Why Do We Watch Sad Movies?

“Love can touch us one time, and last for a lifetime” – Celine Dion, My Heart Will Go On

‘Ms Obsession’ was what my fellow classmates called me in eighth grade, because of my usually love for Smallville. I loved that show. I mean loved. It was a very unhealthy love, if I do say so myself. Ironic, though, because midway through my freshman year of high school, I stopped watching it. Guess I didn’t love it as much as I thought I did.

Anyway, my point was not to tell you about my love for Smallville but of rather telling about an unhealthy obsession I have for a movie I am correctly rewatching: Titanic. Someone please tell me why I can’t stop watching this movie! Please! I know how it ends; everyone knows how it ends. The ship sinks, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s character dies. We all know that. It’s sad. We cried when Celine Dion’s song came on. But why can’t I stop watching this movie!?

Maybe because it fascinates me. Maybe because of everything that led up to Titanic hitting the iceberg. Wasn’t just the fact that there was an iceberg, but what the Captain was told. That one guy, Bruce Ismay – who now-a-days would be classified as the Press Secretary of the ship – is telling Captain Smith to go faster, even when the Captain is getting notices about an iceberg. But it would look good if Titanic got to New York a day earlier, so he orders for the last few boilers to open up. That means the ship will go even faster. Also, if anyone remembers, the crew couldn’t find a pair of binoculars. I’m sure if they used just one pair, they would be able to see the iceberg before the ship was right in front of it.

It just seemed that everything was against them that night. Freezing cold water, no wind to break the water, not enough lifeboats. Everything together just made the situation worse. Maybe if they had sailed in the summer time, more people would have lived. Who knows?

I can't watch the film all the way through. I just can't. I get up to the point where Rose and Jack are going down into the water, and I fastforward to where the older Rose is talking about how she survived. I can't watch him die. My mother asked me "How can you watch that movie? It's so sad" and I replied with "You love 'Gone With the Wind' and that has a sad ending also!" To which she didn't say anything.

Why do I constantly rewatch it? WHY!?