Titanic

Rating

Director

James Cameron

Screenplay

James Cameron

Length

194 min.

Starring

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, Bernard Hill, David Warner, Victor Garber, Jonathan Hyde

MPAA Rating

PG-13 (For disaster related peril and violence, nudity, sensuality and brief language)

Review

To blend a fictional romantic story in with an undeniably tragic event such as the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic is a difficult task. Writer/director James Cameron achieved the impossible by bringing two distinct and parallel tragedies to the big screen.

Titanic opens aboard an exploratory ship looking to recover any treasures they can from the 85-year-old wreck of the famed, unsinkable luxury liner of the R.M.S. Titanic. As they slowly plumb the depths of the wreckage, an elderly woman (Gloria Stuart) recounts to them the story of her voyage aboard the famed steamship and her encounter and relationship with a third-class passenger in the days leading up to and including the fateful evening of April 14, 1912.

Playing that third class passenger Jack Dawson is heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio. Coming aboard the Titanic hoping to seek a new life of possibilities in America, Jack falls in love with young Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) who is engaged to the loving, but somewhat tyrannical Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). While the ship sails across the ocean, Jack and Rose form a bond that threatens to tear Rose’s wealthy world apart.

Though the human tragedy of Titanic is in the sinking of the ship, which is stunningly compiled in some of the film history’s most impressive visual effects, we are drawn into the romantic relationship between the two stars thanks to DiCaprio and, especially Winslet’s terrific performances. Their love transcends space and time and when further embodied by Stuart in the film’s latter scenes, we are fully hooked into a story that could have actually taken place aboard the ill-fated ocean liner despite being entirely fictitious.

Joining the dazzling performances mentioned above is the inimitable Kathy Bates whose work as the “unsinkable” Molly Brown is delightful. Though she is only in the film briefly and as a historical point of reference, Bates manages to steal every scene in which she appears and helps to draw the audience further into the believable reality Cameron has created.

A number of other famous passengers are depicted in the film, including Thomas Andrews, Bruce Ismay, Benjamin Guggenheim and John Jacob and Madeleine Astor. These characters briefly interact with Rose as the film progresses. Aside from Andrews and Ismay, the historical impact of these characters is undeniably limited.

Universally faithful to the actual events on the night Titanic sank, Cameron put such loving detail into his script and into the production that it is easily one of the most visually pleasing and endearing romantic epics ever filmed.

Audiences made Titanic the highest grossing modern film in history and it certainly isn’t surprising why. It is difficult not to feel some measure of emotion while watching the film. Many were saddened by the never-to-be conclusion of the Rose and Jack storyline, while more would be moved by the stirring images contained in the background during the sinking. The most moving scene is one of a loving elderly couple clasped in each others arms on their bed as the water slowly flooded their chamber. And while this and other beautifully touching scenes were passing by, the haunting strains of “Nearer My God to Thee” playing over this sequence enhanced the sadness of the event.

Titanic isn’t a perfect film, though it is an entertaining, moving and rewarding experience for anyone who watches it with an open mind unclouded by the hype that surrounded the film at its opening.

Review Written

January 10, 2007