It's about NOT committing suicide; about embracing life and facing death

Rating: Null/10 (23 February 2003)

I find an unbelievable blindness -- not only among detractors, but even among fans -- to what is at the heart of this film.
It's not primarily about a big ship, a huge catastrophe, or an intense and short-lived love affair. Those things are by no means incidental, but they're means to an end. That end being to tell people in despair NOT to kill themselves. To turn around instead and live their lives with fierce and total commitment. THAT'S Cameron's message, and THAT'S what moved me.
I don't expect those who haven't considered suicide -- or experienced the suicide or near-suicide of a close friend or relative -- to "get" this film the same way I do. It isn't some fluffy confection. It grapples with life and death the same way a story about Auschwitz does.
****SPOILER, I GUESS (does anybody not know how this story turns out?) If DiCaprio is too good to be true, it's because his character is called upon to embody Life itself. He has to burn brightly and joyfully even in the face of certain death. In dying he has to pass that spirit on to the woman he loves. So that she can go on to become everything alive and human in the face of the death-filled century to follow. ************
People who know me are shocked I liked this film. "Liked" is an understatment -- I cried nonstop for twenty minutes after leaving the theatre. I'm crying now while I write this.
Sentimental favorites that garner multiple academy awards (e.g., Terms of Endearment) leave me spitting and fuming at what manipulative bull*** they are. "Beautiful" movies (like Zeferelli's ROMEO AND JULIET) strike me as empty confections. I tend to respect tough, ironic, sardonic filmmakers. Bunuel. Cronenberg. Solondz.
The most notable exception, however, is Capra, whose "corn" I am an absolute sucker for. The parallels between TITANIC and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE -- another life-affirming film centered on an averted suicide -- may be the subject of the next essay (disguised as brief "comment") I smuggle onto IMDB.