It’s quite normal when you’ve missed the boat on something popular (no pun intended) to find said thing somewhat repulsive. You actively avoid that thing because everybody has set such astronomically high expectations that you are fully aware of the fact that whatever it is simply cannot live up to these expectations anymore. I’ve had it with a number of TV shows over the years but there’s really only one film that I’ve had such a reaction to, and that is James Cameron’s Titanic. A film that won eleven Academy Awards, was the most expensive and highest grossing film of all time for around a decade, and a film that’s so long that you need to properly commit a large chunk of time to watch it in a single sitting and fully appreciate.
When I was a child I would often sit and watch the opening scenes of Titanic on repeat using my mum’s VHS copy of the film, but aside from catching the odd glimpse on TV over the years I had never seen Titanic until now. But I was excited to watch it, a film that had received such monumental acclaim at the time of release, and then somewhat shortly thereafter had public opinion turn against it, only to slowly regain that appreciation years later, Titanic was an enigma that I finally decided I wanted in on. So, what did I think?
Treasure hunter Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) is looking for a famous diamond ‘The Heart of the Ocean’ amongst the recently rediscovered wreckage of the RMS Titanic when he discovers a safe that contains a drawing of a young woman wearing the jewel. Lovett puts out a plea for information pertaining to who this woman might be in the hopes that it may point him in the right direction for the jewel. Centenarian Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stuart) responds to Lovett proclaiming that she is the woman in the drawing, and that she can answer any and all questions he has in relation to the jewel, how it came to be in her possession, and how the painting came to exist.
The year is 1912 and the RMS Titanic, the largest manmade vessel ever created, is about to set off on her maiden voyage departing from Southampton, England to cross the Atlantic Ocean on course for New York. Among the ship’s two and a half thousand occupants and crew are Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), a wealthy seventeen-year-old who is engaged to steel magnate Caledon Hockley (Billy Zane); and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a twenty-year-old homeless orphan who travels the world drawing people to fund his next journey. When Jack saves Rose’s life aboard the ship, the two form a Romeo & Juliet style romance. However, tragedy strikes when the Titanic collides with an iceberg, setting in motion the horrific series of true events which led to the deaths of over fifteen-hundred people in one of the greatest maritime disasters in human history.
When I was a child I would often sit and watch the opening scenes of Titanic on repeat using my mum’s VHS copy of the film, but aside from catching the odd glimpse on TV over the years I had never seen Titanic until now. But I was excited to watch it, a film that had received such monumental acclaim at the time of release, and then somewhat shortly thereafter had public opinion turn against it, only to slowly regain that appreciation years later, Titanic was an enigma that I finally decided I wanted in on. So, what did I think?
Treasure hunter Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) is looking for a famous diamond ‘The Heart of the Ocean’ amongst the recently rediscovered wreckage of the RMS Titanic when he discovers a safe that contains a drawing of a young woman wearing the jewel. Lovett puts out a plea for information pertaining to who this woman might be in the hopes that it may point him in the right direction for the jewel. Centenarian Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stuart) responds to Lovett proclaiming that she is the woman in the drawing, and that she can answer any and all questions he has in relation to the jewel, how it came to be in her possession, and how the painting came to exist.
The year is 1912 and the RMS Titanic, the largest manmade vessel ever created, is about to set off on her maiden voyage departing from Southampton, England to cross the Atlantic Ocean on course for New York. Among the ship’s two and a half thousand occupants and crew are Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), a wealthy seventeen-year-old who is engaged to steel magnate Caledon Hockley (Billy Zane); and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a twenty-year-old homeless orphan who travels the world drawing people to fund his next journey. When Jack saves Rose’s life aboard the ship, the two form a Romeo & Juliet style romance. However, tragedy strikes when the Titanic collides with an iceberg, setting in motion the horrific series of true events which led to the deaths of over fifteen-hundred people in one of the greatest maritime disasters in human history.
Whilst the tragedy that befell the Titanic and its occupants is indeed real, the story of Jack and Rose is entirely fictional. There’s always a fine line that needs to be toed when creating films based on true events, so that it doesn’t do disservice to the historical inspiration. So it’s strange to see director James Cameron be so forward with his tale of the Titanic that the majority of the story you are consuming is fictional, but yet the historical and scientific accuracy of the ship and its sinking are strikingly accurate.
The draw of Cameron’s Titanic is undoubtedly the spectacle. You shouldn’t be mistaken in thinking that this is anything other than a disaster movie in the same ilk as the likes of Armageddon, but what separates Titanic from other disaster movies of the time is what keeps you coming back time and time again which is the central romance between Jack and Rose.
