Titanic Review- by Michael Carlisle

 Title: Titanic
Year: 1997
Director: James Cameron
Country: U.S
Language: English
Runtime:  192 Minutes

James Cameron’s 3+ hour epic is one of the most expensive films ever made, with a budget of $200 million one would think this money might be used carelessly, however this is not so. Unlike Cameron’s other big budgeted film Avatar, Titanic’s special effects are used seamlessly and intelligently. They are used to heighten the emotion and evoke the dread of this tragic story. There are not too much special effects nor are there too little

Titanic is based on the infamous tragedy of 1912 in which the largest ship in the world at the time, the Titanic, sunk via iceberg. About 1514 passengers went down with this “unsinkable ship”. The human story in this film is a Romeo and Juliet-like romance between a poor boy, Jack (Dicaprio), and a rich girl, Rose (Winslet). Rose so hates he life and her future husband Cal (Billy Zane) that she attempts to kill herself via jumping off the ship, which in hindsight would’ve been smart considering the disaster that was about to unfold,  however the poor boy saves Rose and they fall deeply in love. Also: Boobies!

Featured: Boobies

Cameron seems to be a master of dramatic irony in this film. We know that certain events must take place, certain characters must show their flaws and many people must die. We understand and we are told the ultimate outcome of this voyage, in the beginning of the film we see the Titanic deep underneath the sea and shown a computer simulation of what exactly has happened. By the time the Titanic, a ship “which god himself cannot sink”, sinks were fully aware of why and how this tragedy occurred. We are aware of why so many people died, why so many men died. Even though we already know the ending, we cannot help but watch as it unfolds. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

The love story left me, shall we say, cold?

Indeed the second half of James Cameron’s Titanic beyond brilliance,  he had made something that seemed impossible to do at the time. In terms of destruction, doom and special effects Cameron has proved himself great. In terms of script? Not so much. The first half of Titanic relies too much on an overdone story. Rich girl falls for a poor boy, it’s been done before, we get it. Rich people are snooty and full of themselves, poor people are misunderstood, honest people. I will admit that the journeys Jack and Rose took to get away from the snooty rich people do provide us with more details about the ship as well as the ship’s crew members. This creates a more impending sense of doom. Though the segregation of the rich and poor in Titanic is historically accurate it isn’t used well or in a unique and interesting way in the first half of the film.  In the second half this rich/poor segregation is especially important when realizing who will live or die, because there are not enough lifeboats for every passenger on the ship.

The subplots within the second half of the film are incredibly interesting. It took over two hours for the the Titanic to sink, this gave everybody onboard plenty of time to think about their actions. Would they live? Would they die? How would they die? Would they sacrifice themselves to help another? It was quite heartbreaking to see the captain decide to go down with the ship and the poor parents trying to get their children to sleep so they would die a peaceful death of either drowning or hypothermia.

With a budget of $200,000,000+ it’s understandable to want to stick to a familiar plot that works, the rich/poor  segregation romance has worked many times throughout film history and it obviously worked again. Until Avatar, Titanic was the highest grossing film of all time (if inflation is not adjusted) but please Cameron, grow some cajones. Using special effects to make up for your recycled script isn’t going to work for much longer. Do something... different. Then again, the general public seems to dislike “different” because you keep getting richer and richer.

In conclusion, I think James Cameron’s Titanic is a wonderful disaster epic but it has no guts in regards to the human, romantic aspect. Cameron proved to be a master of special effects with this film, for anybody else a film of this magnitude may be quite challenging, but he accomplished it. Though, there are better films related to the Titanic. 1958’s A Night To Remember is the story of the Titanic, without the unnecessary romantic subplot.  While the second half of  Titanic is incredible, it does not completely make up for the teen-ish first half. 3/5