Titanic (1997)
Director: James Cameron Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Bill Paxton, Kathy Bates Rated PG-13: Language, disaster violence, nudity
by Nathaniel R. Atcheson
I've been watching films for roughly half of my natural life. I would like to think that I have seen a lot of them--more than most people. Until this day, however, I have never seen anything like Titanic. This film makes me want to invent new words just to describe it, because most of what I've witnessed here is truly unfathomable. It is impossible to speak of Titanic and not gush with excitement, but my words are not hyperbolized--James Cameron's masterpiece is the very best film of 1997. This picture is the closest I have ever seen to perfection, a love story filled with real human emotions, and a disaster epic more real, shocking, and intense than anything ever shown in film. I'm sure someone at some point has made a checklist of everything that goes into a great film. Every box would be checked for Titanic. This film fails in absolutely nothing: the love story is one of the most moving I have ever experienced. The disaster is flawlessly depicted on screen. The integration of the two is not only smooth, but ultimately the central meaning of the film.
And yet, at the core, the story is so brilliantly simple and direct: Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a drifter who wins a ticket for the Titanic. On board, he meets Rose (Kate Winslet) who is engaged to a rich man named Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). Rose is unhappy, both with her engagement and with her new-found social climate. She and Jack fall in love, and then the Titanic hits the iceberg. This story is actually in the middle of another story, in which deep sea explorer Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) in modern times is searching the wreckage, looking for a lost diamond. He finds a picture of a woman instead, and this woman turns out to be Rose, who is now one-hundred one years old. She tells the story of her experiences on the Titanic to Brock and his crew.
Titanic is what I'd call a religious experience. I didn't pull my eyes away from the screen. I was mesmerized. Cameron spent years making this film, and well over 200 million dollars, and every bit of his effort is right there for audiences to feel and experience with wonder and amazement. The list of positives could be endless.
At the top of this list is Kate Winslet. Now, most people would agree that liking an actor or actress will enhance the viewing of the film in which he or she stars. Kate Winslet is the most talented young actress working in the business today. Her ability to convey emotion, especially in this film, is unmatched by any other actress of her generation. Watching her on screen, I feel the kind of strength and presence that I see in powerful women like Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton, but Winslet has even more than these women do--a gleam in her eye, an edge in her voice. There is something almost inexplicable about her presence that makes her so supremely wonderful in any film that no film graced with her performance could ever be bad. Titanic, which would have been great without her, manages to exceed greatness because of her. And though I hesitate to say it, I must admit that she is--without a doubt--the most attractive woman I have ever seen. This obviously doesn't hurt.
Even though the other actors pale in comparison to Winslet, they all turn in superb, memorable performances. DiCaprio, as always, is great as Jack. This is a more grown-up role than I'm used to seeing him in, and so I was impressed with his progressive talents. He makes this strong character believable and likable. One speech he gives while in the presence of a group of rich individuals at a dinner is particularly convincing, and he carries this kind of aura throughout the film without fumbling it. I actually believed that Jack's strength is what gives Rose such a powerful drive to live.
Billy Zane plays the evil, sneering Cal with that kind of evil, sneering attitude that only Billy Zane can portray. Not unlike his portrayal of the hopelessly psychotic antagonist in Dead Calm, Zane can be particularly evil while still managing to convince us that there is something human buried inside of him. He does everything for his own good, but the reasons for this are evident from watching the film, and he isn't a one-note bad guy intended simply to instigate an insurrection from Rose. He is an unusually genuine antagonist, one that, although he is bad, the audience can understand.
Cameron's script is astounding. Here we have a love story in which the man teaches the woman how to live, but their situation is inherently ironic given their placement on the doomed ocean liner. Without giving away too much, I must mention the profound and brilliant metaphor that Cameron has created here--the Titanic is the love between these two people. The scale is so grand that the love story does not subside when compared to the sinking of the ship; in fact, it actually outshines the disaster in many ways. What I'm left with are, of course, the images of the ship sinking, but what has left a more significant impact on me are the implications given here by the two main components of this film and the way they work with one another.
I imagine most of the box-office draw to this film will be from the obvious fact that it's about a sinking ship. Although I hope most people will get out of it what I have, there is no way disaster and action film fans will be disappointed by Cameron's spectacle. He recreated the disaster down to the last detail. A more convincing film could not have been made had the sinking ship been filmed this year by a professional camera crew. The line between models and digital is not noticeable, and the shots of the vast ship travelling in the lonesome ocean are breathtaking--the best special effects one could hope to see. When the ship is sinking, there isn't a moment that doesn't scream pure realism. Even the physics behind the water rushing down the corridors appears real. Aside from all of this, Cameron has mastered the nearly-impossible task of making the incident real-time in its execution. The ship sunk in about an hour, and that's how long it takes on screen.
Cameron's heart and soul went into this film. I can see from the outcome that it is exactly what he wanted--every shot, every word of dialogue, ever nuance between the characters is intentional and meaningful. Films as completely spectacular as Titanic come about once every few years, but I doubt any of them had or will have the kind of hype that surrounds this one. Titanic doesn't just live up to its hype: this film exceeds everything I could have imagined it to be, and the result is something that you must see for yourself to believe. And when the film is over, it may take you a little while to return to reality, but you're just going to want to get right back on that ship again, even though you know what happens. But then again, that's the trick, isn't it?
>From 0-10: 10 Grade: A+
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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