Titanic Review

James Cameron masterfully manages to bring to life the horrifying event of the sinking of the RMS Titanic to its viewers by giving audiences two fictional characters to follow to create a psychological link in the viewer’s mind to that fateful night. Those two characters are the stars of a love story that just so happens to take place on the Titanic’s last voyage. Leonardo Dicaprio plays Jack Dawson a poor yet very charming painter who falls in love with the wealthy seventeen-year-old Rose Bukater played by Kate Winslet. The love story between the two definitely isn’t one without conflict as both reside on different areas of the social spectrum and Rose is engaged to be married to the snobbish selfish businessman Cal Hockley played by Billy Zane and Rose’s mother played by Frances Fisher pushes her daughter to no end to stay in line and keep the family fortune alive. Amidst the romantic drama that plays out the captain is pressured to get more headlines to end his career with a bang by ordering more speed for the ship which proves to be a disastrous decision to comply with on his part. 

 

It is important to note that this story is told from the point of view of  Rose who is going on 101 years old living in the 90s who is recounting the tale of the sinking of the Titanic to her granddaughter and the treasure hunter Brock Levett played by Bill Paxton and his team. Levett and his team found a drawing of Rose wearing a rare diamond, the heart of the ocean and in hopes of finding a clue to where the diamond was in the ship when it went down the team listens to Rose’s story which they find intriguing and fascinating. It is smart of Cameron to use this plot framing device to tell the story from this sort of angle because it enhances the emotional core of the picture by removing the setting from the 1910s and into the 90s to give it a historical perspective. Since Cameron uses two romantic leads to tell the story the sinking of the Titanic becomes a real traumatic event that the audience cares about it because they care about the characters of Jack and Rose who are experiencing it. The sinking of the Titanic is an event of historical prominence and since this movie’s debut, the event is far more memorable in people’s minds because of the emotional connections they made to the characters in what is an excellent use of historical fiction in this movie. 

   

The contrast between Jack and Rose is startling. One is poor, one is rich. However, both have a heart for adventure and they find that charming in each other. The romance between the two is born really when Jack stops Rose from committing suicide by jumping off the rail of the ship as she feels trapped in her social aristocrat world. After persuading Rose to climb back over Rose slips and Jack has to pull her back to safety which makes for a great use of foreshadowing events later to come in the film. Jack’s introduction to Cal, Rose’s fiance, and his butler is immediately met with friction and tension as he is found fallen atop of Rose after pulling her back over by ship workers. However Rose pleads his innocence and masks the truth of her trying to commit suicide by saying she slipped and Jack goes along with it and things escalate from there. By pitting the two on different sides of the social spectrum Cameron makes for an intriguing source of conflict as Cal is jealous of Jack’s presence and continuously puts him down in his place, Cal’s butler is always the watchful unsympathetic eye to Jack and Rose, and Rose’s mother considers Jack but an insect in her world. The contrast between Jack and Rose ultimately is what makes for a compelling romance between the two as they get to know each other and fall in love amidst all the obstacles that come in their way. 

 

As the story progresses the obstacles get bigger and the stakes get higher. Ultimately this leads to a great use of suspense which is greatly prevalent. No doubt suspense is present as Cal tries to break apart Jack and Rose from each other and Jack urges Rose to not give up on him and return to that trapped world she has been living in. Billy Zane’s performance as Cal is phenomenal as he truly captures the spirit of a villain who is so self-absorbed and only concerned about himself that his presence on screen feels so dangerous. Right alongside him is David Warner as Lovejoy, Cal’s butler who carries a gun. Lovejoy keeps an eye on the couple of Jack and Rose and works for Cal to keep them apart. This all creates tension and envelops into exciting moments of suspense. In the climax as the Titanic sinks tension and suspense are raging as Jack is chained in a lower deck of the ship as people scurry to get off the ship. Rose flees to him and the dangerous environment of water flooding the ship creates an exciting atmosphere. Beyond Jack’s rescue, there are intense moments as the lower class individuals try to make it to the top deck but are cut off by workers of the ship in order for the first-class people to get off first and this presents a great source of contention between the classes of the ship. Cal’s eventual cracking down moment where he takes his butler’s gun and fires on Jack and Rose in the flooding rich man’s palace hall brings a sense of urgency during the climax of the film. All in all, up to the final moments of this masterpiece epic the tone is suspenseful and dangerous which since it affects the characters who are the heroes of the story is so impactful not only on an entertainment level but on an emotional connection level as well. 

 

Spectacle is so prominent and satisfying in an epic depicting the fall of the Titanic and what could have easily been a bunch of noisy special effects with the cliche characters that run away from all the disaster that is ensuing turns out to be so much more. While yes there are characters who run away screaming from the disaster it's the context that matters here. The sinking of the Titanic is sported in great detail rising from one level of tension and chaos on the ship to the next. If the movie just showed the ship sinking within a matter of minutes this picture wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying as it is. Instead, over the course of the last hour, Cameron creates an increasing sense of danger and envelops the tale with a captivating and exciting showdown. The ship falling to its doom is a spectacle in itself and when it's complemented to all the great characters and the resolutions to all the drama and developments to the characters that have been building up to this climax the whole time. When all these factors are included they culminate in an explosive set-piece that marks what so many audiences remember about the film so much still yet today. 

 

In the history of the cinema this picture is easily one that will be hard to forget and incredibly makes a historical event which to many people may not be so important so important by way of allowing the audience to become the heroes of the story psychologically in a setting that is so haunting yet so enrapturing at the same time. Despite any flaws, this picture may have the great cinematic experience Cameron, his crew, and the cast have managed to ignite to life in this spectacle is certainly phenomenal and satisfying in an over three-hour movie where the time flies by. I am assigning Titanic a score of 9.5/10.