Retro Film Review: Titanic (1997)
In his memoirs Albert Speer, Nazi minister of armaments, describes how he initially had opinion about new, relatively unknown but much talked-about politician of Weimar Germany - Adolf Hitler. Like many German intellectuals in those times, Speer considered himself to be enlightened and having nothing in common with pathetic little demagogue and his supporters. One evening he got invited by friend to attend one of Hitler's rallies. Speer agreed, thinking that it would be fun to listen little Austrian making fool of himself. But when he began listening to Hitler something began to happen. As the speech went on, Speer began to see Hitler and different light and by the end of it, he converted into dedicated Nazi. The author of this review was aware of that episode and feared that a similar thing could happen to him during the watching of Titanic, 1997 disaster epic directed by James Cameron.
In that time Titanic was already known to be the most popular and commercially most successful film of all times, but even more telling were "Oscars" and otherwise respected and Hollywood-unfriendly critics all competing to give as much praise to Cameron's film as possible. In the same time appeared small, but very vocal minority of dissidents - those who defied conventional wisdom of Titanic being undisputed masterpiece and instead crucified it as overhyped hack-job and monument to James Cameron's egomania. The author of this review tried very hard not to be carried away towards one of those extremes and somehow managed to find middle ground.
The plot begins in present day when team of undersea explorers and treasure hunters led by Brock Lovett (played by Bill Paxton) surveys RMS Titanic wreck and, instead of precious diamond, finds picture of a nude woman. They are quickly contacted by 101 year old Rose Calvert (played by Gloria Stuart) who claims that she was woman from the picture. She joins the team of explorers and begins telling them her story about Titanic voyage. In April 1912 17-year old Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Kate Winslet) and her mother (played by Frances Fisher) boards "Titanic" in order to meet Cal Hockley (played by Billy Zane), rich heir and her future husband. Tortured by the prospect of marriage to Cal, Rose tries to commit suicide but gets prevented by Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo di Caprio), poor steerage passenger who earns his living by drawing pictures of nude women. Between Rose and Jack romance quickly blossoms, but it is suppressed by Cal, determined not only to keep Rose for himself, but also to prevent unthinkable liaison between upper and lower classes. The real obstacle to young lovers' happiness happens to be iceberg waiting to be struck by doomed ocean liner.
Titanic is in many ways clearest example of both creative potential creative limitations of modern Hollywood. James Cameron, the film's author, is responsible for the former. Obsessed with the idea of making ultimate version of world's best known naval disaster, Cameron has more than used opportunities given by modern film making technology and other creative resources of American film industry. Combined with Cameron's talent and perfectionism, those resources are in ample evidence on screen. With almost 200 million US$ of budget, Titanic uses production design, costumes, scale models, hundreds of extras and latest CGI effects in order to recreate distant past like few films before and after it. Many of those scenes, especially those showing the disaster itself, were breathtaking in 1997 and led many viewers to wonder whether the ability of films to create fictional worlds could evolve any further.
On the other hand, any film with 200 million US$ budget would need something more than technical wizardry - something that would bring crowds in. Cameron provided this by discarding docudrama approach (used with great skill in A Night to Remember, 1958 Titanic disaster film recreation) and mixing historical facts with fictional romance. The romance in question was as simple as possible and designed to pander to teenage crowds, especially American – the male protagonist was American youth, played by one of Hollywood's "hottest" heartthrobs and embodiment of anti-establishment "coolness". The model for romance was Romeo and Juliet with Cameron replacing noble families' feuds with class divisions. As a result, the portrayal of first-class and steerage passengers, although historically accurate is filled with so much class struggle that at times looks like adaptation of late 1930s Soviet Marxism textbooks. Few people would notice this because Cameron simply fails to make any of the characters in the film worthy of viewers' attention - Cal, Rose's mother and the rest of first-class passengers are shown as evil, corrupt, incompetent or pathetic; Rose and Jack are burdened by simplistic characterisation and atrocious dialogues. It isn't surprising that Titanic, while picking any award imaginable, usually failed to get awards for screenplay. Even worse is James Horner's soundtrack which, together with Celine Dion's song, represents one of the most uninspired pieces of music ever to come from Hollywood.
In the end, the very success of Titanic might very easily be source of its sinking into oblivion. Only few years after its "Oscar" triumph, Titanic was named as the worst film of all times in BBC poll. Passage of time only erases its biggest qualities - 1997 CGI technology is looking rather primitive today and it is going to look even more primitive in next couple of years; in that time audiences would start noticing how one dimensional characters are and how uninspired otherwise good actors (like di Caprio and Winslet) are in playing them. Yet, before that happens, Titanic would still be the symbol of all the best and the worst we might expect from Hollywood.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on January 8th 2004)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/597-titanic
Critic: AA
