Titanic

Plot

The famous story of the sinking of the ‘unsinkable’ ship – where 17-year-old aristocrat Rose meets 3rd class passenger Jack – and they form a friendship, and romance on the doomed vessel.

In 1996, Rose, now a 101-year-old woman tells her story – to a treasure hunter, who is searching for a necklace she was in possession of way back on the ship in 1912.

Direction

James Cameron’s own love of the story of Titanic, and his real-life love of deep-sea diving is why we have this movie. There are snippets of real-life dives in the film itself. The epic action in the later part of the film, as well as the near flawless sets are so well done.

Cameron was well deserving of his Oscar for this, just for the attention to detail that he put into almost every scene.

There are a couple of moments where the transition from 1912 to 1996 that is done eerily well.

Cast/Characters

The lead cast of Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack, and Kate Winslet as Rose are both very good. While this is far from their best performances, they are sound here.

Secondary cast is too large to name with dozens of speaking parts, and ten prominent cast members. Notable mention goes to Gloria Stewart as older Rose (who herself was 100 when she passed) and Bill Paxton, who plays Brock Lovett, the man searching for the ‘Heart of the Ocean’ necklace.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

Set in three ‘parts’ the ‘set up/introduction’ ‘Rose & Jack love story’ and ‘the sinking’ – it is a very well written film. I forgot how much of the film gave to the sinking arc – at almost half the film’s epic 195-minute runtime.

There were some incredibly memorable quotes that have gone down in folklore history (and been mimicked so many times in comedy movies) such as ‘I’m the king of the world’ and ‘I’m flying’ moments. Jack’s speech ‘to making it count’ is quite profound too.

I found the addition of the ‘f’ bomb a little unnecessary – and only really added to get that PG-13 rating in the US (although Winslet’s drawing scene would have made this happen regardless.)

The narration by Stewart felt needed, as her character was telling her story (off camera) throughout the entire 1912 timeline.

One part I had forgotten about was the blatant misogyny that the women were subject to, and this was portrayed well.

Score/Soundtrack

James Horner’s haunting score, has so many moments of familiarity – from the opening moments of the film, all the way through, he won both an Oscar for this, and for Celine Dion’s epic ‘My Heart Will Go on’.

Overall

Incredibly this is a nearly 30-year-old film, and some of the graphics do show their age. There are also a couple of historical inaccuracies and some slightly off accents in the performances (that even said actors have called out their own performances) – but other than that, an almost perfect film.

I did wish the pacing was a little better, with Rose and Jack meeting a little early at the 37m mark – and then the hitting of the iceberg occurs at the 100m mark.

Still, this is an epic feat of film making, and holds the test of time. Not perfect, but close.

4/5