Certificate: 12A (strong language, nudity, intense threat, disturbing images). Running Time: 195 mins. UK Distributor: 20th Century Studios
WHO’S IN IT?
Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, Suzy Amis, Danny Nucci, David Warner, Jason Barry, Kathy Bates, Victor Garber, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Eric Braedon, Bernard Fox, Michael Ensign, Jonathan Evan-Jones, Mark Lindsay Chapman, Ewan Stewart, Jonathan Phillips, Simon Crane, Ioan Gruffudd, Edward Fletcher, James Lancaster, Lew Palter, Elsa Raven, Martin Jarvis, Rosalind Ayres, Rochelle Rose, Scott G. Anderson, Paul Brightwell, Martin East, Gregory Cooke, Craig Kelly, Liam Tuohy, Terry Forrestal
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
James Cameron (director, writer, producer, editor), Jon Landau (producer), James Horner (composer), Russell Carpenter (cinematographer), Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris (editors)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
On board the ill-fated maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, an upper-class young woman (Winslet) falls in love with a working-class artist (DiCaprio)…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON TITANIC?
*THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR A 25-YEAR-OLD MOVIE THAT REMAINS ONE OF THE BIGGEST FILMS OF ALL TIME – SO, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED, I GUESS*
As the 4,375,823,638th person on this planet to have an opinion on James Cameron’s 1997 epic historical romance Titanic, I’m not sure what else I can add to the conversation. It’s one of the most popular films on the planet, one that virtually everyone knows everything there is to know about it: the story, the characters, the quotes, the record-breaking box office and awards haul, the demanding production history, the inflated $200 million budget (at the time, the biggest ever), and even the debates over that large piece of driftwood which seem to have overtaken that “Han shot first” argument in the race for Film’s Pettiest Discourse. There is virtually nothing left that can be said that is fresh and new about it, even twenty-five years after its momentous release.
Except, perhaps, to say how exactly it holds up after one-quarter of a decade. Now that, I can definitely do.
Newly re-released in cinemas to commemorate said anniversary, shown in a brand-new 4K 3D restoration, Titanic is a film that I remember seeing as a kid, and – like many viewers in the late 90s and early 2000s – I am unashamed to admit that I did tear up by the end. I recall being deeply affected by the scary scenes of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack and Kate Winslet’s Rose struggling to swim in the cold water rising through the ship’s hallways, and later being haunted by shots of the frozen corpses in the freezing Atlantic (one quick glimpse of a mother and infant bobbing lifelessly in the water still messes me up to this day), but there was always something about that final scene – where old Rose (the late Gloria Stewart) envisions herself among all the people that died, including her beloved Jack – which cued the waterworks without fail.
I went into this theatrical re-release wondering why that was. Sure, I was about six or seven when I first saw it, perhaps the most emotionally vulnerable age range that a child could be, but to still have those feelings about it as a thirty-year-old must surely have meant that the film has some kind of power that I couldn’t comprehend at the time. What was it about a film where I don’t even need to summarise the plot (because, well, you know it already: poor boy meets rich girl on the Titanic, then the iceberg shows up) that resonated so well with not just myself but the billions of people around the world that turned it into the pop-culture milestone that it’s become?
Not too long into this viewing, I realised where that power came from – and, funnily enough, it’s from one of the things that a lot of people believe to be its weakest quality: the script. Despite his ambitious, if indulgent, filmmaking style, James Cameron is not primarily known for his writing expertise, and over the years several moments and lines of dialogue from his Titanic screenplay have been parodied, repurposed, and even dissected for comedic purposes, often to highlight how incredibly cheesy the whole thing is. However, what many don’t seem to credit Cameron for, at least as a writer, is not just his ability to create entire worlds from scratch, but to populate them with inhabitants that feel true to their world while still seeming real enough to exist in others. In this case, Cameron fills the recreated halls and decks of the ill-fated ship with characters both fictional and taken from real-life (the result of spending months diving into all the historical records he could find regarding every single passenger and crew member), and generously gives many of them moments in his script where they are allowed to be fully human, whether they’re kind, cruel, cold, warm, innocent, guilty, or deeply in love. By doing so, Cameron makes you see each person on-board this doomed ship as just that: a person, one among thousands who either lost their lives or someone else to the freezing Atlantic waters, and because of that it really hits hard when you see them struggle later on to even have a miniscule chance of making it out alive.
This is why I feel the film still works as a masterclass of both epic filmmaking and compassionate storytelling, even twenty-five years later. It’s one thing to be wowed by the production design, the effects, and all the other technical aspects that went into its making, but to feel a great deal of empathy for its many, many characters – not just our two star-crossed lovers Jack and Rose, but the main supporting players (yes, even Billy Zane’s monstrous Cal), the actual historical figures who briefly pop up, and even the most insignificant extra – is an exceedingly difficult task that Cameron’s script achieves with astounding ease. Watching it again made me think back to when I was a child seeing it for the first time, and crying during that final scene; I realised that my emotions came from the fact that I had spent a lot of time with many of these characters, getting to know them and find plenty of things to enjoy about them – whether it’s the wide-eyed optimism of young floppy-haired DiCaprio, or the jovial nature of the third-class passengers dancing their Irish jigs, or the empathetic portrayals of figures like the ship’s captain Edward Smith (Bernard Hill) and its architect Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber) – and seeing them all again in old Rose’s dreams (or ascent into Heaven, depending on how you perceive the moment) was as bittersweet as they come. It is Cameron’s ultimate achievement with Titanic, beyond the impressive “how did they do that?” practicalities that still look better than some of the similarly budgeted movies today, that such a moment can inspire a genuinely emotional response, even in 2023.
For my money, Titanic is James Cameron’s best film to date. It has all the filmmaker’s trademark qualities, from his blockbuster ambition to a dazzling use of modern and traditional effects, but also a restraint on the things that have dragged him down since or even before, such as his indulgent style that favours all the bells and whistles over the people they’re ringing over. If one looks at Avatar, and its recent sequel (which, as of writing, is just a few million away from surpassing Titanic on the all-time worldwide chart), you remember far more about how beautiful and detailed all the effects and graphics are than you do any of the characters or whatever the story was about. You can also say that about some of his earlier works, including Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, and even Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but not Titanic; this is the rare time that he, for once, didn’t put all his energy into delivering a big bombastic spectacle of his film, and actually made you care about all the impressive stuff happening around all these memorable and three-dimensional characters.
Everyone else in the world presumably felt the same way, hence why it became the smash-hit that it’s remembered for: they came for the sinking ship, but they stayed for the passengers. So, too, shall audiences during and beyond this anniversary re-release, for it really is the kind of film that seems destined to live on long after we’ve collectively forgotten about the tragedy of Titanic.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Titanic is a masterful blend of blockbuster entertainment and genuinely compassionate storytelling that honours every single soul on board the ill-fated ship, in an often-ridiculed script by director James Cameron that holds greater emotional power than most perhaps realise, with a gripping and bittersweet approach to the tragedy which holds up twenty-five years after its release, and remains to this day Cameron’s undisputed masterpiece.
