A heart-wrenching, timeless film

Rating: 10/10 (4 June 2005)

A beautiful, heart-wrenching tale of love, hope, and tragedy, "Titanic" is a timeless movie that will move you, inspire you, and bring you to tears. This movie has all the elements needed for an epic film: characters that get us involved in the story, a wonderfully dramatic score, fantastic technological achievements, and a real-life tragedy that tugs at our heartstrings.
Some people feel that the love story between Rose and Jack detracts from the real story of "Titanic". I, however, think that it greatly adds to it. By following these two characters and their brief, yet passionate, love affair, we get more involved in the story, so when the ship finally sinks, it is all the more heartbreaking when we see so many people meet their tragic end. And the love story isn't the only reason we feel so moved; when the ship is sinking, the various scenes of the doomed third class passengers break your heart as well. Among other things, as the ship sinks we see a mother singing her children to sleep, an elderly couple lying together in bed, and people desperately trying to get in the boats or jumping off the ends of the ship; all these scenes made me cry. I actually found myself in tears through almost the entire second half of the movie. Though the real sinking is terrible in itself, this film emotionally moves us because we actually know people on the ship, making this movie succeed where other films about "Titanic" have failed.
Not only is the plot moving, but the technological achievements in this film are ahead of its time. James Cameron was able to realistically recreate the sinking of "Titanic", and it is absolutely astonishing. He is able to add amazing detail that had me utterly transfixed throughout the entire movie. James Horner's score for the film is also spectacular. It is haunting and wonderfully dramatic, and completely suits the film.
I never saw "Titanic" while it was in theaters, as I was under 13 and my parents had this rule about not seeing PG-13 movies until I was 13. In fact, I didn't see "Titanic" until a couple days ago, when it was on TV, and even then I only saw the last half of the movie. But that half had me so transfixed that I drove over to Target right away to buy the DVD, because I just HAD to see the entire thing. And I am very glad I did. "Titanic" truly is a timeless movie, because even though it came out 8 years ago, I absolutely fell in love with it. It is now one of my favorite movies ever.
"Titanic" is the kind of movie that people either love or hate, and to give the haters some credit, this movie does have its faults. The acting is shaky at parts and some scenes and lines are a bit cheesy. All movies have their shortcomings and "Titanic" is no exception. But in the end, none of that matters. The good points far outweigh the bad, making "Titanic" one of the greatest films of all time.