1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: Lee Kim Thiam
STUDENT ID NO: 0310710
FILMS SELECTED: Titanic and Pearl Harbour
WORD COUNT: 982 Words
ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 18th
APRIL 2014

2. Pre Writing
Pearl Harbour
1) Plot
- Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and his childhood friend Danny Walker ( Josh
Hartnett ) going to war together as military pilots.
- Rafe McCawley meets a nurse, Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale) and they fall in love.
- About to be deployed to Hawaii, Rafe decides to volunteer for the Royal Air
Force in Britain but is presumed to have died in action.
- Grief-stricken Danny and Evelyn become romantically attached only to realize
that Rafe actually survived.
- The love triangle gets complicated as Rafe feels betrayed by the love of his life
and his best friend.
- Japan hits Pearl Harbour. America takes revenge by sending their best military
pilots including Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker, to bomb Tokyo.
- Danny Walker sacrifices himself to save Rafe McCawley from being shot by the
Japanese patrol.
- Rafe reaches America safely and becomes the husband of Evelyn.
- The plot is about a complicated relationship between Rafe and Evelyn and the
gradual relationship build between Evelyn and Danny. Shows which is more
important; Friendship or Love.
2) Setting (Time/Place/etc.)
- Time setting is 1940s or the Second World War.
- Place as the title depicts, Pearl Harbour.
3) People in the movie
- Major roles played are soldiers, military pilots, citizens and nurses.
4) Major characters
- Rafe (Ben Affleck) – Military pilot
- Danny (Josh Hartnett) – Military pilot
- Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale) – Nurse
5) Other characters
- Jimmy Doolittle (Alec Baldwin) – Military Pilot

3. Titanic
1) Plot
- Shows a point of an old woman, Rose Calvert (Gloria Stuart) telling a story about
what happened to the Titanic through her own eyes.
- Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) sees Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslett) on
the Titanic and falls in love at first sight on the deck of the majestic ‘unsinkable’
ship, the Titanic.
- Rose tries to commit suicide but Jack talks her out of it, only to drive Rose into a
passionate interest for Jack.
- Midpoint through the film, the Titanic slides against a huge ice berg upon
attempts of avoiding it.
- As the ill-fated ship starts to sink, Jack asks Rose to save herself but she insists to
stay with Jack till the very end.
- Jack puts Rose on a floating wooden plank but at a cost, leaving him to freeze to
death in the water of dead passengers.
- Coming back to the present time of the film, older Rose throws the rare diamond
overboard, for it to reach the bottom, to where it truly belongs; The Titanic.
Setting
- Time setting is the year 1912. The time setting of the film is actually 1996 but the
film is depicted so well that the audience is put into a mind-set that the story is not
told but is actually happening. Only when some time through the film, where the
older version of Rose continues her story only does the audience realize that the
story is being told.
- Place setting of the film is on the Titanic. Partial scenes shows the story is being
told on the explorer ship at the wreck site of the Titanic.
People in the film
- Low and high classed passengers, the ship’s crew.
Major Characters
- Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio)
- Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslett)
Other characters
- Caledon Hockley (Bill Zane) – Fiancé of Rose, Antagonist.

4. Contrast of Differences between Titanic and Pearl Harbour
The movies Titanic and Pearl Harbour, produced by James Cameron and Michael
Bay respectively, are two different movies based on the same genre of romance and are
portrayed based on their true stories in the past. However, where there are similarities,
they are bound to have their differences. Despite the same genre that both these movies
share, there are quite a number of differences shown between these two movies.
First off, the movie Pearl Harbour is a film generally based on the true story about
the war between America and Japan. Pushing the war genre aside, however, reveals the
main focus of the film which is the romance between a pilot and a nurse. The plot of the
film is rather complicated as it involves a twist of events that impacts the story of the film.
Rafe McCawley, played by Ben Affleck, builds a romantic relationship with a nurse,
Evelyn, role played by Kate Beckinsale. Halfway through the film, Rafe dies in action
and grief struck, Danny Walker, played by Josh Hartnett, as well as Evelyn start to
become romantically attached to one another. Not long after, Rafe who was once
presumed dead is actually alive, forming a complicated love triangle between the two
childhood friends and the nurse. When Japan hits America, the best pilots were
assembled to attack Japan, forcing Rafe and Danny to head up to Japan. After
successfully hitting Tokyo, Rafe and Danny’s planes crash into a field. Being attacked by
the Japanese patrols, Danny saves Rafe from being shot by sacrificing himself. At the
end of the movie, Rafe gets back with Evelyn and starts a relationship again with her. The
whole plot of the story shows the meaning of friendship and the passion for love and
raises the question of which being more important.

