Movies
“Titanic” | Yea, Yea, I Finally Saw It. Now My Coworkers Can Get Off My Back.
Titanic is pretty good. Ever heard of it?
“A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.”
Director: James Cameron
Writer: James Cameron
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, Bernard Smith
Release Date: December 19, 1997
IMDB
When my coworkers discovered that I had never seen Titanic (1997), every single conversation about movies eventually ran into the verbal iceberg: “you can’t say anything, you’ve never seen Titanic.” At that point I would throw my hands up in the air and someone would giggle when my speaking octave went up a few levels.
Well, I finally saw it. Yup, i finally saw one of the most famous and profitable movies of all time. I can now interact with society again and wear one less cinema scarlet letter.
So, I know you are begging my to answer the most important question: Is Titanic good?
Yes, Titanic is good. It is very good. Turns out that James Cameron is incredibly gifted at making movies. Turns out that James Cameron is one of the best visual filmmakers to ever do it.
Did I have any doubts that Titanic was going to be good? No. I knew for a fact that I was going to enjoy it. I had heard only good things. To be frank, I had seen about 75% of the movie via movie clips on television broadcasts. But those short spurts don’t count. One needs to watch the entire thing in full to give vetted thoughts, and there are some takes I would like to get off my chest.
Let’s get this on the table first. The worst part of Titanic is the love story. I know that society of the late 1990s were all fawning over baby faced Leonardo DiCaprio. I know that Kate Winslet is gorgeous and the the hand swiping down on the window is iconic. But let’s not pretend that the best part of Titanic is its last hour when James Cameron can flex his muscle and the Romeo & Juliet relationship takes a back seat.
Let me explain before you balk, grasp your pearls and gasp in disbelief. I was willing to buy a lot of the relationship’s over-the-top nature until one key moment where I had to roll my eyes. Midway through the movie, Rose (Kate Winslet) tells Jack that she can no longer see him. Peer pressure from her parents and the vulture eyes of Cal Hockley (Billy Zane) forces her to wave her fancy gloves in his face and bid him ado.
Then there is a scene where Rose’s mother Ruth Dewitt Bukater (Frances Fisher) is acting extra hoity. Within less than five minutes of the movie passing, Rose SUDDENLY CHANGES HER MIND AND IS BEGGING FOR HIM BACK?! What is happening here? This sudden switch of heart was timed out as if the whole movie was cramped into a 30 minute drama. I know there is the natural time crunch of the event. I know the boat sinks so we need to have these two together when it’s gonna go down. This sudden change of heart wasn’t necessary. You could have have shown Rose’s change of values in a more effective way that didn’t throw a disgusting knot in the movie’s fulcrum moving plot.
I can get off my soap box now. Titanic is really good. It is nearly great. First of all, the scope the movie is massive. Credit to Cameron for constantly biting off more than he can chew and still managing to go for seconds. Right from the get-go, you can tell that everything about Titanic is going to be over the top.
Cameron shows off his assets in the movie’s final act. With Titanic being based on a true event, everyone was waiting to see what the boat sinking would be like. That is a ton of pressure. It is similar to Oppenheimer (2023) where everyone was waiting to see how Christopher Nolan would do an atomic bomb. Thankfully, despite 16 years between the two movies, both legendary directors are able to meet and surpass everyone’s expectations.
The sinking of the Titanic was not a sudden thing, and Cameron is able to fill in the gaps of the ships destruction with compelling drama focusing on the main romantic relationship and the over-arching social status themes. The idea of the lower class being locked in the basement is a bit on the nose for their inability to move up in the eyes of the elite, but it is also true to what happened on the ship. Even in the beginning chaotic moments, the prejudices of who can access to what still seep through. Eventually the barriers are broken, but it is only through utter desperation or the unstoppable motion of the ocean.
The escape from the lower levels by Rose and Jack is like a horror movie. The flashing lights, constantly loud noises and shadowy figures unable and unwilling to help all create an air of uneasiness. When Titanic first sailed into theaters in 1997, I can imagine that many people thought that the pair would never back it to the surface. There is a version of the screenplay where Rose and Jack are crushed by an upper level of Titanic to hammer home the lesson of how the weight of elevated expectations and the upper class can drawn you.
But that would cut the movie short by 30 minutes. In all seriousness, Titanic ends with iconic flare. The string quartet playing the ship off is emotional, and the captain going down with the ship hits as hard as the water is icy. The unwillingness for the boats to go and look for survivors is peevishly selfish and a great final negative attribute pinpointed on the ship’s elite. Cameron is able connect all the dots of the story while still allowing the crashing audio and video cacophony to take the needed spotlight.
If we are not talking the final act, there are one additional scene that deserves extra attention.
This is Leonardo DiCaprio strutting his stuff. Getting the play the pretty fish out of water, the yet-to-be Hollywood A-lister takes every social jab and evades them like Muhammed Ali in his prime. He dives out of possible pitfalls and hits back with surprising charisma and charm. Jack doesn’t need to know what piece of silverware to use. All he needs is the gracious generosity of New Money Molly Brown (Kathy Bates) and the encouraging eye of Rose from across the way.
Jack holding court at dinner followed by him dominating the dance floor at the far-more-fun dinner after party is the best part of the opening two acts. It is when DiCaprio and Winslet have the most natural chemistry and when Cameron can use the camera to show their quickly festering romance.
So yea, I enjoyed Titanic. It is pretty damn good. I don’t think it is Cameron’s best movie, but I do think it may be his most ambitious. Part of that comes from the fact that Titanic is part practical effects and not just visual effects like Avatar (2009) and Avatar: They Way Of Water (2022). I don’t know everything that goes into creating new technology to film underwater and making Pandora look more realistic that National Geographic. For comparison I do know how big these practical sound stage sets are and I do know how remarkable it is to blend excellence in two different ways.
I am not the only one to appreciate it, two decades after the fact.
Titanic won some awards. Just a few. Only 11 Academy Awards. That’s it.
- Best Picture – James Cameron, Jon Landua
- Best Director – James Cameron
- Best Cinematography – Russell Carpenter
- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration – Peter Lamont, Michael Ford
- Best Costume Design – Deborah L. Scott
- Best Sound – Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, Mark Ulano
- Best Film Editing – Conrad Buff IV, James Cameron, Richard A. Harris
- Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing – Tom Bellfort, Christopher Boyes
- Best Effects, Visual Effects – Robert Legato, Mark A. Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher, Michael Kanger
- Best Original Song – James Horner, Will Jennings
- Best Music – James Horner
And to the three nominees who didn’t make the mark, you will be remembered none the less.
- Best Actress – Kate Winslet
- Best Supporting Actress – Gloria Stuart
- Best Makeup – Tina Earnshaw, Greg Cannom, Simon Thompson
Titanic is worthy of the hype. It is worthy of the praise. Cameron doesn’t make bad movies, and Titanic is potentially his greatest achievement. While I am happy that I got to watch a great movie, I am more so relieved that I will no longer be tortured in the office…until they find a new movie to roast me for.
STANKO RATING: A-
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