

The main message from this movie is that love overcomes social boundaries.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • courage in the face of disaster
  • selflessness

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Why were the passengers in steerage considered less important than those in first class?
  • The cowardly acts of some people trying to save themselves at the expense of others
  • The power that men had at the time to control women.