CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Nowadays, due to modernization and the development of technology, people prefer watching films than reading literature, because watching films is easier than reading literature. The audience only needs to watch to understand the story of a film. Meanwhile, when reading literature such as novel or poetry, the audience needs some knowledge to understand the meaning inside a novel or poetry.
Actually, a film (including the script) is a part of literature, because films are based on story. The term is written in Encyclopedia Americana (1986), “film in the ‘performance’, covert all art”. Art is including painting, music, dance, literature, theatre, and poetry, and the audience can find all aspects of art in a film. See the quotation below: Like painting, film presents a two dimensional picture within a frame. Like music, they present all material within the dimension of time. Like dance, films are choreographed to use space for the aesthetic-scene. Like literature, many films are based on stories. Like theatre, most films use human actors. Like poetry, films can present several kind of meaning at one. (Encyclopedia Americana, 1986: 505).
As literary work, film can be used as a source for studying literature. Before we study about film, we need to know the definition of film. Film (www.word.reference.com) is ‘a form of entertainment that enacts a story by a sequence of images giving the illusions of continuous movement’. Meanwhile, Hornby (1995: 434) defines film as ‘a story, etc, recorded as a set of moving pictures to be shown on television or at the cinema’.
Films also called motion picture or movie. As written in Encyclopedia Americana (1998: 505), ‘film as a tool for research and education, the motion picture has unique capabilities’. Here is the complete quotation: Films can record cultures, and they can treat social or political issues and other aspects of societies to capture relationship difficult to communicate by other means. Films allow the scientist to see aspects of the world that are difficult to observe with naked eyes. Encyclopedia Americana (1998:505).
Besides, films represent the actual life of human beings either in classical or in modern way. Sometimes, they also talk about social problems of a society. Hedonism is one of social problems which exist in a society either in past time or in present time. In addition, film is the reflection of reality. Hedonism is a part of reality in a society. Hedonism is a part of lifestyles in a society. So, we may find the implementation or the reflection of hedonism in a film.
Titanic, a film by James Cameron is one of many films indicating social aspects in a society, such as hedonism. This is a film based on the real story about the sinking of a White Star Liner Titanic in the middle of Atlantic in 1912. In order to gain a clearer view about the phenomenon of hedonism, the topic ‘Reflection of Ethical and Psychological Hedonism’ which can be found in
