Young people have claimed "Titanic" as their epic film--much as baby boomers in the 1950s flocked to "Ben Hur." The two films -- which this year tied for winning the most ever Oscars awarded to a single film -- reveal how the world views of two generations have changed over the last forty years. PNS editor Sandy Close, founder of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people, grew up in New York movie theaters.

This week "Titanic" tied with "Ben Hur" in the race for most Oscars ever awarded to a single film. Anyone old enough to have watched both on the silver screen must recognize that no two films offer more contrasting views of the world and of our human possibilities.

Judah Ben-Hur, scion of a noble Jewish family, through a freak accident winds up a galley slave in the Roman navy. Far from succumbing, he takes advantage of a collision with an enemy ship to free himself, rescues the Roman Admiral and navigates a rickety raft to safety. Hailed as a "son of Rome," he returns to his native Jerusalem, wins the affection of four Arabian horses which allows him to defeat his nemesis in a chariot race, and ultimately discovers the transformative power of faith in a loving God.

The heroes of "Titanic," by contrast, are two lovers doomed by the awesome power of Nature and the hubris of those who dare to presume they can control it. Jack Dawson drowns in the icy waters of the Atlantic, but Rose DeWitt Bukater survives to create a new identity even as she remains a lifelong captive of her memories.

If there's a message of redemption in the film, it's that even as an entire civilization sinks beneath the waves, one can still find self-liberation.

"Ben Hur," released in 1959, was a towering epic drama for my generation -- baby boomers reared in the Protestant culture of the 1950s, convinced we could tame chaos and reshape the world. Today's young people -- a full generation removed from my own -- claim "Titanic" as their own. For months street-wise young people in my office have abandoned their usual knowing cool to gush over the special effects, the romance, the historical sweep. Why this film -- whose only plot line is that the ship hits an iceberg and sinks?

The extraordinary popularity of "Titanic" marks the coming of age of a generation weaned on environmentalism as a secular religion. Where a personal God triumphs over the Roman Empire and ultimately death itself in Ben Hur, impersonal, overarching Nature is the force that controls humanity's destiny in "Titanic." Like the iceberg lurking in a serene and majestic ocean, Nature is not so much malign as indifferent and unpredictable. It exists -- like evil in a Steven King novel -- and we must acknowledge it, accommodate it as best we can, sacrifice ourselves to its will.

Some of "Titanic's" characters -- like Jack, who balances Rose's life raft while his body slowly freezes in the sea -- are not without a certain nobility. But the noble act more often lies in succumbing to the elements rather than resisting them. Thus the film eulogizes those who "go down" with a Kevorkian death-with-dignity -- the elderly couple clasping each other in bed, the millionaire standing resolute in his tuxedo under the chandelier, the mother tucking her children into bed with a last goodnight kiss.

For all their frantic dashing of bodies from ship's end to ship's end, those who survive do so thanks largely to social standing, shrewdness or sheer luck, if not outright trickery. (The bravest figure in the film is the upstart Molly Brown who tries to convince her lifeboat passengers to search for survivors. She ultimately fails.)

As for friendships and family, Titanic offers little despite its sentimental dialogue. Parents are self-centered, suffocating or feeble; friendships are largely irrelevant; romance is fleeting -- the pursuit of the unattainable -- or perverted by lust and revenge (as in the case of Rose's fiance).

Ultimately, the film sees the human condition as one of navigating solo in a universe of random terror. No wonder "Titanic" rhymes with young people's soul. Yet "Titanic" is not, in the end, dark -- there is a glimmer of consolation in the Darwinian world.

Rose offers the role model. In the calamity of man colliding with nature, Rose finds what she has been searching for from the beginning of the film -- the energy to liberate herself. In her final act, she consigns her one remaining tie to the past into the sea.

Ben Hur talked to me and my peers as if we had it in us to take on the world. The Titanic's vision is for another, post environmental culture. It preaches that, in the face of awesome elements we cannot ultimately control, we must seek and find detachment.