I still love it

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2006)

I will always remember the first time I saw "Titanic." The year was 1998--late February, to be precise. I was ten years old, in the fifth grade, and had been hearing for weeks about how good this movie was and how it was like nothing anyone had ever seen. I was desperate to see it. However the forbidden fruit had been rated PG-13, so I was afraid I would never see it, being too young. Then, as luck would have it, one of my friends invited me to go see it for her birthday. I thought it would be the classic formulaic love story with some good, fun thrills. I was wrong.
I had never had such a thrilling experience in a movie theater in my life! I was quite literally on the edge of my seat. Especially during the last half...there were many memorable scenes, including Rose searching for Jack below decks, the evil fiancé pulling out a shotgun, and of course, the sinking...
"Titanic" didn't end the way I expected it or wanted it to; I had imagined both of the lovers would be rescued and live happily ever after. At ten, I was deeply upset by the early death of Jack, but I understand today that it was necessary for him to die, otherwise the full extent of the tragedy couldn't be grasped. Someone I know said that this movie is the closest you can get to the real tragedy without experiencing it firsthand, and I'm inclined to agree. (Though I did visit a Titanic exhibit--from the actual ship--last summer and saw the shoes of Eino Panula, the "unknown child of the Titanic," and it was bloody awful, to say the least.) Now I understand in some years it's become trendy to hate "Titanic." Perhaps it's because Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't seem as cute anymore. Perhaps the special effects seem old. Perhaps it was some of the (at times) rather weak dialog. Who knows? But I still like it, really like it in fact, and occasionally I pull out my old VHS copy and watch it. It still hasn't lost its power to move and disturb me.