Too big to fail.

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 1999)

Titanic wasn't the first attempt at turning the sinking of the big boat into a theatrical epic, but it's by far the best and will never, ever be bettered. Cameron's minute attention to detail, commitment to realism, and epic vision are light years ahead of the German Propaganda version, a Night to Remember (where the ship sinks whole), the dull Catherine Zeta Jones version, or the tawdry ITV mini-series.
The hugeness of the production is every bit as impressive at the ship, and the savage critics predicted that the film was doomed to fail as hard as its subject matter. Nope! Titanic went on to be a $2 billion hit and scoop 11 Academy Awards.
Despite the many positive reviews there are always film snobs who love to pick faults in popular culture phenomenons. But I think Titanic is more than that and doesn't deserve any nit-picking. It's easy to focus on inconsequential details, but Titanic has few faults. The worst I can say of it is that Leo DiCaprio's acting is sometimes a bit aggravating. Apparently Macauley Culkin was considered for the part of Jack Dawson. Now THAT was have been awesome.
Many snobs have called the characters flat and uninteresting. It's hard to develop such a wide cast in a film set within a short space of time (not including the 84 year time-span of the story). But the two and a bit days that the ship manages to sail before it sinks does have plenty of drama and development so anyone who complains otherwise is just deliberately being fickle. I don't even think that Billy Zane comes across as a caricature, as others have gleefully pointed out. Caledon Hockley IS actually a complex, and somewhat sympathetic character. I know he's the antagonist (or maybe the iceberg is), but the fact that he still searches for Rose on the deck of the Carpathia means that he really does love her, in a way.
Once the iceberg hits, at the 100-minute mark, the editing and timing (not quite real-time, but close) is perfect. The growing panic matches the rising water as Captain Smith walks around in a daze, completely unable to be believe that it REALLY IS HAPPENING. The hole in the hull doesn't seem to be a problem at first, but two hours later anyone not on a lifeboat is doomed.
In a way it's an end-of-the-world movie as much as a romance or disaster. The Titanic was a microcosm of human society, and despite its status as the biggest ship ever built it really was a tiny, fragile speck on a dark, unforgiving ocean. Even as a child, long before I ever saw the film, I thought that the sinking of it represented the futility of mankind trying to conquer the ocean and the meaningless of wealth.
It's a very different film from Terminator or True Lies, but James Cameron has always kept a gritty, earthy tone to his movie. Titanic isn't, but his commitment to realism keeps it consistent to his other movies.
I don't think it's the best movie ever, but it scores almost full marks for everything. Titanic deserves to be seen on the big screen, which is why I have only seen it twice. The new 3D conversion looks great, and with a few corrections to the content of the film, and the digital projection itself, now really IS the time to revisit the ship.