Review: Titanic

Directed by: James Cameron

Written by: James Cameron

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill

Rating: [5/5]

When making a film, those behind it can imagine in their wildest dreams of the success and impact what they make will have on audiences. A dream to communicate something resonant and provide entertainment worth the ticket of admission. No film, however, can realistically dream of having the effect Titanic had on the world upon its release and still to this day not only because it tells a beautiful love story, but also because of the sheer spectacle it provides around it. Despite the things we can nitpick about it this feature remains one of the towering achievements in American filmmaking and one that will never lose its luster. 

Going aboard the ship proclaimed to be unsinkable, Rose Bukater (Kate Winslet) ventures to America where she will marry her fiancé Caledon Hockley (Billy Zane) not because of love but rather to ensure the class status of her family. Also on the ship, we have a financially poor artist named Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) who attains passage on the ship by winning it in a poker match. As their paths cross on the ship they build an unlikely romance as this vessel heads towards disaster. 

Movies like Titanic don’t come around often and can be argued never will happen again. A story that captures the cultural zeitgeist in a way that leads it to exist as the whole personality of some, amass an enormous amount of money at the box office, win a record amount of Academy Awards, receive a decades-long backlash and then receive acclaim all over again because of its undeniable brilliance. Such a medley of factors all coming together for something that has no equal in where it stands in film history making it so special. 

Operating as a love story but also one about survival, this film lets you know right from the onset this ship will eventually go down. It only makes it funnier when we go to the past and see how the builders of it boast of the inability of this ship to sink. So many boats made voyages around the world and never saw the bottom of the ocean but leave it to the one claiming to never have the fear of capsizing only for its famous voyage to end with tragedy. Truly an unparalleled arrogance but one that sets the stage for this romance and what it needs to withstand in order to flourish. With the the definitive end in mind, as we go to the past and see it all play out, we know we need to cherish the moments we have with these characters because eventually, something will go terribly wrong. 

The central love story presents itself as a tale as old as time with individuals of different classes finding adoration for each other not because of what they have in common financially or socially but rather in their interests and personality. The bond Jack and Rose build contains this beauty that crosses boundaries many around them forbid but we cannot help but fall for them just as much as they do for each other. This love between Jack and Rose carries this excitement as they discover more about themselves through each other. These moments between them display the electric chemistry Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet share with each other. From the moments when Jack helps Rose fly to the famous painting scene, there’s this palpable affection these two characters have that makes us yearn for them to have a future. Caring for them makes what transpires with the ship crashing into the iceberg all the more tragic and my goodness, did James Cameron succeed in that feat. 

Helping this romance completely entrance us with its beauty is one of the all-time scores by James Horner. Easily one of the most instantly recognizable themes in all of film, what he crafts in collaboration with Celine Dion with “My Heart Will Go On” truly transcends the medium. It captures the wonderment and excitement of young love in a way that swells up in the right moments and brings us into these moments of magic. Never does an instance go by where I hear the main theme and I don’t get goosebumps because of how it always brings me back to these moments on the ship between Jack and Rose that carry such potency in the narrative. 

With class disparity serving as the biggest roadblock in the relationship between Rose and Jack, this issue rears its ugly head on several occasions throughout the film. The ship itself separates the classes by the very nature of the fares the individuals on board can afford. Naturally, a separation then exists on the boat between those who can afford more luxury and those who cannot. This then appears in nearly every aspect of the experience on the boat, which includes dining and the sleeping quarters. That does not differ from the typical modern cruise ship, but the general disgust the higher-class characters have for those beneath them proves quite evident. This becomes especially true when the ship begins to sink where all sense of formality gets dropped and the pure human instincts of these characters come right to the surface. This class disparity no longer dictates the level of enjoyment on the boat but rather who gets to survive when not enough lifeboats exist on the boat for everyone to get on. Several characters show their true selves in these moments. 

Knowing very well at some point the crash with the iceberg will happen, Titanic builds up the anticipation for the inciting event, and boy does it deliver the goods when it transpires. Everything happening visually on the ship when it begins to sink displays a masterclass in spectacle filmmaking. The sheer scale on display in this feature in the way it captures the different ways this enormous ship breaks and sinks makes for such a gripping viewing experience. It comes filled with moments that take your breath away and wonder how in the world Cameron and his team managed to pull off this feat. This process of the boat sinking needs to feel cataclysmic and we receive just that as everything falls apart and we find ourselves gravitating on not just the survival of Jack and Rose but also everyone else. The film does a marvelous job in this regard where we never lose touch on the dynamic between Jack and Rose in addition to the larger tragedy on display. 

It’s often said no one should ever doubt James Cameron seeing as no matter how much doubt gets tossed at him, the man always finds a way to deliver. Even with a filmography filled with fantastic movies operating in different worlds, I find it hard to believe anything of his will match what he crafts in Titanic. Sure, he can take us to Pandora, Judgement Day, or even space but there’s something special about what he manages to craft in this 1997 masterpiece that remains unparalled. Sure, we can throw criticism at some of his writing in this movie and elements that do not work, but the effort of crafting a story that refuses to leave our minds and hearts serves as its own testament. This film will never lose its power and its detractors can never take away the impact this feature has had on multiple generations of viewers who can continue to experience and rediscover its beauty.