An accurate history lesson...yeah, right!

Rating: 2/10 (18 October 2002)

Rent it if you have a dollar or two and 3 hours to give up.
I've seen this movie roughly 4 times, and that's all the chances I'm giving it. To me, this movie is pure eye-candy. It's beautiful, simply amazing to look at, and if you're deaf--it might be a good film. Everyone in the cast is a fantastic actor/actress. But Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet turn in the WORST performances of their careers. I watched them in embarassment. A bad car accident on film (actually a boat disaster).
That's not to say the film lacks any emotion. I felt for everyone on the ship except Jack and Rose. What really makes my stomach turn is the entire cast and crew not minding that this is a fictional story set in historic facts. It's rearranging history and I do hope future generations don't see it this way. If you liked Disney's Pocahontas or any other film playing off historic events, then you might enjoy this. I'm not saying this couldn't have happened, but I would have preferred that they would have said up front, on the cover or box or poster that this movie is 95% fiction: Yes there was a boat named Titanic, and it did in fact sink.
I wonder if the survivors thought the movie was good or accurate (or if any of them saw it at all). Were their feelings hurt that such a horrific event was made into a blockbuster love-story film and capitalized on relentlessly? I honestly cringe thinking about the future real-life disaster films--will 9/11 be turned into a love story? Maybe...only when we're dead or too old to even see it.
Hollywood, start writing original material. No remakes, no copying, no historical 'what if' scenarios, and no predictable endings. Be creative, be bold, be fresh.