Movie Review: Titanic

 

It was one of those films that I needed to see or at least should have seen growing up. I was aware of how long it was just by constantly looking at the VHS version’s design with two tapes. I wasn’t really eager to see it, knowing how people have treated the film since it was first released but it was winter break and I had nowhere else to go. So, I borrowed the DVD (the first edition) from my library and watched this grand scale film on a 10″ screen, mostly because it was the most immediate way to see it and also because nobody else with me wanted to sit through a three hour film.

The ship sinks.

All I had known and seen of the film beforehand was the middle part. The framing device at the beginning caught me off guard and I asked aloud “Movie? What’s going on?” But then I started getting accustomed to the story and things worked out fine until the ship began to sink.

OK, I grew tired of how long this sequence played out but it reflects near real-time, similar to Rope and how the day progresses and seems longer than it actually does. The utter lack of common sense on the staff’s part is appalling to watch even though they earnestly believed that this was just a minor issue. Nope. And then the strobing came. I didn’t freak out but my mind wandered and thought of how the ship could have hosted the first rave at sea if it didn’t, you know, sink.

I do not understand what’s with the hate for the end credits song. I liked it to an extent. I guess it’s because I wasn’t exposed to it back in the late 90’s like other people.

The interesting thing is that the secondhand stores I frequent most have this, Independence Day, The Matrix, and Jerry Maguire in bulk on tape. I think it’s because not many people watch films on a VCR player. Either the people updated their copy of the film or didn’t really want it all that much.

I do appreciate the amount of detail put into this film. Using the same companies commissioned on the original voyage to make replicas of furniture, doing the research, getting relatives to act in it, the dedication clearly shows.

A titanic effort indeed, made humorous with bunnies. For the record, I am aware of the two animated adaptations and might, just might, watch them.

7/10

1001 MYMSBYD selection

AFI Top 100 (2007): #83

400 Nominations for AFI Top 100 for 2007

Winner of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound (Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, Mark Ulano), Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Original Song.