Loved her as desperate has-been Ruth DeWitt Bukater
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Frances Fisher
jeffyoung1 — 16 years ago(May 08, 2009 11:35 PM)
I really mean this. I liked how Frances Fisher did a bravura performance of portraying uptight, desperate, manipulative, sneering Ruth DeWitt Bukater. She's not an evil character, just an unlikeable one due to her desperate social and financial circumstances. Her recently passed away husband left the Bukater family financially broke. Ruth DeWitt Bukater is living on borrowed time, spending what little money she has left to keep up appearances of high social class and wealth. But without a wealthy husband to marry Rose DeWitt Bukater, they're all headed for ruin. It didn't occur to Ruth DeWitt Bukater to remarry a wealthy man herself, but as she's now much older, those prospects of finding a rich widowerer are remote. At that time, single men, even widowerers, preferred to marry a very young woman.
I still relish her slimy reptilian scene where she sneeringly greets Jack Dawson with ersatz courtesy, inquiring about his comfort and accommodation in, "steerage", reminding everyone else at the table, including Rose, that Jack Dawson is poor white trash.
Using the term, "steerage", was supposed to be a little more polite and euphemistic, as opposed to saying, "third class", which would have been comparable to saying, 'cheap seats', to someone.
What a coincidence. In 1992, Frances Fisher played the role of a vengeful hooker in a Clint Eastwood western. Fisher tries hiring gunfighters to kill the two cowboys who abused one of the call girls at the saloon brothel. Fisher is a naturalized American citizen, originating from Britain. -
Ouarda — 15 years ago(May 07, 2010 01:05 PM)
I agree that she did a great job with a very unlikable role. No matter how much you disliked the character, she made us understand exactly who she was, and the desperation that drove her to the decisions she made. Ruth De Witt Bukater was a woman of her time and class, and in the hands of a lesser actress, she would have been even more contemptible. Although I was repulsed at what she was asking her daughter to do, I still understood her.