January 1, 2011

Titanic (1997) ***

Directed by James Cameron.

So I watched Titanic. First time. It is both better and as bad as people say. The acting is pretty rubbish. But then we don't watch James Cameron films for the acting do we? No we watch because he's a visual titan. His biggest critical success (11 Oscars tying with Ben Hur and Return of the King for most ever.) won no oscars for acting, but won pretty much everything else. And it deserves it. The sound, the set, the costumes, the CGI and the direction are all exceptional. It's hard, more than 10 years after the musical theme was original to not burst out laughing every time it appears. It has after all been parodied since the movie first came out. And the classic lines are as cheesy as ever. "Jack! I'm flying Jack!" "Put your hands on me Jack." "I'll never let go!" etc etc.

I preferred to see the fairly lame plot as a vehicle for exploring the actual historical event. The bravado of the engineers at the outset. The lavish accommodations. The class prejudice. The musicians going down with the ship. The cries of "Women and children first." The frozen bodies. It's all super impressive and quite powerful.

As far as romances go it's not very great, but Titanic is a visual accomplishment and that makes it worth seeing at least once.

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