Still Holds Up After 15 Years

Rating: Null/10 (14 April 2012)

Titanic (1997)
**** (out of 4)
James Cameron's Oscar-winning love story about star crossed lovers (Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet) who come from different back grounds but fall in love aboard the Titanic. I remember seeing this on its opening weekend and it's amazing to see how well the film holds up after all these years. Yes, since it became so popular there are always going to be those who hold that against the film and while it's far from a masterpiece I do think it holds up quite nicely against many of the classic epics that have been made since D.W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION. That film, GONE WITH THE WIND, BEN HUR and other epics were all grand on scale, told big stories with big effects and each of them had flaws here and there.
The most amazing thing about TITANIC is the way Cameron is able to tell the fake story and mix it in with so many real-life people and events. Since 1997 I've watched countless documentaries on the real subject and watching the film on its re-release made me appreciate it so much more. The little details given about certain real-life people was a major plus and so were the smaller touches. The amount of love and detail that Cameron puts into every single shot of the movie makes it very poetic and at any time you can't help but just look around and try to take in everything in the frame. Very few films have gone all-in with their subject matters but this here goes for everything and just comes up short at a few times. It certainly helps that you have two strong leads turning in fine performance.
Winslet was clearly the best of the bunch as she brings so much life to her character and perfectly manages to fit every side of her. Be it the rich, spoiled girl, the confused one, the heroic side or the love story aspect. I was less than thrilled with DiCaprio when I first saw the movie but looking back on the movie he too really stands out and delivers. Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bill Paxton and Gloria Stuart also deliver.
I think the biggest flaws in the film can be had in the screenplay. Many people objected to having the fake characters so close to the real ones during the finale but this here didn't bother me too much as when we see the real people it's in situations based on what we're led to believe happened. What bothered me in 1997 and today is that Cameron decided to make Zane the main villain over the iceberg. I really think the story starts of go overboard during the third act as Leo gets chained up and then we have more drama wrapped around the real event. There's no question that the romance made this movie such a hit but I think it could have worked with everyone had the stuff with Zane been toned down. God knows there was enough drama with the sinking to make up for Zane running around with a gun. With that said, that's about the only problem with TITANIC and those things aren't disastrous enough to ruin the movie. There's no question that the romance works, the special effects are terrific and on the whole this is just a movie that works on every level.