The “emotionally destroying” movie Sophie Turner can’t watch without bursting into tears
While many watch films to feel joyful, to be filled with hope or to laugh so hard your drink comes out of your nose, sometimes there’s nothing better than watching movies not as a way to escape, but a way to experience the pain and hardships of life from a safe distance. It’s cathartic!
But sometimes a film can be so deeply sad that it actually feels like we’re being pulled apart, destroyed by the very emotional intensity of the thing. Many of these films are romances that are so doomed from the outset, so tragically written in the stars that we get pulled into the hope that we know we shouldn’t and then let it destroy us all over again, and that’s the very reason we watch them; they unravel us.
For Sophie Turner, there’s one film that stands out for her as a tearjerker. “I can’t watch Titanic without breaking down within the first ten minutes,” she told Vanity Fair. In fact, the first time she watched it on the big screen, she found it so distressing, it left her almost unable to speak. “My friend who came with me was trying to talk to me, and I just said, ‘How can you talk after this?’ It’s so emotionally destroying”.
Upon its release in 1997, James Cameron’s Titanic broke multiple records: it was the first film to gross over $1billion at the box office, and it became tied for the most Academy Award wins with an astounding 11 in total. But it wouldn’t be surprising if it broke the record for most shattered hearts and teary eyes. In fact, its box office success has mostly been tied to the emotional nature of its story, so much so that it’s one of the main films that has gained cultural significance for making men and boys cry.
The enduring nature of Jack and Rose’s doomed love is even demonstrated in Turner’s love and emotion over the film. After all, the actor would have only been about a year old when it was released, which means that by the time she was old enough to fully appreciate it, it would have been over a decade old at least. It’s no doubt a film that still captivates and breaks hearts the world over, although its audiences have definitely become more critical over the years.
In fact, the main criticism levelled at the film, at the time, was that it was for “15-year-old girls”. This was due to the sheer number of teenage girls who returned for second and third watches of the film during its first go around the box office, apparently inspiring ‘Leo-mania’.
It’s unclear why a group of young girls enjoying a film would be enough to now consider it a flop, especially given the critical success achieved at the time. Well, I say unclear, but we all know the reason. Hint: sexism. It’s not like every film a young girl watches brings her to tears or renders her speechless.
While the film certainly inspired a level of mania at the time that was surely a little inflated, its emotional depth and ability to tug at our heartstrings remain. Even though both could have definitely fit on that wooden panel.
