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Titanic (1997)

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From Time Out Film Guide

Cost: well over $200m. Disregarding the ethics of such expenditure on a film, this unprecedented extravagance has not resulted in sophisticated or even very satisfying storytelling (11 Oscars notwithstanding). The main problem concerns characterisation and structure. A framing device in which contemporary fortune hunters question a now ancient survivor, followed by a romance between upper-crust but frustrated Rose (Winslet) and a poor but plucky artist (DiCaprio), entails not only a needlessly protracted build-up to the collision, but primitive plotting and performances. Moreover, the sudden, skimpy, soggy love story leads to a conclusion that's perversely uplifting: if your love's strong, you never really lose each other. (Piffle!) That said, the effects mostly ensure pretty gripping spectacle once the boat begins breaking up. Even then, however, most of the best scenes - excepting a memorably macabre floating necropolis - are so reminiscent of Rank's superior 1958 movie A Night to Remember that Eric Ambler's name would not look amiss on the new film's credits. (Bizarrely, however, Cameron neglects the poignant fact that a nearby ship failed to respond to the Titanic's SOS, thus upping the body count considerably.) Unlike its namesake, this glossy, bombastic juggernaut will not sink. Everyone will see it anyway, and so they should, if only to ponder the future of mainstream cinema.

Author: GA

Time Out Film Guide

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Aug 25 2008 22:12 well i think it has to be said there is someting charming about this epic despite a magnitude of flaws that can sink another fleet of titanics,just imagine 2 teenagers taking you on a guided tour of the entire bowels and decks of a huge liner and that too in a frenzy of giggling and weeping alternatively without letting go of each other's hands and you can imagine the inadvertent comic affect that ludicrous image evokes while the ship sinks,
in the middle of all this is the evil stockbroker villain who is the ultimate bad materialistic yankee and has enough bullets to chase and shoot the poor boy lover from wisconsin with a heart of gold ,
we also get to see picassos and monets,not to mention, i could spot degas and goghs in the art collection of the poor little bankrupt-miss rose abroad the ship who is being cajoled to marry the evil rich prince in the form of billy zane ,this almost becomes a parody when the 18 year old miss richie rich poses in nude and starts performing acrobatics for the amusement of jack and his friends ,
it almost looks like a snug little soviet commune with a french romantic setting and german waltzes in the background with all social injustice wasted on the magnificent sets which look more opulent than any cruise liner could ever aspire to be till the ice cube strikes .
then mr.cameron kills about a million of the 1500 who actually died as he has to show a lot of people dying in every gruesome manner possible ,i lost count and really the fact that astute miss rose was able to spot very early on , that there were less than half the number of specified life-boats made me envious of this miss know-all who even knew of freud and all his theories and quoted him at dinnertime conversations .
but still there is a sincerity in the leo-kate act which touches you and the ending does arouse some unknown emotion inside you ,it is illogical but it is lovely to look at and it works in the end ,
add the dion number and the movie wins your heart while your mind resists any attempts to like this giant romantic soap opera ,
the sfx and the cinematography are great and so are the young lovers despite their crude and silly antics on the stern and in the atlantic- leo and kate save this from sinking by their class act.

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