Review: Titanic (1997)

Originally scheduled for release in the summer of 1997, Titanic was projected to be the biggest flop in the history of cinema. The film, which took more than two years to complete, not only ran over schedule, but over budget as well: $50 million over budget. In fact, at the time, Titanic had become the most expensive film ever made, with an estimated cost of $200 million. What wasn't expected was that Titanic would make back its budget threefold... in the US alone. Finally released in December of 1997, Titanic was a mega-hit, opening in the top spot at the box office and staying there for an un-bested 15 consecutive weeks. That's over three months at number one. Titanic would go on to become the highest grossing film of all-time, grossing $1.8 billion worldwide, and it would remain at the top for the next 12 years.

It's 1996, and Brock Lovett, a treasure hunter, has set out with his team on a deep sea expedition of RMS Titanic, in search of an expensive necklace called the Heart of the Ocean, which was lost in the sinking of the ship over 80 years ago. Though Lovett and his crew fail to find the diamond, they do find a drawing of a lady wearing it. After news of the find is broadcast on television, Lovett is contacted by Rose Calvert, who claims the woman in the picture is her. Brock invites Rose to his expedition in the Atlantic, where she tells him and his crew the story of what happened to her on the Titanic.

"I'm the King of the World!"

I've always had somewhat of a fasination with the Titanic. My father used to buy books about the wreakage, and the sight of all those possessions, once belonging to someone onboard the ship, lying on the ocean floor draws such emotion from me. This movie does an excellent job at conveying that emotion.

I've loved Titanic since my first viewing of it in 1998. The love story at the centre of the movie is beautiful, but that's not why I love the film. It's the attention to detail and historical  accuracy of the picture that makes me love it. I believe that James Cameron, the director, writer, and producer of Titanic, did a wonderful job at trying to make the film as historically correct as possible. Times are changing. Likely, some of the information we know to be true about the Titanic now will one day be proved false, so Cameron was never going to be able to make Titanic 100% accurate, even if that was his intent. I admire his efforts, though.

"Oh Mother... SHUT UP! Don't you understand? The water is freezing, and there arn't enough boats; not enough by half. Half the people on this ship are going to die."

The cast of characters is comprised of both real historical figures, and ficticious creations from the mind of Cameron. Titanic's two main characters are Jack and Rose, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, resepctively. DiCaprio seemed to be the reason why so many people went to see Titanic back in 1997/1998, and it's not hard to see why. Even then, he was an excellent actor, and does a good job in the role. However, I believe that this movie belongs to Winslet. She delivers the best performance of the film. The rest of the cast are also outstanding in their roles, particularly Gloria Stuart (Old Rose) and Kathy Bates (Molly Brown), who are the standouts in the supporting cast.

Titanic is one of my five favourite films, and for a movie that runs over three hours long (We all know how much I hate long movies), that's saying a lot. 10/10

Trivia: You'd have to be living under a rock to not know that James Cameron's latest feature, Avatar, did phenomenal at the box office. It did so well that it replaced Titanic as the highest grossing movie of all time, but that's only in dollars, not in movie tickets. If we take inflation and the rising price of cinema tickets into account, then Titanic still reigns supreme over Avatar. However, if it is tickets we're going by, Titanic was never number one in the first place, or number two, three, four, or five. Nope, if it's the number of tickets that matters, Titanic ranks 6th. "What ranks first?" might you ask: 1939's epic, Gone With The Wind.