The Ship of Dreams, right back where it belongs . . .

Rating: Null/10 (7 April 2012)

Ever since Titanic left theaters, I avoided it. Watching it on television doesn't work. This is a film of such magnitude, that anything smaller than a theater screen degrades its vision. Now, the film is right back where it belongs, in theaters in an effort to jump (unnecessarily) on the 3D bandwagon. I can grouse about that, but just having the film in theaters is good enough for me. There is just no better venue for the ship of dreams.
Titanic does what great movies do; creating a sense of time and place. Cameron takes an event that we know about and brings it close enough for us to understand. As a storyteller. he understands that our minds are likely to get lost in the chaos of the sinking so his remedy is to stage a computer simulation at the beginning of the film (in present day) that explains exactly how the ship was damaged. By the time we get to the disaster, we're oriented. In that way, we can focus on the human element.
To get to the Titanic, Cameron gives us a modern foothold, framing the film with an expedition to the ship still sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic, forever halted in its maiden voyage to America. The expedition is led by Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton), whose interest in Titanic is procuring a 17th century diamond that belonged to Louis XIV. Nothing turns up, but what he does find leads him to a 100 year-old woman named Rose (Gloria Stuart) one of the last living survivors.
The story that she lays out is a reminder that Titanic wasn't just a curiosity, but a reality for those who were there. Rose's story, of how she sailed home to an arranged marriage set up by her destitute mother, is a window into the painful struggle of being a young woman in the early 20th century. For Rose, she is sailing home to a life of marital imprisonment. Initially describing the ship as "The Ship of Dreams", she laments that "It was the ship of dreams to everyone else. To me it was a slave ship, taking me back to America in chains." We see the young Rose so depressed that she considers suicide. She is saved by Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a traveler who made his way onto the ship through a poker game. Jack is everything she wishes to be. He opens Rose's mind to what life has to offer. They develop a deep passion that builds. Ironically, it is at the moment that their passion reaches its peak that the tragedy strikes. With that, we understand their motivations as they try and save each other as the ship goes down. The actors have such a lovely chemistry together that we want them to be together. Rose's fire and spirit are still there even as she crossed the century mark in age.
The best performance in the film comes from Gloria Stuart as the elder Rose. Stuart was a veteran of the golden age of Hollywood, 84 when Titanic was made, and 100 when she died two years ago - plus, she was 2 years-old when the Titanic sank. Stuart plays Rose, a centenarian who becomes the modern link with the tragic events of that night. It is in her eye-witness testimony that Titanic's tragic story is brought to life. Her eyes are those that have borne witness to history. Her soft, ancient voice humanizes the story.
If the human elements bring us closer to the characters, Cameron's special effects team does a masterful job of bringing the disaster to life. The tension of the last hour of the film is as agonizing for us as it must have been for those involved. The passengers slowly begin to realize what is happening and only come to the full realization when it is too late. Cameron's staging of the event is a master craft of special effects but also of pacing and tension. We know early on that the ship doesn't have enough lifeboats for all of the passengers (it had a smoking room, a swimming pool and a squash court, but not have enough lifeboats) and that makes the calamity all the more senseless.
As I said, Titanic puts us front-row to this tragedy. We stand back and look at it clearly from a 21st century perspective and understand time and place. Even when the architect Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber) lays out the inevitability that the ship is doomed, Ismay is aghast "But this ship can't sink!" The architect is clear: "She's made of iron, sir! I assure you, she can, and she will. It is a mathematical certainty." Ismay's thinking represents the view of the times. Titanic was a marvel of the early 20th century industrial age, a ship so glorious that it was mistakenly thought to have been unsinkable. The tragedy was a grim reminder of the dark decade to come. Within two years, the same industrial might that built the ship would be used to build machines that fueled the slaughter of the WWI. In that way, Titanic's sinking represents the end of the 19th century, and the WWI represents the beginning of the 20th.
But that's history. Let's get back to the movie. Revisiting Titanic is to find that it is a view of history seen through the vision of a cinema artist at the top of his craft. That craft hasn't aged one bit, but now it comes with 3D. As with all 3D presentations, the picture is dark and the images are often not in 3D. There were times when I forgot my 3D glasses, except for a few occasions where I could see the depth of the 3D image. That happened maybe six times in a three hour picture. That's not worth the up-charge, but I will say that the experience of seeing the film again in a theater is worth the inconvenience.