An Injustice To The Survivors

Rating: 1/10 (30 January 2000)

Any human being who considers "Titanic" to be among the top 250 films of all time should be strapped to a chair in a small room and be forced to watch any Tom Cruise vehicle several hundred times. In pan 'scan format.
Like so many awful Best Picture winners which came before it, "Titanic" does a horrible injustice to its so-called intended "heroes"... in this case, by stereotyping them, making them dispensible.
The most recent B.P. winner to have borrowed this technique is Costner's aberration, "Dances With Wolves," which pretended to be about the plight of the Native Americans, whose country we literally stole from them, and turning it into a fable about how one __white__ man rises above his equals to "appreciate" the former. See "Black Robe," "Little Big Man" or "Soldier Blue" instead.
The politically~correct "Driving Miss Daisy" suffers the same fate: it should be about Freeman's character, which is infinitely more interesting than Tandy's.
"Forrest Gump" is nearly as insulting, by changing the book in such away as to take the worst of Gump's traits and failings and foisting them on the Robin Wright Penn's "Jenny" character, leaving sweet Forrest a saint and Jenny a slut. "Pulp Fiction," also released in 1994 has already had a greater effect on filmmaking than "Gump" ever will.
And __that's__ not even Tarantino's best film!
Despicable.
While we're at it, let's add to this list of garbage which has recently won Best Picture: Mel Gibson's lamentable "Braveheart," which, while sporting excellent large~scale battle scenes, is nearly entirely fictional.
More proof that Hollywood's elite still like guys who've paid their dues in front of the camera.
"Gandhi"??? Don't even get me started on that Best Costume Design Oscar, let alone its B.P.
The trend may have begun in 1939, with the single most overrated flick of all time ["Gone With The Wind" of course] beating out at least seven better films made in the same year.
~Niro