# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/141 "2014-11-25T14:46:20Z")
What struck me as phony in Titanic were scenes of people sloshing around relatively unfazed in water which would have been near the the freezing point. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/142 "2014-11-25T15:14:21Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I think the Titanic film I most liked was _A Night to Remember_. …The fourth is the whole romantic plot. I mean, you’ve got a movie about the Titanic, and you have to force in a romance? I just want to see the ship sink. I missed this the first time around in the thread, but since it, like Jack Dawson in “Titanic Two The Surface”, is back, I can comment. Funny you mention ANtR as the comparison. Didn’t it, too, have a scene with a young couple finding each other on the ship, and even having the same scene with them and Thomas Andrews in front of the mantle clock? Almost word for word? Admittedly, the romance wasn’t the focus of the movie, but wasn’t it there as well? It’s been a while since I’ve seen ANtR, so I might be confusing my Titanic movies. I’ve seen nearly all of them, including the Nazi _Titanic_ (actually a good movie, except for the glaring factual inaccuracies. If they’d have called it something else, history might not be so harsh. Inaccuracies, and nazis), _Titanic 2000_ (of the lesbian-vampire subgenre) and related films such as \*History is Made at Night \*(Cameron practically stole the plot of Titanic whole from this movie) and \*Goliath Awaits \*(about the discovery of long term survivors trapped inside a sunken ship), so I could be confused. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/143 "2014-11-25T16:54:30Z")
Never seen it. One too many people told me “you _have_ to see this movie!!!”… So I decided " no, I don’t". ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/144 "2014-11-25T17:03:43Z")
And the message- it’s OK to cheat on your fiance if you meet another guy who is smelly and ignorant but looks like Decaprio. LotR is the very best Film set of all time. Casablanca. Indiana Jones. Star Wars. Maltese Falcon. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/145 "2014-11-25T17:07:59Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > \*Personally, I think the iceberg deserved Best Actor. It was so cold and slow moving, and yet had such a dramatic impact, especially because so much of its character was under the surface. The rest of the movie was pretty much a series of clichéd characters and situations that was done better and earlier by Irwin Allen. > > Stranger I’ve always felt the best way to watch _Titanic_ is simply to skip the first half and start watching when the iceberg shows up. From that point on, it’s actually a rip-roaring action movie with a love story thrown in to balance the plot. If you want a better story that involves the ocean, there’s _Das Boot_. Or even _Jaws_. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/146 "2014-11-25T17:16:17Z")
Romancing the Stone. Best. Movie. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/147 "2014-11-26T13:10:06Z")
> [@Molesworth\_2](#): > > Airplane! > > I just about pissed myself laughing when I first saw it as an 8yo, and 33 years later it’s still the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. Absolute genius from start to finish. Yeah, Airplane! is _densely_ written in a way few movies are. Brilliant stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/148 "2014-11-26T15:11:48Z")
Millers Crossing or Collateral. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/149 "2014-11-26T16:13:48Z")
I’m glad this topic came up, because it gives me an opening to ask something I’ve always wondered about… One of the criticisms that’s most often leveled against Titanic is that “it tacks a fictional love story onto a real-life tragedy.” But the thing is…isn’t that what historical fiction’s been doing since it was invented? That is to say, putting fictional stories/characters up against the backdrop of real-life events? No one slams Gone with the Wind for putting the fictional story of Scarlett and Rhett into the real-life Civil War. No one slams Casablanca for putting the fictional story of Rick and Ilsa into the real-life World War II and Nazi occupation. So why is it only wrong when Titanic does it? ---
**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:** [November 26, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/150 "2014-11-26T16:32:52Z")
I guess because no one has claimed GWTW or Casablanca to be the “Best Film Ever!” … oh, wait… Uh… because WW2 and the Civil War are not important/interesting events in and of themselves and therefore need a romantic interest in order to get people to see the movie? … dammit, I don’t think that’s it either… How about… GWTW and Casablanca had positive black characters while Titanic just dealt with White People Problems? … no, that’s not going to work… Hell, I don’t know. At least in Titanic you actually get to see Kate Winslet’s… you know, there’s a bad pun there involving the first three letters of the film’s name, but I don’t know if I’m up to the challenge of making it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/151 "2014-11-26T18:33:21Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > Never seen it. One too many people told me “you _have_ to see this movie!!!”… So I decided " no, I don’t". You sure showed them! ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/152 "2014-11-26T22:35:56Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Hell, I don’t know. At least in Titanic you actually get to see Kate Winslet’s… Titillating performance? ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/153 "2014-11-27T00:10:49Z")
Fact: I haven’t seen Titanic all the way through because it annoyed me so much. I tried. Twice. It lost me before I could even get to the boat actually sinking. The love story seemed formulaic. I found the characters shallow, cliched and unlikeable. I found myself rooting for Mr Iceberg to come in and metaphorically throat punch them. That ultimately was what kept me going the second time as long as I did. I wanted to to see the cool graphics I heard about. I **wanted** to see the annoying protagonists suffer. It was kind of like “Jar Jar Binks in love on a doomed boat” and I was rooting for the Dark Side. Ultimately the pacing was so methodical even that wasn’t worth waiting around for. The Dark Side was weak in me; I rolled over and took a nap. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/154 "2014-11-27T00:22:07Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > Fact: I haven’t seen Titanic all the way through because it annoyed me so much. > > I tried. Twice. It lost me before I could even get to the boat actually sinking. The love story seemed formulaic. I found the characters shallow, cliched and unlikeable. I found myself rooting for Mr Iceberg to come in and metaphorically throat punch them. That ultimately was what kept me going the second time as long as I did. I wanted to to see the cool graphics I heard about. I **wanted** to see the annoying protagonists suffer. It was kind of like “Jar Jar Binks in love on a doomed boat” and I was rooting for the Dark Side. Ultimately the pacing was so methodical even that wasn’t worth waiting around for. The Dark Side was weak in me; I rolled over and took a nap. This was almost my experience, except that I only tried once. It was not as boring as 2001 A Space Odyssey but much more irritating. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/155 "2014-11-27T00:25:09Z")
Sadly, the iceberg only got one of them. I always thought of the romance as a way to show you around the ship. That was the real star of the movie. It brings you back to a place that no longer exists. It’s their chasing each other around and hiding that got them to go into every part of the ship where an average passenger would stick to their level. Think of it as a travel documentary. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461/156 "2014-11-27T15:53:50Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > Sadly, the iceberg only got one of them. > > I always thought of the romance as a way to show you around the ship. That was the real star of the movie. It brings you back to a place that no longer exists. It’s their chasing each other around and hiding that got them to go into every part of the ship where an average passenger would stick to their level. > Think of it as a travel documentary. Reminds me of the jazz people who say, “You have to listen to the notes that they don’t play.” To appreciate _Titanic_. you have to listen to the great lines that nobody says. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-titanic-is-the-best-movie-ever-made-or-ever-will-be-made-discuss/665461.md?page=7)