I dislike Titanic out of general principle. The Titanic episode in itself was horrific; it came about out of the hubris and short-sightedness of a handful of people and caused the deaths of hundreds, many of them poor, some of them children. If it's really necessary to make a film about a tragedy like this, perhaps it is better to focus on the real stories of the people on the ship instead of making one up.

I mean, come on. Rich girl, poor boy. That's so not original. Personally, I'd rather have seen what some of the other passengers were up to. Like Molly Brown (Kathy Bates). Or John Jacob Astor. Or Benjamin Guggenheim. Somebody else. Because the two that we have just aren't interesting enough to keep me watching for three hours.

Somewhere near the beginning of the story, we meet Jack (Leonardo Di Caprio) and a friend of his from Italy (Danny Nucci). They introduce us to Jack's friend, but they don't bother to tell us anything. How does he know Jack? What is he doing in Liverpool? Why bring in a character if you can't follow up on him? Stuff like this is so distracting.

Jack and his friend are playing a card game and they win tickets for a ride on the ill-fated Titanic. At the same time, a very unhappy Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) is betrothed to a frat-boy type, Cal (Billy Zane). This marriage was clearly not Rose's idea and Winslet demonstrates this by pouting mightily. In fact, Rose is so upset that she figures she'll jump off the bow of the ship. Luckily, Jack is loitering in the area and stops her. The two (predictably) fall insanely in love, much to the dismay of Cal and Rose's mom (Frances Fisher). For the next couple of hours, Cal attempts to keep Jack and Rose apart; first by using his rich frat-boy power and then by trying to kill Jack. I think you know the rest (if not, stop reading). Jack and Rose are forced to jump into the water, Jack dies, but Rose lives to be an old, old woman.

Billy Zane is a lot more fun to watch than Winslet and Di Caprio. He's an obnoxious, snotty, self-absorbed jerk, but he's so much in love with Rose that it's hard to hate him. Winslet, on the other hand, kind of pouts through the whole thing, even when she's supposed to be happy. She does the best she can, I guess, with insipid dialogue, like, "it's not up to you to save me, Jack".

Jack's friend has no background, but what about Rose's mom? She has even less. In a scene between her and Rose, she's telling Rose to stop seeing Jack and mutters something about Rose's dad and the family name. I have no clue what she's babbling about. She could have said something like, "stop seeing him, or else" and we would have gotten the picture. It's a big red herring.

Still, a film of this scope is rare. The special effects are really killer. To make a set on a soundstage look like the real thing takes a lot of direction and James Cameron does a pretty alright job. The scenes with the angry mobs in steerage are very memorable. What we do see of the rest of the passengers underscores the whole incident very nicely.

If you've seen the film in the theater and really like it enough to own it, buy the widescreen version. I don't know how to describe it, but the picture in Titanic is really...big. The pan and scan version doesn't "fit" on a TV screen. It feels like a TV movie instead of a sweeping epic.



Recommended:
Yes