SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: Leong Chee Mun

STUDENT ID NO: 0316256

FILMS SELECTED: Titanic VS The Wolf of Wall Street

WORD COUNT:

ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 18th APRIL 2014

The two main master piece of Leonardo Di Caprio are Titanic (1997) and The

Wolf of Wall Street(2013). These days, everybody knows the movie Titanic, it is a

famous based on a true story movie which was released on 1997 until now and it’s

box office earning in 2012 surpassed Avatar. My favorite part of the movie is when

they started escaping from the cruise; the realest and genuine side of a person will

appear. On other hand, I choose The Wolf of Wall Street as my second based on a

true story movie. This movie released in America on December 2013 and was later on

release in Hong Kong and Taiwan on February 2014. So now I would like to contrast

between these two movies which are characteristic of two major roles, theme in love,

occupation and allies of major roles.

The lead character role I chose in Titanic is Rose Dewitt Bukater. Rose is first-

class passenger but she was unhappy about her luxury and peaceful life because there

were too many constraints with all the rules and boundaries to obey and she felt that

all the activities in first-class are meaningless and a waste of time. However, her filial

piety understands if she does not marry Caledon Hockley her family will face the

possibility of bankruptcy. In addition, when Rose and Jack escaped from Caledon’s

shoot they found a young boy crying at corridor. They pick up the young boy and

escape before the water influx. In contrast, Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street

is a playboy and betrays his wife. He, unlike Rose or Jack is not a truthful and caring

person. His promiscuity life caused his second wife to divorce him and during his first

marriage he betrayed his wife to be with another girl, who later in the movie became

Jordan’s second wife. He believes having drug can let him getting more and more

idea for him job which was also one of the reasons and irregular life has caused him

to lose his second marriage.

The dominant theme in both movies is love. In Titanic, when the third-class

passengers fail to escape to the deck, a mother of two bring her children back to their

room and sang lullaby to coo them to go back their sweet dream. At the same time, an

old man held his wife tightly to sleep on the bed but the water kept flowing in. These

scenes are full with infinite love of the mother and child to the long loving years

spend by an old couple. In The Wolf of Wall Street, the love of money is present. All

people care of is how they can make and earn more money? When a person is blind in

pursuit of money, it becomes even easier for a victim of fraud. That’s why Jordan can

earn tons of money from his customers and clients. For example, he uses a lot of lie to

do up a high tech firm, yet the firm is actually like a stock room in a rural area.

Furthermore, the difference between the two led role’s occupation are

extremely in contrast. Jack is a professional freelance nude artist, he had done a

prostitutes’ nude sketch but he did not infringe her and observe her life instead. He

draws a person as they are while adding the beautiful aspects which he sees in them.

Although Rose has strip herself naked and stood in front of Jack, but he was still able

to control himself and fully dedicate himself into drawing the essence of Rose. Jack’s

occupation is actually very meaningful and professional if you ask me. Conversely,

Jordan is a license stock broker but his company sells illegal penny stock and OPI in

market. Besides, he attracts more and more ambitious youth to join his company and

cultivation of talent. ‘Sell me this pen’ by Jordan Belfort. He later on became famous

sales trainer after he came out of prison due to money laundering.

Last but not least, ‘most women have all other women as adversaries; most

men have other men as their allies’ by Frank Gelett Burgess. The ally of Jack in

Titanic is Fabrizio De Rossi who played poker and won the cruise ticket together with

Jak. He and Tommy who is another acquaintance meet Jack and Rose behind the

blocked gate when they were trying to escape and they help them to escape. In

addition, he and Tommy find the life boat for four of them so they can survive when

Titanic started sinking. Unfortunately, Tommy was accidentally killed by William

Murdoch who refuse to allow any men to come forward near the life boat. Fabrizio De

Rossi on the other hand died due to a giant funnel crushed him. In the movie In The

Wall of Wolf Street, Donnie Azoff is the person who taught Jordan drug abuse. He

and Jordan are the founders of Stratton Oakmont and they earn a lot of money from

sold the OPI. When Jordan under house arrest, Donnie did not ignore him and was

willing to help him about the money.

In conclusion, two major roles, themes in love, occupation and allies of major

roles are what I learn from different perspective in these movies. To tell you the truth,

I like Titanic very much and I watched at least 3 times a year! The scene that I like

most is when Rose and Jack waiting for somebody to rescue them and Jack promised

her that she would die a painless death in her sleep and live a long happy life.

Conversely, The Wolf of Wall Street is exactly different genre compare to Titanic.

The Wolf of Wall Street which is more of an autobiography sees everything from

Jordan’s point of view. For example, Jordon was a very cold-hearted man because he

wasn’t bothered by other people’s feeling nor does he care. For my idea, if I am

Naomi, I will feel very disappointed about Jordan’s behavior. However, she knew

Jordan is a play boy and a drug addict before getting married to Jordan. Last, I still

cannot believe Leonardo getting old, yet he still have boldness and be my Jack

forever.