5. The time setting for the film is in the 1940’s or also the time of the Second World
War. The place setting is situated mainly in Hawaii or as the title depicts, Pearl Harbour.
The people who are involved in the film play as soldiers, military pilots, nurses and
citizens. Major characters of the show are Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker, both
being military pilots as well as Evelyn, a nurse. The only antagonist as shown in the film
are the Japanese, but thinking back about the reason why the Japanese attacked America
does raise a doubt about who the antagonist really is.
Next up is the movie Titanic, a romantic film inspired by the true story about the
‘unsinkable’ ship, ironically sinking at the end of the film. The plot of the film starts off
with an old woman, Rose Calvert role played by Gloria Stuart, telling her story to the
members of a research team about her experience on the Titanic. At this point, the scene
shifts back in time, when the Titanic was about to set sail in the year 1912. On board,
where Jack Dawson, who was brilliantly played by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio,
sees Rose DeWitt Bukater who was played by Kate Winslett, falls in love at first sight.
That night, Rose tries to attempt suicide but was talked out of it by Jack. From then on,
Rose develops a passionate interest for Jack despite her acknowledgement of being
engaged to a rich man, Caledon Hockley, role played by Bill Zane. Midpoint through the
film, the Titanic slides through a huge iceberg causing the ill-fated ship to sink. As the
ship sinks, Jack tells Rose to save herself but she insists that they stay together till the end.
Caledon does not approve their love for one another and pursues them by trying to kill
Jack even while the ship is being engulfed by the freezing ocean. After the ship sinks,
Jack puts Rose on a floating plank saving her, but at a drastic cost of freezing himself to
death. Having her rescued, Rose lives on for another eighty four years and the scene goes

6. back to where the story started, the exploration team’s ship. At the end, however, Rose
takes out the diamond that the explorers have been longing to find and throws it
overboard the ship for it to reach the bottom of the ocean, where it truly belongs. The plot
of the story is simple, where true love is more important than all the money in the world.
Although the story is told in the year 1996, the audience do not realise it, as the
flashbacks throughout the film are smoothly transitioned between the present and the
1920s. The place setting also applies the same concept, where the actual place of the film
is on the exploration team’s ship shifts back to the Titanic. The people who are involved
in this play the role of high and low class passengers on the ship, where class is an absurd
priority on the ship at the time. Major characters of the film are Jack Dawson, the lower
class passenger as well as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Caledon Hockley, the upper class
passengers. Caledon is easily recognized as the antagonist of the film, showing his
despise for the love Jack and Rose has for one another.
The contrast of differences can be obviously seen through the plot, settings and the
types of people in both films. Pearl harbour has an extra touch of war and explosions
while Titanic simply does not have any of those. Then, the setting for the Titanic comes
in two different ways one being in the past and the other being in the present while Pearl
Harbour only has a fixed setting of time and place. Finally, the types of people portrayed
in the film for the Titanic is much more different than Pearl Harbour which mainly has
soldiers throughout the whole film. In conclusion, even though Titanic and Pearl Harbour
have the same genre, they are still different in almost every way.

7. References
1) Titanic. (n.d.). IMDb. Retrieved April 4, 2014, from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
2) Pearl Harbor. (n.d.). IMDb. Retrieved April 4, 2014, from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213149/?ref_=nv_sr_2
3) Cameron, J. (Director). (1997). Titanic : Paramount Pictures.
4) Bay, M. (Director). (2000). Pearl Harbour : Touchstone Home Video.
5) Pearl Harbor (2001) Synopsis - Plot Summary - Fandango. (n.d.). Fandango.
Retrieved April 4, 2014, from
http://www.fandango.com/pearlharbor_23264/plotsummary
6) Titanic (1997) Synopsis - Plot Summary - Fandango. (n.d.). Fandango. Retrieved
April 4, 2014, from http://www.fandango.com/titanic_1466/plotsummary