Film Review -- Titanic

This 1997 James Cameron classic stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Because I had, shamefully, never seen this film, I decided to catch the 3D re-release in theaters. Alternating between the present and 1912, the film tells the story of a young, poor wanderer, Jack Dawson (DiCaprio), who gambles his way aboard the Titanic, and the rich but troubled Rose DeWitt (Winslet), whom he meets aboard the ship. They fall in love on the ill-fated vessel, and face the possibility of losing each other as quickly as they found each other. Eighty-four years later, a group of explorers in search of a priceless necklace that reportedly went down with Titanic pull from the wreck a drawing of a young woman. 102-year-old Rose comes forward as the woman in the picture, and tells her story to the explorers and to her granddaughter.
 I will admit, I was a bit skeptical about the film at first. I thought it would be a sappy romance that would long overstay its due (all 3 hours and 15 minutes of it). But it was so much more than a love story. Cameron did an excellent job of recreating the scenes of the ship hitting the iceberg, its sinking, and everything in between (the visual effects are incredible). It also heavily emphasizes how the disaster was very much avoidable, and makes a terrific commentary on the nature of humanity in the face of fear (if you were on a lifeboat with your children, and there are thousands of souls crying for help in the freezing ocean, do you go back and risk your life, like (childless) Molly Brown did, or do you protect your children from the risk of desperate people possibly toppling over your boat?). I was very wrong about the film's length -- I was in such awe of the grandness of it all, I hardly saw the time pass. This event has always mystified and interested me, and seeing its story being played out in such an epic way captivated me from the start. When I left the theatre, I wasn't particularly impressed; I thought it was just a decent film. But I began to realize that it had a very provoking effect on me. I spent a good part of the next week thinking about it, and I became more and more impressed the more I did. It is a love story, an action film, a social commentary all at once. Of course, it is not without its flaws, but I was able to overlook them because I was so impressed with these other things. I was very happily proven wrong. 


Should you see it: Yes
Grade: A