The true "Gone With the Wind" of the latter 20th century

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 1999)

Only a film this popular could have a line divided so sharply between those who love it and those who detest it. I tend to not only discuss a film's technical and artistic merits but it's impact on society as well, and I find "Titanic" to be very rich grounds for both. I find it to be a beautiful film in nearly all directions, and though it has some flaws in it, it is for the most part a thoroughly engrossing emotional goldmine of a story. Some find this to be a negative mark.
I however see James Cameron's film as perhaps one of the most honest epics of its kind. The affect of the film is amazing in scale if you let it in. Many, especially those who ignored it while it was in theaters and waited for the video, tend to say how banal the dialogue is, how poorly written the script is, or that it's only reason for success was the millions of Leo-fans and FX gurus who lined the blocks to see it.
My take on this latter hypothesis is that these people must have sleep-walked through the six months the film was in the top 10, ignoring the fact that something extraordinary was happening in not only America but the world as well: millions wanted to embrace something they felt true to their hearts. Look in the history of box office hits and I can guarantee you'll find a difficult time locating any film people went to see four or five times because their favorite actor was in it, or they loved the special effects and nothing else. And for the Leo-excuse: did anyone ever take into account that no other film starring this magazine-seller even surpassed $60 million in domestic receipts (ten times LESS than "Titanic" made)? Johnny Depp and Jonathan Taylor-Thomas are living proof that a handsome actor can sell those teeny-bopper books but their battle to sell tickets is more often where they lose out.
Yep, that 13 year old WORLDWIDE female economy is sure booming these days! Granted, those girls made up for a reliable portion. But come on people, $1.8 billion throughout the planet?!?!? That's a lot of dough! The reason a film like this works well not just with teens but with senior citizens who haven't been to the theater in fifteen years is because it resonates with them in a deep, emotional way.
"Titanic" sets up a great historical tragedy with a traditional love story, probably not all that different than something DeMille or Zanuck would've cooked up in the 1930's. It is very easy to see "Titanic" as another Zanuck/ Technicolor production, starring a teen Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. Someone told Shakespeare while he was writing "Romeo and Juliet" that a teen love story cannot be written because teenage love/ emotions is not real. Shakespeare did not listen to this garbage, and neither did Cameron. We should be glad that both of them kept their ears plugged.

I won't even begin to go into all the reasons why this is a masterpiece. I will go so far as to say that I am happy it did not start immediately with the iceberg collision. The whole point of the love story which precedes it is to make the disaster of the sinking all the more enormous when it hits, because we care for the lovers Jack and Rose so much. Some say this is the part of the film that suffers, that the set-up is not believable and cliched. I think it works well beause DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are both terrific actors, and while the dialogue is a couple of times hard to bare, the structure of the story is so well filmed and paced that it is hard to care. Some even argue that the love story is pathetic because you cannot really fall in love with somebody over a period of a few days. This is probably the worst reasoning I have heard. Anyone who doesn't believe in this type of love just has not experienced it. It does exist though, and it is a beautiful form of it because the developments of lack of trust were not the first things to enter the relationship. It's called wild romanticism, not lust, and it is something we all need to feel at one time or another.

I cannot convince why "Titanic" worked so well with so many millions of people. I can only say for sure why it connected with me. It hit me in the heart and while it felt good to feel for these lovers, it also felt horrible to see where it ended. It's terrible to see 1, 500 people lose their lives on a cruise to New York, and it's more so when you learn of the extreme dedication that was made to accurately portray the sinking. That is something I find difficult not to connect with.