Titanic

Anatomy of a Blockbuster

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Edited by Kevin S. Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar

Type: Studies
Subject: One Film > Titanic
Keywords: James Cameron, blockbusters
Publishing date: 1999
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 288 pages
6 x 9 inches (15.5 x 23 cm)

ISBN-10 ISBN-13

0-8135-2669-8
978-0-8135-2669-0

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Book Presentation:
On April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg off Newfoundland. Taking more than 1,500 souls with her, Titanic sunk on what was intended to be the glorious maiden voyage of the biggest, most expensive, and most technologically advanced ship ever built.
In 1997, James Cameron’s Titanic, the most expensive and technologically advanced movie ever made, hit theaters. In 13 weeks, it became the highest-grossing film in North America, and shortly thereafter, the first motion picture to earn a billion dollars worldwide.

The cultural studies and film scholars who have contributed 13 essays to this collection ask the key question—Why? What made Titanic such a popular movie? Why has this film become a cultural and film phenomenon? What makes it so fascinating to the film-going public?
The articles address everything from the nostalgia evoked by the film to the semiotic meaningfulness created around “The Heart of the Ocean” diamond that figures so prominently as a symbol in the film. Contributors address questions of the representations of class, sexuality, and gender; analyze the cross-cultural reception of the film in nationally specific contexts; examine the impact of strategies for marketing the film through music; and cover the implications of the budget toward the film’s success. Finally, the contributors address the film’s multi-faceted relationship to genre, history, stardom, and contemporary social and economic means.

About the authors:
Kevin S. Sandler is a visiting assistant professor of English at Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis and the editor of Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animations (Rutgers University Press). Gaylyn Studlar is the director of the Program in Film and Video Studies and a professor of film and English literature at the University of Michigan. She is the co-editor of Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film (Rutgers University Press) and the author of numerous books and articles on film and gender.

Press Reviews:
The contributors to this collection sift through the pre-release stories, merchandise tie-ins, advertising gimmicks, video offers, package tours and the like in order to make clear why Titanic turned out to be such a mammoth, international cultural phenomenon. . . . Keeping to the popular spirit of Titanic itself, the book is designed for a broad readership, and the contributors have made an effort to stay away from theoretical jargon.
— Times Literary Supplement

Anyone interested in accessible scholarly approaches to film and culture studies or a keener insight into why and how one film can resonate across borders at a particular moment in time will find this a stimulating and useful collection of essays.
— Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas

A thought-provoking collection of essays that bring contemporary cinema into serious focus. Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster is wedded to movie history, to current cultural attitudes, and to its impact on viewers. Too bad someone wasnÆt around to do this for Gone With the Wind.
— Jeanine Basinger

If Titanic was not just another film, then this work, with its range of approaches and perspectives, is not just another anthology.
— David Desser

The authors in this volume offer a first-rate examination of a question that has long vexed studies of media and popular culture: what makes a text resonate so extensively, so deeply with its audiences that it becomes a public sensation? Sandler and Studlar have assembled a collection of essays that vividly and persuasively demonstrate the complexity of forces acting on the reception of what became the biggest film blockbuster of them all.
— Barbara Klinger

Intriguing perspectives on a major cultural phenomenon.
— Steven Biel

See the publisher website: Rutgers University Press

See Titanic (1997) on IMDB ...

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