I feel as though this is achieved by Cameron somehow managing to create two separate films within Titanic and splitting them almost exactly down the middle. Aside from the first twenty minutes, the first half of the film deals almost exclusively with the romance of Jack and Rose. We get to know who they are, why they’re there, see them meet, and watch them fall in love with all the mess that creates around them. It’s a cheesy forbidden romance flick in all its glory with the set dressing of a period drama. You become so attached to these characters during this time that even with the knowledge of what’s going to happen later on, you always manage to build up hope that they might manage to get their happy ending this time. Going back to the opening, this sequence serves to explain what happened to the Titanic in scientific terms. It’s cold and clinical in its descriptions and depictions of what happened to the ship from the moment it hit that iceberg. It sets up exactly what you’re going to witness in the second half of the film, but then follows that up with Rose’s story to draw you in emotionally.
The second half of the film then goes full disaster movie, with the ship hitting the iceberg, water flooding the ship from the lower levels, people dying either from drowning or by the hands of the other occupants, and the mad panic to try and survive once the ship begins to fall apart. Whilst this is a major tonal shift from the first half it doesn’t feel so outrageously over the top because you’ve already been given the science, and then it hits you harder than a normal disaster movie would because you’re now invested in the occupants, and even the ship thanks to Rose’s emotional star crossed lovers story.
The draw of Cameron’s Titanic is undoubtedly the spectacle. You shouldn’t be mistaken in thinking that this is anything other than a disaster movie in the same ilk as the likes of Armageddon, but what separates Titanic from other disaster movies of the time is what keeps you coming back time and time again which is the central romance between Jack and Rose.
I feel as though this is achieved by Cameron somehow managing to create two separate films within Titanic and splitting them almost exactly down the middle. Aside from the first twenty minutes, the first half of the film deals almost exclusively with the romance of Jack and Rose. We get to know who they are, why they’re there, see them meet, and watch them fall in love with all the mess that creates around them. It’s a cheesy forbidden romance flick in all its glory with the set dressing of a period drama. You become so attached to these characters during this time that even with the knowledge of what’s going to happen later on, you always manage to build up hope that they might manage to get their happy ending this time. Going back to the opening, this sequence serves to explain what happened to the Titanic in scientific terms. It’s cold and clinical in its descriptions and depictions of what happened to the ship from the moment it hit that iceberg. It sets up exactly what you’re going to witness in the second half of the film, but then follows that up with Rose’s story to draw you in emotionally.
The second half of the film then goes full disaster movie, with the ship hitting the iceberg, water flooding the ship from the lower levels, people dying either from drowning or by the hands of the other occupants, and the mad panic to try and survive once the ship begins to fall apart. Whilst this is a major tonal shift from the first half it doesn’t feel so outrageously over the top because you’ve already been given the science, and then it hits you harder than a normal disaster movie would because you’re now invested in the occupants, and even the ship thanks to Rose’s emotional star crossed lovers story.
Winslet is undoubtedly the star of the show here. She turns Rose from what could have simply been a bratty rich girl who wants to run away from money into a young woman who is pushing back against a mother who makes all her decisions for her and an abusive fiancée, who discovers a man that despite having nothing of value has all the love for life she has ever wanted. Winslet makes her such a likeable and down to earth character, which is impressive considering how easy it would have been to have Jack be the one who changes her.
DiCaprio as Jack meanwhile is fine. He’s definitely not bad but even in comparison to his at the time recent leading role in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet, this is not peak Leo. Jack is a likeable scoundrel who at least to the viewer is basically flawless which I found difficult to get on board with, but thanks to Winslet it is very easy to fall in love with that character as well because you’re so enamoured by how hard these two fall for each other.
The supporting cast meanwhile are generally all quite strong, from Zane’s aggressive and antagonistic businessman, to Bernard Hill’s stoic and understated Captain Smith. But the best supporting performance is without a doubt the ship itself. The Titanic is more than just the setting of this film as each and every room the film takes you to is lovingly detailed and feels truly real. During the first half the ship is bright, with a warm welcoming and high spirits kind of energy to it; which drastically changes in the second half as water begins to creep up through the corridors, the lights begin to flicker and the environment turns sinister and cold. The set lends so much to making this film so engrossing and only gives the tragedy of this true event even more impact as you feel like you have been aboard the ship yourself.
If you frequent the internet in any way you'll have probably seen how much of a meme Titanic has become in the years since its release. With jokes made out of every single line of dialogue and holes attempted to be poked in every single decision the characters make over the course of the film. But I'm here to defend it. As someone entirely new to the film, but has been exposed to the jokes for years, I couldn't find a single instance where any of these issues people make fun of actually being present. Case in point, Jack's death at the end of the film.
