Perfection

Rating: 10/10 (25 September 2000)

James Cameron had already, through such classics as The Terminator and Aliens, proved himself to be the world's greatest film-maker, but from the first bars of James Horner's beautiful and haunting sound track, I began to realize that this one surpassed even those masterpieces.
The movie's biggest problem is its popularity, because so many people try to shoot at something when it gets too big.
Almost everything about Titanic is perfect. No one could call DiCaprio and Winslet great actors (witness Leo's appalling performance in The Man in the Iron Mask), but they, like Stuart, Zane, Paxton and a host of minor players, are perfectly suited to their roles. The script, despite failing to get even an Oscar nomination, is brilliant. The direction is sublime. The cinematography, visual and sound effects are unequalled.
The attention to detail is mind-boggling, despite the enormous effort exerted by some to find errors. But for me, what makes Titanic shine above every other motion picture I have ever seen is the unforgettable portrayal of the ravages of time.
Many people have commented on the famous `poster shot' of Jack and Rose at the bow of the ship, but what makes the scene especially memorable is the end, where the beautifully painted ship dissolves flawlessly into the present-day rusting hulk at the bottom of the Atlantic. This and similar dissolves are, for me, the essence of what film-making can achieve, the one thing movies can do so much better than the written word, the classic demonstration that pictures  especially moving pictures  can achieve more than thousands of words.
Finally, the ending clinches everything. Endings have long been Cameron's biggest problem - especially the awful pseudo-Spielberg ending of The Abyss - but here he got it absolutely right. After showing us so convincingly how easily nature and time can crush human vanity and technological achievement, it is the human spirit which finally triumphs over all.