Titanic

Year of release : 1997

Run time : 3h15m

Genre : Romance / Disaster

Cast : Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Ioan Gruffudd

Director : James Cameron

The movie is based on the accounts of the sinking of the Titanic in the early hours of April 15 1912, and it was written and directed by James Cameron.

Treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team are on board of the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh research vessel, hoping to find the necklace called "Heart of the Ocean".

They find a safe with a drawing of a woman wearing the necklace. The drawing is dated April 14, the day the Titanic hit an iceberg and sunk, 1500 people dying.

After watching a tv report about the discovery, Rose Dawson, who is 101 years old, contacts Brock telling him she's the woman in the drawing.

Hoping she can tell him where the necklace is, while his team is telling him she's lying, he brings her and her grand daughter aboard their ship.

Rose tells them back in 1912 she was 17 years old, and boarded the Titanic with her fiance, the wealthy Cal Hockley, and her mother, who wants her to marry him as they are in financial debt since her father died.

Jack Dawson (although Rose narrates the story, we see what he does before meeting her) wins two tickets for the Titanic at a game of cards, considering himself lucky. He first sees her while he's on the deck with his friend, and she walks on the deck atop of his.

Rose feels trapped, so one night she wants to k1ll herself by jumping off the back of the ship. Jack sees her on the other side of the railing and convinces her not to do it. She almost dies when he tries to bring her back from the railing (I don't know how could she have stayed on the railing in her high heels,but anyway), and they are found by her fiance, with Jack on top of her, making people believe he tried to r@pe her.

Rose tells Cal she fell when she tried to see the propellers, and Cal invites him to have dinner with them the next day,as a Thank You.

Cal gives her the necklace, and the next day she meets Jack, thanking him for not telling everyone she wanted to k1ll herself, and saving her. She sees his drawings, and end up in a spitting contest (so dumb!) while her mother with her friends walk on the deck and find them.

At the end of the dinner Jack slips her a note, inviting her to a party below deck where the poor people reside. Cal has a followed, and in the morning, when she dares say she's his fiance, Cal has a fit throwing the table,while telling her to behave. To be honest, her reply, considering how she was acting, annoyed me too.

Her mother tells her to stop seeing Jack, as they need Cal's money, and she has to sacrifice herself for their well being,by marrying him.

Rose and her family have a tour of the Titanic, and find out there's not enough boats for all the people on board if the ship were to sink, being able to rescue only half of the passengers!

In the evening, Rose meets Jack on the deck, and the famous "I can fly" scene (I didn't care for it) takes place. She asks Jack to draw her nude, wearing only the necklace, and puts the drawing in Cal's safe.

She then runs with Jack through the ship, away from his men.

They end up in a car.

While they live their blossoming love story, the ship moves at full speed (as businessman Bruce Ismay tells the captain he wants to make the news by arriving to New York the day before schedule) towards an iceberg. They see it in time, but they still hit it, although they stopped the engines and turned. The ship is hit hard on a side in the front, water breaking through the vessel fast.

I watched this movie at the cinema, with my parents when it was released, and even have it on original video tape. Last night when I watched it I found it rather boring (maybe due to its length), Rose's attitude towards her fiance (who was handsome, and obviously loved her), and not only (she was 17 years old but smoked in front of her mother, and I'm supposed to be on her side; not to mention the drawing- a woman her age,in that day of age,wanting to pose like that) annoying me.

I thought the movie was too long, and could have been cut shorter if it wasn't for the back and forth, as they kept on getting on the deck of the ship, then back down to the flooded floors.

One inconsistency was, Rose became an actress, while she hid from her mother and Cal, who thought her dead. Yet she chose an art form which makes one easy to find. Make it make sense!

Another one was, it showed us what other people (like Jack and the crew of the ship) did when Rose wasn't present. When someone narrates a story, you can only show what happened when they were present, not when they weren't around, as you don't know what really happened!

The scene that everybody loves, with the two on the railing, you know in real life, they would have fallen, considering how high they were, how fast the ship was going, and the fact they were on the railing, their knees being at the level of the highest part of the railing!

Not to mention, it's supposed to be freezing cold, but Rose is always wearing summer clothes!

Also, the light on the ship stays on until it completely sinks!

I didn't like the spitting scene, which the movie could have done without,as it brings it no value, considering how long it was!!

Also, can we agree they both could have fit on that door, or whatever it was? Or at least they could have taken turns on sitting on it? But I guess the writer wanted Jack dead. I also didn't like the fact it's implied Rose only loved Jack, not her husband, although she didn't marry Cal, she married whoever she wanted.

I liked the ship's interior design, and the jewelry, while I didn't care for the clothes.

I like watching older movies, because I get to see people with their real faces, I get to see their little wrinkles, and real teeth!

The acting was good, but I didn't find it better than what I've seen in other movies. I was not impressed by anyone.

The visual effects were great. The scenes with the shipwreck of the Titanic was the real shipwrecked Titanic,as the film crew shot the wreckage 12 times in 1995 ! The Titanic was reconstructed from the blueprints of the original Titanic builders, Harland and Wolff !

The soundtrack was good.Again, I didn't find it that amazing.

At the time, Titanic was the most expensive movie made, the production costing 200 million dollars ,and grossing 2.264 billion (Billion with a B!! ) dollars at the box office!

The filming ended in March 1997, and the movie was released on the 1st of November 1997!

Titanic was nominated for many awards, including 14 Oscars, winning 11, including for Best Picture and Best Director. Titanic won 4 Golden Globes and 4 Grammy awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year,Best Song Written for a Movie or Tv (for "My heart will go on" sang by Celine Dion) and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

The movie soundtrack was the best selling orchestral soundtrack of all time, being at number one for 16 weeks in the USA, being certified diamond for selling 11 copies in the USA alone,becoming the best-selling album of the USA in 1998 .

The Library of Congress selected the movie for preservation in the USA National Film Registry in 2017.

The role of Jack Dawson was written for River Phoenix, who died in 1993. Ironically, although Jack Dawson is a fictional character, Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, where 121 Titanic victims are buried, has a J. Dawson! The producers did not know about it.

Actors like Matthew McConaughey, Chris O'Donnell, Billy Crudrup and Stephen Dorff were taken under consideration, but the director thought they were too old to play a 20 year old. The director asked Jared Leto to audition, but he refused! Jeremy Sisto did screen tests with Kate Winslet and other actresses considered to play Rose.

Leonardo DiCaprio first refused to play Jack, as he wanted the character to have a limp, or a tic, be neurotic,to be able to show his acting skills .

Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Winona Ryder and Claire Danes were considered to play Rose. Allegedly, Kate Winslet really wanted the part and campaigned to get it.

The director first wanted Michael Biehn (whom he worked with in The Terminator, Aliens, the Abyss) to play Cal.

At the time the movie received positive reviews from everyone, Cinema Score audiences giving it an A+, on an A+ to F scale!

After, the movie started receiving criticism for everything ,from the length to the acting (Kate Winslet in particular, apparently) to certain characters people thought shouldn't have been on screen!

Rating : Worth a watch !