According to the internet Rose allows Jack to die because he could have shared the floating door with her, but the film literally shows him trying to get on the door with her and the whole thing tipping up because it can't support both of their weight. It only takes someone with eyes to see why she couldn't share the door with him, so I can't understand why this is even a debate after all this time.
This isn't the only instance, and there's also lots of poking fun at 'bad dialogue' when really the film doesn't do anything criminally wrong when looking at those scenes in context of the film itself. I feel like it's just a case of people hating the film because it was popular, rather than the film being actually bad.
DiCaprio as Jack meanwhile is fine. He’s definitely not bad but even in comparison to his at the time recent leading role in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet, this is not peak Leo. Jack is a likeable scoundrel who at least to the viewer is basically flawless which I found difficult to get on board with, but thanks to Winslet it is very easy to fall in love with that character as well because you’re so enamoured by how hard these two fall for each other.
The supporting cast meanwhile are generally all quite strong, from Zane’s aggressive and antagonistic businessman, to Bernard Hill’s stoic and understated Captain Smith. But the best supporting performance is without a doubt the ship itself. The Titanic is more than just the setting of this film as each and every room the film takes you to is lovingly detailed and feels truly real. During the first half the ship is bright, with a warm welcoming and high spirits kind of energy to it; which drastically changes in the second half as water begins to creep up through the corridors, the lights begin to flicker and the environment turns sinister and cold. The set lends so much to making this film so engrossing and only gives the tragedy of this true event even more impact as you feel like you have been aboard the ship yourself.
If you frequent the internet in any way you'll have probably seen how much of a meme Titanic has become in the years since its release. With jokes made out of every single line of dialogue and holes attempted to be poked in every single decision the characters make over the course of the film. But I'm here to defend it. As someone entirely new to the film, but has been exposed to the jokes for years, I couldn't find a single instance where any of these issues people make fun of actually being present. Case in point, Jack's death at the end of the film.
According to the internet Rose allows Jack to die because he could have shared the floating door with her, but the film literally shows him trying to get on the door with her and the whole thing tipping up because it can't support both of their weight. It only takes someone with eyes to see why she couldn't share the door with him, so I can't understand why this is even a debate after all this time.
This isn't the only instance, and there's also lots of poking fun at 'bad dialogue' when really the film doesn't do anything criminally wrong when looking at those scenes in context of the film itself. I feel like it's just a case of people hating the film because it was popular, rather than the film being actually bad.
Titanic was a special effects powerhouse for the time with the majority of the exterior shots of the ship being constructed digitally, or through a combination of practical sets and green screens. I was surprised with how well these effects have held up as well, and whilst it is often clear what’s digital and what’s real, the digital stuff never becomes an eyesore even over two decades later. Particularly towards the end of the film with the ship entering its final stages of sinking and hundreds of people in the water surrounding it, it doesn’t look horrendously fake which I feel lends the film a slightly timeless quality. Whilst I can’t speak of the 3D version of the film that released in 2012, I must say I hope to one day see a 4K version of the film, perhaps even with Dolby enhancements and the expanded IMAX aspect ratio offered up for home viewing to truly bask in the scale of some of these later sequences.
In case you haven’t been able to tell, I had a fantastic time with Titanic and I am very glad to have finally gotten around to watching it. Much like the ship itself, Cameron’s film is a marvel of technical engineering and directorial prowess. It’s massive in scale yet manages to hone in on a story to make the tragedy personal to audiences, even those unfamiliar with the real life tragedy. It’s a film I look forward to revisiting in the future, and I have to say I can’t understand the negativity levelled towards this film in the years following its release. A case of thing is popular so thing therefore must be bad, a sentiment that rippled through Hollywood and as a result saw few popular films nominated for Oscars until reasonably recently. Titanic manages to not only be high art awards bait, but also manages to be a thrilling disaster movie, and also a poignant memorial to those who died in the real tragedy. An impossible balance to strike, yet Titanic somehow manages it.
In case you haven’t been able to tell, I had a fantastic time with Titanic and I am very glad to have finally gotten around to watching it. Much like the ship itself, Cameron’s film is a marvel of technical engineering and directorial prowess. It’s massive in scale yet manages to hone in on a story to make the tragedy personal to audiences, even those unfamiliar with the real life tragedy. It’s a film I look forward to revisiting in the future, and I have to say I can’t understand the negativity levelled towards this film in the years following its release. A case of thing is popular so thing therefore must be bad, a sentiment that rippled through Hollywood and as a result saw few popular films nominated for Oscars until reasonably recently. Titanic manages to not only be high art awards bait, but also manages to be a thrilling disaster movie, and also a poignant memorial to those who died in the real tragedy. An impossible balance to strike, yet Titanic somehow manages it.