Phenomenal Film. Just Wonderful

Rating: Null/10 (28 March 2017)

One of my biggest childhood memories was seeing Titanic in the theatre. I was only 7 years old when it was first released and I had no idea what a hell of a ride I was in for. My father always had a keen interest in the Titanic and its sinking, and I remember a large Atlas like book he had of the Titanic full of pictures of the wreckage, the dive teams efforts, salvage operations, etc.
It was just after Christmas 1997. We went to my grandparents for a weeks holiday. During our visit, the adults decided we were all going to go and see Titanic. So we arrive at the cinema, walk in through the front entrance and there's a line-up like you can't even imagine. a huge line-up, of people, all hoping to get in and see Titanic. we stood in line for a few minutes until an usher came and yelled out "ALL THOSE WANTING TO SEE TITANIC, TICKETS ARE SOLD OUT FOR TODAY!", and I think that was my first inkling of "wow this movie really is a big deal", So dad went to the ticket booth and got us tickets for two days later, in a 3pm session that had enough tickets left for all five of us.
Fast forward two days, we go in and get our seats for the 3pm session, the cinema is jam packed, i'm talking not one seat free. three incredible hours later, we walk out of the theatre, walk back through the shopping centre and get in our 4WD to drive back to nan and pops. The second I got in the car, I was just totally mesmerized the entire way home, thinking about this movie and constantly repeating wow, wow wow, inside my head. As a seven year old kid, Seeing this, all I can say this movie had me gobsmacked.
Anyway, onto the movie...
A 101 year old woman Rose sees a drawing of a young nude teenager on TV that was recovered from the wreckage, she quickly realizes the nude girl in the drawing is in fact her. She gets into contact with Brock Lovett (played effortlessly by Bill Paxton), who conducts frequent dive and salvage operations of the Titanic's wreckage. He is searching for a lost treasure known as the Heart of the Ocean which is an extremely rare and insanely valuable diamond. After a very disappointing failed salvage attempt, Rose and Brock come into contact and Rose is flown out to their salvage boat, Where rose ends up telling a group (including her granddaughter, Lizzy) her entire story on the Titanic from start to finish.
Her story begins with Her arriving in Southampton with her mother, fiancé, Cal (played wonderfully by Billy Zane), and Mr Lovejoy (David Warner), who kind of acts like family security. We are introduced to a young and very beautiful Kate Winslet. The Titanic is still docked and the docks are crowded with avid passengers and enthusiastic spectators, all itching to see the Titanic set off on its maiden voyage. We are introduced to the handsome and mischievous Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his friend Fabrizzio in a tense poker game. They're lucky enough to win tickets on board and merely make it on board.
The next portion of the film has various characters talking about the Titanic's construction, kind of as a way to feed the audience some background knowledge I guess. We're introduced to the ship's owner, builder and a whole array of other first and third class citizens. After Rose explains how depressed she was starting to feel after being caught up in the madness of being a first class citizen, and being forced to marry someone she denies her love for, we see Rose upset and about to jump off the ship committing suicide. Here, we have a lovely and eerily quiet introduction between Rose and Jack. For assisting Rose, Her fiancé cal, invites him to dinner in first class the following evening. We see the clear distinction between Third and first class. Jack has no idea how to behave like a first class citizen, and portrays that very nicely on screen to the point where it's actually quite humorous. Later on in the film, after a few more dramas, we see what I can only describe as the most Iconic and memorable on scree kiss, of any movie in history. Now we come to the part of the film we came to see. The sinking. The remainder of the film is pure epic. We see the ship slowly sinking, more water rushing through the various floors and decks, the passengers becoming progressively more panicked, The captain trapping himself in the wheel house, people turning on each other, distressed children and parents, people jumping off the ship into the freezing ocean trying to survive and it's incredible how much you do actually feel like you're there on the ship. All of it was done in studios but it literally does look like its sinking into a real ocean. And the scene where the ship splits in two, was the icing on the cake for me. After the ship has sunk, the survivors floating in the ocean become slowly more and more quiet, until there's complete silence. I still to this day find it a very eerie and disturbing part of the film. All in all, Titanic is quite simply put, just a ground breaking piece of cinema. The film makers got the Era spot on in terms of clothing and how characters look and behave, and as I understand got the look of the Titanic's interior spot on for the time period too. It really does feel like you're back in 1912, and it's always a movie I can come back to every few years and enjoy it as if it was my first time seeing it as a 7 year old. Phenomenal film. 10 out of 10. Fox.