Captivating experience that will stand the test of time

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 1999)

When I first saw this movie the day it opened, I was going in because I liked the cast, I like James Cameron's work, I was blown away by trailer, and I prefer not to judge a movie by its budget. I am not a fanatic about the actual ship; my reaction has always been, "It's a big ship, it sank. So what?" Back on opening day, though some rave reviews had already come out, some dissenting views had also come, and while interest was expected, no one knew the ultimate fate of the movie. And at the theater I saw it in, the projector broke down three times in the first five minutes, and I think it's safe to say the audience I saw it with was ready to kill. Then, finally, the movie went on interrupted.
By the end, though we of course took the free passes the theater provided us to apologize for our inconvenience, we were transfixed by what we had seen on screen. James Cameron is a director who tries here to make art out of pure entertainment, and he suceeds on a massive scale. There were better movies in 1997(TITANIC was #8 on my top ten list that year; the first seven were, in order, THE SWEET HEREAFTER, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, THE ICE STORM, ULEE'S GOLD, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, and GROSSE POINTE BLANK), but this was the best pure entertainment of the year. The physical achievement of the movie, of course, is not to be forgotten, particularly when the ship sinks, and the scene where Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose(Kate Winslet) are standing in the front of the boat (the "I'm flying!" scene), which, when I saw it in the trailer, was what made me want to see the movie. But the love story worked for me as well, as did the wrap-around story of the old Rose (Gloria Stuart) remembering when she was in "the heart of the ocean." DiCaprio is a good actor, and he's good here, though a bit too modern for me, but it's Winslet who gives the movie its heart, playing passion to the hilt.
But as the 70's were the "Me" Decade, and the 80's were the "Greed" Decade, the 90's can probably best be described as the "Backlash" Decade. As soon as a work or artist in popular culture (American anyway) becomes popular, it seems people have a felt need to line up and dump on it simply because a lot of other people like it, and they can't stand it. This is not to say all popular culture is good. Rather, it is to argue that just because a lot of people like something doesn't automatically make it bad. This is not the movie of the year, the decade, or the century, but it's a great movie, and I wish people would get over themselves and not consider those of us who feel like I do cretins. This will stand the test of time.