Titanic
101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.
- Released: 1997-11-18
- Runtime: 194 minutes
- Genre: Drama, Romance
- Stars: Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, Bernard Hill, Victor Garber, Lewis Abernathy, Suzy Amis, Nicholas Cascone, Danny Nucci, Jason Barry, Lew Palter, Eric Braeden, Bernard Fox, Ioan Gruffudd, Jonny Phillips, Martin East, Gregory Cooke
- Director: James Cameron
Comments
- prudhoeboy - 6 January 2023
Clever Story LIne
The movie was quite excellent, but I'm taking off a point due to some deficiencies that cause it to limp to port. The first is the beginning of the movie where we see the salvage ship and manned submersible. To me this was a bit of a yawn and took away from the story.
The movie should have started with a professor Lovett lecturing maritime museum attendees about famous ship wreck and then come to the Titanic display. He could then describe the construction of the Titanic not letting on plans to find it. Then flashback to the planning and building of the ship and voyage back in the day. I would rather have seen the crew on board the salvage ship yakking it up while going over the ghostly camera views of the ship as it lies on the ocean floor.
The movie theme song, which evoked Irish folk music, did not give the viewer any other connection to Ireland either. It's ghostly tone would have played well panning over the graveyards to give an appreciation of the victims.
Another big problem was the older Rose who recounted the story on the salvage ship did not look 101 years old! She looked about 84 years old and would have been but a baby at the time of the Titanic. In no way would she have been able to be transported by helicopter to the salvage ship to tell the story. To me, this mistake sunk the movie at the outset because it is the old lady that gives one a sense of how long ago the ship sank. So if Rose was 16 years old at that time, this movie would have been appropriate for the year 1981, not 1997. In 1997, the older Rose should have been in a nursing home in a wheelchair and being help along to tell the story. At the very least the make-up artists should have aged the Rose character actress by 16 years to make her really look like a 101 on the ship. Notice the older Rose was far to alert and animated for someone that age. If you've lived to be 100 years old or older, you're talking much slower. All that said, it is interesting that the actress who play the older Rose, was actually 87 at the time of the movie and actually lived to be 100 in real life! Also, she was born in Santa Monica which Dawson mention in the movie regaling one of his adventures. The casting really was spot on in this movie, she just needed a little more time in the makeup room to look the part and should have talked slower and tired.
Leo and Kate put in a good performance in the movie, and the cast was generally excellent, but to me Brad Pitt would have been a far more credible choice for Jack Dawson as a dashing, adventure-seeking lad. Frankly, Kate looked third class so I had more of a problem imaging her as upper class of that era. She certainly would not have been fetching enough for a Brad Pitt as Dawson. So for me that was a bit of an issue.
The special effects may have been state of the art for 1997, but to me I never felt like I was on the ship. There was no mist spray in the face or rain falling on the deck. The set fan wind and cgi dolphins did not do it for me and I don't think they can survive in cold water just above freezing like Dawson described it. So the elements of nature were never really brought into the movie until the end. At that point it is too late to draw the viewer into the movie and the viewer is asked to believe all that happens then. In summary, the movie should have made sure the viewer was on the ship long before the sinking.
There should also have been a little more character development of the famous people on the ship explaining how they boarded it other than just the fictional character portrayed by Leo. - jnahm - 13 December 2022
I rewatched it in 3D and it was truly legendary!
After its first debut in theatre in 1997, I went to see it 3 times. I rewatched it many many many times after that on CD, DVD, cables, streamings, etc. Probably more than 30 times already throughout these years. Last night, I rewatched it in 3D at home with 3D glasses and I'd have to say, the cinematography is truly legendary! The depth is amazingly on point considering that the film was shot far before 3D technology becomes popular. Cameron made a truly amazing film. The detail of those productions in the film also needs to be applauded. And in 3D, you can see the emotions of the actors and extras very clearly and thus, the emotion hits you in the face. The flooding scenes were very real.. actually, every scenes were so believable. I'm impressed again every time I rewatched it with the skills of this director. This film is purely a masterpiece!
