by Chris Marshall:
I realized a couple of
things while watching Titanic today. One, it was the first (of
only four total[1]) Best Picture
winners that I saw in a theater. Two, it came out 15 years ago. Holy schlamoly I’m
old. It pains me to remember things so clearly when they happened a decade and
a half ago.
It’s also a perfect showcase for the best and the worst of
James Cameron. From a technical standpoint, it is incredibly well made. The
cinematography, set design, and special effects all hold extremely well all
these years later. But the actual screenplay, despite having a number of
memorable, canonical lines, falls flat most of the time. Especially when Old
Rose is speaking near the end, it sounds more like she’s reading a poem than
actually speaking.
Of course, she was pretty old, and I guess she’d had plenty
of time to think about it. Still, it seems like Cameron’s characters rarely
talk like actual human beings. I think that’s why the Terminator films work so well. Arnold can get away with talking
like a machine because he is a
machine. When Edward Furlong says those horrible lines, not so much.
Just as fair warning, I’m going to spoil everything there is
to spoil about this movie. I figure if you’re the type of person who would read
this post, you’re probably the type of person who would have already seen Titanic, probably multiple times. But if
not, this is your opportunity to go research the rock formations in the cave
you’ve been living in instead.
Ok, now that that’s out of the way, I have several issues
with this movie, most of which are nitpicks, but they’re the kinds of things I
think about when I watch it. First of all, the film uses the diamond as an
excuse for Rose to narrate the story. But if they set it up that way, they
should be consistent. On many occasions, we are privy to conversations and
events that Rose was nowhere close to. How could she know, for example, what
the captain and crew were saying to each other after they hit the iceberg? She
was running around with Jack.
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| Don't worry. We'll meet again in Revolutionary Road. |
And isn’t Rose a de
facto murderer? On two separate occasions she gave up a seat in a lifeboat,
two seats that could have gone to other passengers. But no, she has to wait
until the boat is being lowered before saying “Just kidding!” and hopping off.
By then, it’s too late for anybody else to take her spot. That’s not very considerate,
Rose. You could almost look at it like her evil Billy Zane fiancé did a great
deed. He did pick up a kid that wasn’t his to con his way onto a lifeboat, but
in doing so, he saved the kid’s life! That’s good hustle from Cal.
Finally, they didn’t try very hard to get Jack onto the
floating door at the end of the movie. They made one abortive attempt, and when
it started flipping over, Jack just gave up. I’m pretty sure if they would have
arranged themselves differently, he could have gotten on too. I mean, as far as
their relationship was concerned, it’s just as well that he died because their
thing never would have lasted, but I still think he should have given life a
chance. His heart would go on eventually.
As much as I criticize and make fun of this movie every time
I see it, I do understand why it was (and remains) so immensely popular. It’s
because people really like big boats. Also Leonardo DiCaprio. I guess he had
something to do with it. While it’s true that many good movies came out in
1997, a great of deal which I think were “better” than Titanic, I have no problem at all with it winning Best Picture. Titanic-mania swept the nation that
year. It was the first movie to make over a billion dollars at the box office. “My
Heart Will Go On” was #1 on the charts for something like 493 weeks in a row.
Even if some other movie had won, it would have always been the defining film
of that year.
Even I appreciate the importance of this movie, despite
being critical of its actual quality. I was glad to have watched it again; I
don’t believe I’d seen it from start to finish since those two days in the
theater 15 years ago. I had already started the Oscar Project when the 3D
edition was released in April, so I had to exercise all my willpower and wait
until now to see it. It’s too bad, really. I’m sure seeing dudes fall 100 feet
into a propeller would be awesome in
the third dimension.
[1] The
others were Return of the King, The King’s
Speech, and The Artist. I didn’t
want to leave you hanging. Maybe they’ll call the sequel to the second of those
films Return of the King’s Speech.
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