One of the greatest films of all time- A dazzling romantic epic

Rating: 10/10 (6 June 2010)

Its been 13 years since James Cameron award winning epic hit the theatres and took the world by storm. Even after all these years Titanic is just as impressive, this is truly a film that will never lose its power, easily on par with the classic epic "Gone With The Wind" and in my personal opinion it may even be better.
The romance between the beautiful upper class Rose (winslet) and the poor,charming Jack (dicaprio) is truly one of the most beautiful and touching ever put to screen. Theirs is a romance so passionate, trusting and ultimately tragic is hard not to be moved. Rose and Jack also happen to be one of the greatest and most memorable couples in cinema history.
A massive part of making this couple so memorable its the wonderful performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Winslet is captivating as the spirited Rose, you really feel her inner torment at her restricted life, her overbearing mother and controlling husband-to-be Cal. Dicaprio lights up the screen with his charm, easily one of the best actors of his generation he gives another strong, highly natural performance as the free spirited jack. As a character Jack is also incredibly likable, the ideal man in all respects, its very easy to see why Rose could fall so head over heels for this handsome artist. Winslet and Dicaprio also have extraordinary chemistry making their performances even better as they play perfectly off one another.
Supporting cast also do a great job, Kathy Bates gives a great warmth and sense of humour to Molly Brown, Billy Zane is brilliant as Cal, providing just enough to make him the perfect villain but there is a sense of humanity there to. Frances Fisher playing Rose's cold and snobbish mother Ruth is perfect in everyway.
Simply put James Cameron knows how to direct, he has a knack for creating these thrilling, visual masterpieces that rival anything we have ever seen (Titanic,Avatar). Titanic is an epic through and through, the sets are incredible and the cgi is still highly impressive (in fact it is miles better than 99% of todays cgi). You actually feel you are on the Titanic yourself such is the care and attention to detail within this film. The last act which involves the sinking of the ship is possibly some of the most thrilling pieces of cinema ever captured. This is Hollywood at its best.
Camerons writing skills are less impressive, this is far from a perfect, mind blowing script but it is a good one nonetheless. There are some wonderful exchanges between Jack and Rose as they begin their love affair and thanks to a mixture of talented actors and sweet dialogue it all works wonderfully. My only, very minor issue with the dialogue would be the overuse of "jack" and "rose"...for example i believe Rose utters the word "jack" 78 times, Cameron seems to forget that we don't actually use peoples names 24/7....however this is just a very minor fault and really does nothing to spoil the film what-so-ever. There are some cheesy lines (as would be expected in a romance) but they work thanks to the actors delivering them, they are uttered with such passion,heartbreak,joy that they end up sounding natural and in fact totally in place.
The score by James Horner is breaktaking, a soundtrack of epic proportions to say the least. Horner succeeds in creating a score that is larger than life and at the same time highly unconventional. He knows when to be soft and subtle which is hard to find in most soundtracks today. Arguably some of his best work this score only furthers this films breaktaking execution.
Despite minor script flaws and some small historical inaccuracies Titanic is still in my mind a perfect film. Such is the level of care put into this film, such is the level of talent from everyone to the stunt men, actors,set designers etc that any flaw is soon forgotten or even better not even noticed.
This film is a touching,beautiful romance, its an epic thriller, its a period piece and its an action film....this film has everything any audience member could ever want and it strikes a perfect balance between them.
One of the greatest films of the 20th Century Titanic is an epic like no other.