DESCRIPTION:
Images from James Cameron's "Titanic" (1997). Music by Sir Hubert Parry. This montage was inspired by a reading of William Blake's "And did those feet in ancient time..." short poem, made famous as the hymn, "Jerusalem", and Blake's later epic poem "Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion", written between 1804 and 1816. In the video rendering, the 'England' of the poem hymn and 'Giant Albion' of the epic is presented as the Titanic itself, avatar of the British Empire - a floating palace that has eclipsed the natural landscape of England to become the pride of the nation. This decadence of the ship seems to represent everything Blake was warning us about: man's disregard of nature's supremacy in the thrill of necessary progress and technological wonderment. The Kate Winslet character of Rose has become suicidal under the hold of this vainglorious sensibility and naturally rebels against it ("You will never behave like that again, Rose." "I'm not a foreman in one of your mills that you can command"; the "dark satanic mills" commanded by her intended husband). It is through meeting the archetypal 'nature boy' Jack Dawson that she finds her inspiration. It is he who plants the seed of regeneration so she can realise William Blake's Jerusalem on earth - that sensibility of democracy, imagination, reverence of sensuality, fellowship and everything the New World and the United States of America was envisioned to represent, if not achieve: true freedom in the mind and freedom of choice. Meanwhile, the death of the great ship portends the downfall of the British Empire, its failure to establish Jerusalem and the humbling of its imperial arrogance. Rose must endure a terrible trauma to be illuminated by Blake's dream herself and, of course, her own Christ figure in Jack (who starts her on the path) is sacrificed so she can come to shore soulfully transfigured. With the Titanic and her old self destroyed, Rose finally sees herself as Lady Liberty, lighting up the darkness and given new purpose. Jerusalem is the diamond she discovers in her pocket... but it is not for sale.