A sinker

Rating: 5/10 (18 August 2003)

Superficially, the loss of the Titanic is a strange theme for a movie, since we all know what happened before it even starts. But "Apollo 13", despite its faults, showed that a story of this sort (albeit one with a happier ending) can still succeed through a low-key focus on the human condition in a state of adversity. For "Titanic", however, writer-director James Cameron has chosen to embellish the facts with a predictable and cliched romance, in which Kate Winslet's feisty, intelligent (and way too modern) heroine overcomes the stupidities and rigidities of her privileged background to learn about herself and life through the love of Leonardo diCaprio. Boy-man diCaprio appears hopelessly miscast, playing a "man of the world" in the fashion of the lead in a high school rom-com. In fact, his role is a pretty straight reprise of his Romeo in Baz Luhrmann's brilliant Shakespeare adaptation - but whereas the whole of that film was imaginatively conceived so that this character worked in that role, in Titanic he is desperately unconvincing in a piece of social commentary that prefers corn to meat at every opportunity.
Yet oddly the film is compelling to watch, at least until the iceberg hits, precisely because you know what must come in the end. But when the boat starts to sink, so does the film. When the natural drama of the situation begins to climax, Cameron focuses instead on the ludicrous personal melodrama of his leads, and an extended action sequence that makes "Star Wars" seem believable by comparison. The final sinking, by contrast, is actually quite moving, though needless to say, presented with a minimum of economy.
Overall, "Titanic" is a contradictory film. Its massive budget shows in the beautiful attention to visual detail (particularly in the mighty portrayal of the engine room), and the bombastic force with which the director combines the private and the public sides of an unquestionably massive movie. But it also shows in the good-versus-evil plotting, the way that every scene is milked for more than it's worth, the need to tie everything up with a semi-satisfying moral knot, and the general violation of the principle of Occam's razor (i.e. "it is vain to do with many what can be done with fewer"). Both an awesome spectacle and a perfect example of what is wrong with Hollywood, "Titanic" is a true film of its era. But watch "Das Boot" instead for a real maratime epic.