Bad and Good - no other film like it

Rating: 6/10 (7 April 2012)

I first saw "Titanic" in fairly early 1998, I think, here in Australia. I went with a girl I had recently got to know on the Internet. She had already seen it, and spoke in raptures about it after we left the cinema, while I was hesitating somewhat, as I was not sure about what I had just witnessed. Since then, I have seen the film at least twice more, including just now, and I stick by my opinion that I have never seen a movie that is so bad and so good at the same time.
The bad, as so many people have said, is the script. Well, the characters too. The main romance is so embarrassingly contrived as to be juvenile, and this is not helped by the character of Rose. Quite frankly, I can't stand her, and can only wonder why Jack did not push the little brat off the ship when he had the chance. Speaking of Jack, I liked him. He and Molly Brown were, by far, the two best characters shown. I'm not bagging the acting of Winslett. I think she did well. I just thought her character was loathsome. Not much better is Cal. I couldn't stand him either, and yes, I know you're not meant to like him, but I didn't like the way I didn't like him! Talk about a corny villain. Snobby, cowardly... by the time he picked up the child to get his way off the ship, I was thinking, "Alright, we get the idea. He's a creep." Really, I thought the whole "first class and the rest" concept was overdone. Yes, I know it was an issue, but it's so clumsy and obvious as to be cringe worthy. But probably the worst and most disappointing character was the captain. Here was someone I would have loved to got to know. Ultimately, the sinking was all his fault. Yet there was no depth to him, instead just coming off as a feeble human being who did and said little, and who looked (understandably) more and more desolate as he saw what was happening.
But then there is the good. The sinking. Absolutely incredible. I am always fascinated by the fact that the ship started to sink but, as is the nature of such events, everything looks normal for a while. People moved around as usual, the ship just kept motoring along. And yet we knew it would be under water in a couple of hours. The gradual submersion is enthralling, and technically brilliant. This is why I like to come back to the film, and no it's not because I'm a disaster fan (which I am) who just wants to see people die and not care about things like romance. Not at all. Really, no. A key to such films is depth of character and their relationships with each other. No real people means no emotional charge when said disaster happens. The effects are breathtaking, and the model work stunning. I can't enthuse enough about this part of the film.
But the bad comes close to killing it all, and my view does not change after each time I see it. "Titanic" polarises me like no other film I've ever seen. It is awful. It is tremendous. Ultimately, the mixture makes it a middling film at best, which is a great shame. How it won Best Picture at the Oscars remains one of the biggest jokes in cinema history. But maybe, if we can forget about the bad, we can revel in the good, and appreciate some of the most stunning moments ever filmed in Hollywood.