One of the greatest films of our time

Rating: 10/10 (8 May 2006)

I've noticed recently how various critics and the general population treat Titanic horribly with the test of time. I find it shocking how a movie that was regarded as one of the best movies of all time has fallen ill to tons of criticisms. People seem to find it hip now days to bash Titanic and I fail to understand why. I personally find it to be the greatest movie I've seen, the Academy Awards seemed to think it was a pretty damn good movie, the critics when it first came out weren't too harsh and movie-goer's truly expressed how the general population felt about Titanic with the gigantic ticket sales.
Now, however, Titanic makes the "overblown movie" lists from several critics, endures extreme mockery and the ridicule of anyone who actually admits to liking it. This may have been due to people wanting to be different from the norm in 1997 and maybe this attitude never went away and too many people fell victim to it. Or maybe it was the cheesy scene's people like to imitate over and over which obviously must mean the entire movie is cheesy. However, I recently watched Titanic the other day and I'm going to say why I find it to my favorite movie of all time.
The ship Titanic itself expressed a mentality during this time period in which humans felt they could overcome Mother Nature. With the sinking of this ship it made people truly eat the words "Titanic is an unsinkable ship."
With the character Rose, a first class passenger you are exposed to the arrogance high society had. Rose also opened your eyes to the luxuries high society had and how woman were truly trapped and were seen as second-class citizens. Rose almost committing suicide helps hit home how truly horrible it must have been for woman during this time period. The dynamics between Rose and her mother also show the dynamics between how woman had to behave and in a sense how they survived in this society.
With the character Jack, a third class passenger you are exposed to how large the gab between the rich and poor was. How first class dogs went down to be walked on the lower decks, how it was the poor who actually built Titanic and how it was the poor who were treated truly unfair on Titanic just because of social status, which helped express the mentality of the time.
Having these two characters meet and expose the viewer and each other to these different lifestyles helped truly put into perspective the mentality of what this time period was like. Sure, it was in a way a clichée love story, two people from different world's falling in love. But regardless of it being typical it still exposed the different classes in a way that truly made you realize how it was for people back then. Also, many things are cliché' for a reason, they most of the time work and have been shown to work time and time again.
Without this love story you would have just come away with the basics of this story, the Titanic sinking. But this love story created sympathy in which you felt for Jack and Rose. It made you truly feel how the people on the Titanic were feeling at that exact moment. Families, loved ones and friends were being torn apart. Without the emotion created from the love story you wouldn't have felt nearly as sad or seriously towards what had actually happened to these people.
As for it being morally wrong on the part of Rose. Well, she was trapped by her mother and society. The man (Cal) whom she was getting married to proved to be inconsiderate towards others, was very mean, rude and thoughtless (even before he knew of the situation between Rose and Jack). He deserved and was asking for everything he got. What Rose did was what many do in youth and sometimes you have to take what life gives you at that moment. That's exactly what she did and people shouldn't say her actions were immoral. They were done out of love at first sight and out of vengeance towards the arrogant class she was apart of.
Titanic was very authentic and very historically accurate. It did include a lot more then just the love story. It had information about the lifeboats, the binoculars, how exactly it sank, the famous people aboard the ship, and numerous other things. Even things such as the first-class band and their situation, what exactly was sung on the last time day light hit the Titanic at the morning church gathering, increasing more speed regardless of ice warnings and many more examples were all little details included in this movie which made it far more then just a "love story" if you actually paid attention.
One of the major flaws people say this movie had was the acting. I however thought it had amazing acting and I saw nothing wrong with it. Acting is something that is hard to pin-point in terms of being good or bad. I find it an easy way to attack any film. If you say the acting is bad, you cannot really "prove" to that person it was good. Acting is something that just goes to personal opinion and you cannot really change someone's mind on it. I personally give an A+ for acting and even the script. But one thing to consider is that many shots could only be done a few times or even once because of what they had to do to the sets, making it sometimes hard to get the perfect take.
Overall, one the best movies ever made.