The epitome of the stereotypical Victorian male. And actually a lot of men I know today are somewhat like them. That is, they think their money, and their reputation will handle all their problems, and if all else fails, they'll use physical force to take care of it. This is certainly true of the narrator in Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State (well, he didn't have money or reputation, so he just relied on physical force). Every one of Cal's lines makes me want to roll my eyes. Every gesture he makes is so arrogant and overbearing it makes my stomach turn. Can I just say, I despise everything about this character. This is the mark of a fabulous actor. Billy Zane is just wonderful in this role.

His smirks are great. I also love it at the beginning after the servant (umm.. I guess it's a servant) says, "This is your private promenade, sir. Will you be requiring anything?" and Billy just sort of grunts at him. And when the ship is sinking and he sees the little girl crying, he looks at her like, "How dare you sit there and snivel like that?" It's just a wonderful expression. It's a little harder to read him than it is to read Leo and Kate, but that's understandable. I mean, Cal is not supposed to be easy to read. He's pretty much Victorian--therefore, the facade is everything, and masking emotions is vital.

So did Cal love Rose? There's a question to ponder. I think he did, in his own way. He had to love her a heck of a lot to give her the Heart of the Ocean. Remember, money meant a lot to him; that was how he expressed his love. I do, in fact, know some people like that. Yet I do not think he loved Rose more than he loved himself. This is pretty obvious; watch them in the scene where he gives her the Heart of the Ocean. He's looking into the mirror--he looks at himself the entire time. So why was he willing to give up his own seat in a lifeboat to go put her on a lifeboat? Well let's see.. the last time she talked to him, I seem to recall her saying, "I'd rather be his [Jack's] whore than your wife," and then spitting in Cal's face. Thus, Cal has just been defeated by a "gutter rat". And we can't have that, now, can we? Since she was "waiting for a lifeboat... with him," as Lovejoy so eloquently put it, Cal couldn't stand to lose. Rose had become more or less a prize he was determined to win by this point, and it was utterly humiliating for him to be beaten by a third-class passenger. So he went over to make sure they were separated. It was pretty obvious he must have felt something for her, because when Rose jumped out of the boat and went back to Jack, the look on Cal's face was heartbreaking.

One final thing: has anyone else noticed that there is a severe shortage of Cal pics on the web? Thanks to Stacy, I now have a wealth of them. :-) Here are just a few more that I LOVE.

Oh! I did find this one site for Cal lovers: Twisted Babes for Cal.

More Cal

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Last updated 1/3/99 - Cal collage and almost all of the pics on this page added.