# Fact: Titanic is the Best Movie Ever Made or Ever Will Be Made. Discuss. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461 "2013-08-06T01:46:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/81 "2013-08-07T03:49:01Z")
The best ever? Not quite. There’s no denying that the special effects are stunning. The various parts of this grandiose ship crunching, buckling, and breaking; the inescapable water pushing in. And that scene where the rowboat is searching for survivors among all those floating bodies is haunting. Cameron expressed the scope of the tragedy of all those lives lost very well and that’s why it’s one of the best disaster movies in history. The romance story was the weak part of the movie: though heart-achingly moving, it was too cliche, too one-dimensional. I don’t really think there is such thing as a “best” movie of all time. It’s too subjective to people’s individual tastes. I think I’d nominate _Psycho_ because I love horror movies, but there are others who would want to choose something more cheerful and uplifting, and they’re not wrong to prefer more cheerful and uplifting movies over _Psycho_. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/82 "2013-08-07T04:32:58Z")
Psycho was damn good. It suffers, today, for the lecture at the end. It might have worked then, but it’s clunky today. That’s a minor flaw, but when you’re in such a tight competition as this, even minor flaws can knock you out of first place. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/83 "2013-08-07T04:47:33Z")
> [@want2befree](#): > > Shag, how many times did you see it in theaters? How many times did you see it in theaters when it came out in 3D? You didn’t ask me, but I’ll answer it anyway: 5 times in the first run, 1 time when it came out in 3D. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/84 "2013-08-07T04:51:05Z")
Snakes On A Plane is much better! ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/85 "2013-08-07T08:25:17Z")
> [@robby](#): > > When I was in college, we used to insist that [_Better Off Dead_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088794/) was the best piece of art ever produced by Western civilization. > > So there. 😃 > > _I want my two dollars!_ “Man, that’s a real shame when people be throwing away a perfectly good white boy like that.” ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/86 "2013-08-07T10:33:23Z")
It’s impossible to meaningfully claim that one film is “the best movie” except in a very limited sense. If the metric is simply “I enjoyed watching X more than Z,” fine, but that doesn’t really address “best.” Try comparing “Gummo” with “A Shark’s Tale” in a useful way. I’ll wait. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/87 "2013-08-07T15:16:45Z")
> [@JLRogers](#): > > Try comparing “Gummo” with “A Shark’s Tale” in a useful way. I’ll wait. _A Shark’s Tale_ was two minutes longer. ---
**Author:** ![StJoan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@StJoan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StJoan)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/88 "2013-08-09T15:54:33Z")
Titanic? Pah! Pure Bollywood kitsch, manufactured in Hollywood. The only reason why Jack and Rose do not run around trees singing love songs is because the producers could not find a credible way of putting trees in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. 😉 My best movies are: Best drama: “Das Leben der andern” (The lives of others). Best romance: “Der krieger und die kaiserin” (The princess and the warrior). Best overall : Metropolis. Most “cultiest” (is the a word) of all the cult movies: Star wars. Obviously, Star wars is the only one which I can watch more than once – for the others, a single viewing of each has left a lasting impression. ---
**Author:** ![Haunted\_Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@Haunted\_Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haunted_Pasta)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/89 "2013-08-09T18:03:15Z")
I’ll just throw this out there: [the Honest Trailer for _Titanic_.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6mMvBeEPT4&list=SP86F4D497FD3CACCE&index=31) ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/90 "2013-08-09T19:03:58Z")
No “best movie” discussion is complete without the mention of _Spaced Invaders_. _Spaced Invaders_ is awesome and I am willing to fight, via a surrogate, anyone who says otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![ruh-roh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ruh-roh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruh-roh)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/91 "2013-08-09T19:53:00Z")
I would argue that anybody who has seen anything over a 1,000 times probably is not qualified to judge the quality of it. Too much infatuation involved to be able to have anything like a balanced view. And probably no way to argue them out of their view either. That said, I always thought the movie made three mistakes, or at least could have been even better by doing three things. 1. They show that a number of paintings of at the time contemporary, now famous artists are in the cabin. Once they know about those, they should have had them recover them. Lost masters. Almost as good as a diamond. Hey, it’s a movie. They could have come up with a story for why they didn’t deteriorate. 2. After having told her story, instead of having the old lady dump the diamond in the drink, they have the Brock character (Bill Paxton) take her down in the sub for a live look at the boat. While on the bottom, in the confines of the sub while staring at the wreck, she tells him she might know where the diamond is at. After some astonishment and excitement on Brock’s part about just where it is, she pulls it out and hands it to him saying something like “It’s right here. Looks like you found it after all”. 3. At the end of her story, Rose should have said that even though she only spent the one night with Jack, it turns out she got pregnant. Her granddaughter who was accompanying her would then know that she had just heard the story of her true grandfather. Having broke the curse of the diamond and cleansed her history to her granddaughter, then she could go take a dive off the back of the boat and feed the fishes. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/92 "2013-08-09T19:53:25Z")
