The Blandest, Stupidest Account Possible of One of the Biggest Disasters in History

Rating: 1/10 (12 May 2012)

The producers and writers of Titanic obviously believed they'd bore and alienate the targeted teen and twenty-something audience to the point of losing them if the characters had the attitudes, mannerisms and style of speech that was appropriate for the time, so they had Jack (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslett) speaking contemporary dialogue in a contemporary style, or at least contemporary for '97. A young man in 1912 would not say, "You seem more like an indoor girl." Aside from a certain hostile type of mental patient or the most outrageous and anti-social bohemian agitator, young adults in 1912 did not repeatedly tell their elders to shut up. The creators of the film are counting on what they perceive to be the teen and young adult's lack of knowledge or interest in the values and social customs of the very early 20th century. Since they want the audience to get swept away by the drama and romance of Jack and Rose they want them to relate to everything about them. I remember that this was billed as somewhat of a a fantasy re-imagining of a real event, but this type of historical revisionism, I think, in which human behavior is simply made more familiar, is an insult to any viewer with a 3-digit I.Q. One continuity problem that really gets me is how, when the ship is sinking and Jack and Rose are still inside, the water level is lower and the water becomes calmer around them every time they have a conversation. Again, the makers of the film don't want the reality of the disaster to encroach on, or distract us from, the passionate young romance they're trying to draw us into. Clearly the creators of the film think that the romance is a bigger draw for a major segment of the audience than the story of an enormous disaster that killed over 1,500 people and I'm sure they're right, but often when true and fictional stories exist in the same movie, one weakens the impact of the other, and it's certainly true in this case. I haven't seen the new 3D version but I assume the only change is the 3D effect. This is a bland, pandering, intelligence-insulting and epically overrated epic.