Spectacular recreation of famous historical event (major spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2004)

The tale of the doomed ocean liner Titanic remains continually ripe for cinematic exploration. Films, series and documentaries continue to abound on this most famous tragedy. Encompassed within the simple tale of the demise of an 'unsinkable ship' is a story of intense tragedy (over 1,500 lives were lost), social divide (the rich/poor gap was highlighted here when the first class passengers were the first on the lifeboats, leaving many in steerage to die) and most of all, of man's arrogance and opportunism overwhelmed by the forces of nature.
If anyone could bring this tale into 21st century (when it was only 1997!) it had to be James Cameron. Cameron had the technical experience and flair necessary to build and sink the Titanic onscreen. Sex and violence are par for the course in almost every action movie but, like his special effects, Cameron inventively works these elements to make them serve his story.
So it is with "Titanic", where he uses a pair of doomed, starstruck lovers as a focal point for the audience to empathise and relate to the passengers on the ship. The film begins in the present day where a diamond-hunting mercenary Brock Lovett (Cameron regular Bill Paxton) stumbles on a picture of a nude young woman wearing the diamond he is trying to locate. Lovett is shocked when a very old lady (Gloria Stuart) identifies herself as the woman in the picture. She comes aboard his vessel and relates to him and his team her experiences on Titanic.
Cut back to 1912 and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) boards the ocean liner Titanic a sullen rich young woman. She's being pushed by her mother (Frances Fisher) into a loveless marriage with Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), a vain self-centred tycoon. The deadening misery of her life leads her to attempt suicide, but encounters Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a penniless artist who won his ticket in a poker game. He saves her life, and they fall in love. But despite all their efforts, the affair cannot last, especially when the ship strikes an iceberg and with not enough lifeboats, it's a race for survival...
Cameron is especially keen on highlighting the class divide between rich and poor on Titanic. The rich are shown as staid, self-centred and repressed, caring only about their money and their social status. By contrast, the poor are shown as lively, honest, down-to-earth and fun. The depiction is crudely stereotypical, but it works in favour of the story. When they're locked below decks during the ship's sinking, you empathize with them and want them to get out.
Once the iceberg is sighted, no shot is wasted in cranking up the tension. Every aspect of the ship's sinking is seen, from the initial iceberg impact to the flooding corridors, the on-deck chaos as passengers struggle to board the lifeboats, to the grand final sinking. Cameron further shows the aftermath of the sinking, with hundreds of survivors screaming and thrashing in the water as they slowly freeze to death. All this works through superlative cinematography, special effects, editing, all underlined by James Horner's worthy music score.
The human element is not lost amid the action. Leonardo DiCaprio is not rough-and-ready enough to really convince as a seen-it-all poor boy, but makes a good go of it, and is well partnered with Kate Winslet, who makes for a buxom, comely Rose. Billy Zane (as Cal) and David Warner (as his manservant) make for slick, hateable villains and Frances Fisher brings Rose's mother a step up from simple caricature.
The fictional characters blend in well with the real passengers, all of whom don't possess much depth but are still very well acted. Standouts include Jonathan Hyde as the opportunistic Ismay, Kathy Bates as Molly Brown and Victor Garber as the ship's sympathetic architect.
When the film returns to the present, you really do feel as though you were on Titanic, and it's hard to suppress a tear at the misty, dreamlike finale.
Epic, and unforgettable.