> [@Haunted\_Pasta](#): > > I’ll just throw this out there: [the Honest Trailer for _Titanic_.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6mMvBeEPT4&list=SP86F4D497FD3CACCE&index=31) That was awesome. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/93 "2013-08-09T20:25:38Z")
So some moist wench goes down on the hero and then goes down with all hands, and we’re supposed to cheer? This damp tart gets us all hot and bothered and we don’t even get to see her naked, but we’re supposed be all gooey sentimental about her tragic death? And don’t even get me started on the stars who were in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/94 "2013-08-09T23:17:10Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > If you watch Titanic once a week and never get bored I honestly think you have a mental problem. I’m not snarking. Watching any movie that much is super creepy, especially something that’s so bland. > > Pulp Fiction for me. I agree. It’s weird. You not only already know what’s going to happen, but, by that point, you know the movie by heart and can just play it in your head. Somewhere along the line you should have started noticing all the flaws and should start getting sick of it. And because that appears to be how you define the best movie of all time, I can’t hope to compete, as there’s no movie good enough for that type of treatment, and, even if there was, there’s no point in trying to convince you that your movie isn’t great, since you are clearly not rational about it. I did just watch the Dark Knight recently, and it was pretty good, if a bit schlocky (and Bruce being less believable than Batman). And that’s a movie I consider pretty good. I can’t imagine seeing a film and not seeing its flaws. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/95 "2013-08-09T23:21:54Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I have no problem watching movies that I like repeatedly. I guess the people who don’t are instead spending their movie watching time on a wider range of films than I do (not unlikely, I have narrow tastes). Not really. I just do something else. Life is too short to waste time doing the same things over and over. There’s value in watching a movie a second time, once you know what’s going to happen, and then there’s only value once you don’t really remember what happened. Note, I don’t see five or six times over a lifetime as that big a deal, but you say you watch them every year, and that seems overkill. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/96 "2013-08-09T23:42:56Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Not really. I just do something else. Life is too short to waste time doing the same things over and over. There’s value in watching a movie a second time, once you know what’s going to happen, and then there’s only value once you don’t really remember what happened. > > Note, I don’t see five or six times over a lifetime as that big a deal, but you say you watch them every year, and that seems overkill. Life is too short to waste time on watching crap you never wanted to see in the first place and wish you didn’t once you did. I stick with the tried and true model. There are a number of movies that I like but they are only a very small percentage of the total ones made especially among the current crop (meaning the last 10 years or so). I only own about 12 movies and I would always prefer to watch one of those again rather than picking something at random at a theater or even flipping channels on the TV. I know what I like when I see it however and I will watch it over and over until the media is destroyed and then I will buy it again. Some others that infinitely re-watchable to me are: Casablanca Gone With the Wind Airplane! There’s Something About Mary I have seen all of those dozens if not hundreds of times a piece and they stand up quite well to repeated viewings that mature over time like a fine Bordeaux. After you hit a plateau and become one with the work, it is zen and effortless to watch it one more time…and there is always one more. The vast majority of everything else just make me feel like I have been mugged for my time. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/97 "2013-08-10T00:15:56Z")
The best movie ever made is Quarantine, folowed by The Hunt for Red October and Shawshank Redemtion. Some of the other movies mentioned are ok too I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/98 "2013-08-10T00:51:52Z")
I guess there are people for whom Celine Dion is the greatest talent ever, but I’m not listening if I can avoid it. I rented Titanic once (on vhs, which was the fashion at the time) and I don’t think I need to see it again. It’s been on tv, but it not worth much attention. Now Clash of the Titans, that was awesome. There’s no painting of Kate Winslet, but it does have a stop motion Medusa. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/99 "2013-08-10T01:09:31Z")
Old “Clash of the Titans” or new “Clash of the Titans?” (Actually, I kind of like both. They both have weaknesses, but very different weaknesses. And the tip-of-the-hat to Bubo, the mechanical owl, was hilarious. “I don’t know. Leave it!”) ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/100 "2013-08-10T01:33:46Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Old “Clash of the Titans” or new “Clash of the Titans?” > > (Actually, I kind of like both. They both have weaknesses, but very different weaknesses. And the tip-of-the-hat to Bubo, the mechanical owl, was hilarious. “I don’t know. Leave it!”) I haven’t seen the new one. I don’t expect the new Medusa was stop motion. EDIT: And looking at Google images, not as topless. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461.md?page=6)