The Almost Unsinkable Movie

Titanic is one of the rare times I have seen a movie in theaters that has gone on to win Best Picture.  I vividly remember being a 13 years old and going to see it with my mother and younger sister.  While I absolutely believe Titanic deserved to win that particular award, I do have mixed feelings about the film. 

Titanic is the story of two people who fall in love while aboard the R.M.S. Titanic.  James Cameron essentially created the greatest disaster movie of all time with this film.  We all know what is going to happen in the movie.  We even know how it happened.  The fact that the movie is based on something that actually happened makes it a more emotional movie.  Having known all that, the success of this film is one of the greatest unanswered questions: why?  In the 90’s, research on the R.M.S. Titanic was at an all-time high.  The beginning of the movie even shows divers going down to the bottom of the ocean to study.  I believe that is one of the reasons why Titanic was so successful.  Is this a great movie?  No.  Is it a good movie?  Yes.  The second half of the movie is far better than the first half in every way.  The sequence where the band plays “Nearer My God To Thee” is quite moving and heartbreaking.  Just one thing: at one point Jack sends one of his friends to check for boats on the other side of the ship even though it has been made clear that there are not any more.  This is a very minor flaw, but a noticeable one.  I quite like Titanic, and am very proud to own it.

I was a Leonardo DiCaprio fan before it was considered cool to be one.  He is like a fine wine in that he keeps getting better with age.  In Titanic he plays Jack Dawson, a “person of limited means”.  He is quick-witted and is able to keep his composure in tense situations.  He also recognizes that he has flaws, which I think is quite admirable.  You can tell by watching DiCaprio in this movie that he is on the cusp of becoming great.  However, I have never seen him talk about Titanic in interviews so I wonder how he truly feels about the film.

Kate Winslet plays Rose Dewitt Bukater.  Rose’s mother is forcing her to marry for money, and not love.  Jack rescues her from all of that, and with him she finds more happiness than she ever did with her mother and Cal.  Like DiCaprio, you can tell that Winslet is on the verge of become a truly great actress.  Unfortunately, she gets truly loathsome dialogue for a majority of the movie.  Somehow she makes it work, and I get the feeling she is the only actress who could have done so.

I often compare James Cameron to Robert Zemeckis at times because both directors combine visual spectacle with great characters.  Titanic is meticulously directed by James Cameron.  The year of 1912 is recreated flawlessly.  I love the ways he uses the camera in this movie.  He shows the inner workings of the ship towards the beginning of the film, which gives me goosebumps.  When Jack goes to the upper decks to have dinner with Rose, Cameron uses the camera as a metaphor for Jack experiencing what Rose’s world is like.  Of course, the second half of the movie is visually breathtaking.  The shots that are used when the ship is sinking are awe-inspiring, and the visual effects still hold up by today’s standards. 

Titanic truly is one of the greatest motion pictures of all time.  For twelve years, it stood as the most successful movie ever.  However, I think James Cameron should hire someone else to write romance because the dialogue is straight out of a romance novel.