Over in Crunchy’s Welcome Wagon I noticed that regarding a newbie’s professed bad taste in movies, Crunchy’s only warning was “I love films, and if I ever see you post anywhere how great Titanic was, I will find you and I will hurt you. Badly.”
I too love films, so this thread is essentially here so I can see if I can make Crunchy Frog’s head explode.
…
I loved Titanic. I thought the cinematography was great, and the special effects awsome (as in “inspiring awe”, not “totally tubular”). I cried at the end when Rose went back in the dream sequence to see all the people who died.
I saw it at the movies twice. I own the video tape. I watch it at least once a month. I think I’ll watch it tonight.
But the story was a re-hash of the same old thing you’ve seen in a hundred other films. Totally unoriginal. And the acting was bad. I know Rose was sopposed to be “ahead of her time”, “modern”, “exceeding the bounds set for a late-19th/early-20th Century female”; but she sounded like my first girlfriend back in the early 80s. Her acting was anachronistic.
But I liked Kate Winslet’s breasts. (Which would be a great name for a band, BTW.)
spritle - do not see Titanic. I had to go because my at-the-time-fiance wanted me to go with her. I wanted a blowjob, so I thought it was a fair trade. It was not. The film is your standard poor boy from the wrong side of tracks meets spoiled rich girl love story. Nothing new there. I didn’t think the acting was anything special. The dialogue was downright BAD. And it went on FOREVER. I could’ve gone to see the first 15 minutes of Titanic, hopped into a different theatre, watched a different movie, gone back to the first theatre to watch the ship sink, and I would’ve liked it just as much (if not better) than had I sat through the whole film. It’s rehash of the same old love story, nothing original at all, poorly written, with good special effects.
How this won Best Picture over LA Confidential boggles the mind.
I liked the movie, as well. Only jarring note to me was Rose telling Jack “I’ll never let you go, Jack,” and then shoving his hands off the door, letting him sink to the bottom. Made me laugh.
I got misty, too, though. The scene showing the mother cuddling her child (children?) on their bunk as the water rushed underneath the bed brought tears to my eyes.
I’ve always been something of a Titanic buff, and seeing that movie helped me visualize how things might have happened. Sad.
All I can say is:
(former)Roommate loved “Titanic”. He was crying at the end, in that ‘No, I’m not crying, I got dust in my eye’ guy kind-of-way. He bought the movie. He bought the soundtrack. We drove to St. Petersburg to see the travelling exhibit (good history). We went to the ‘permanent’ exhibit on I-Drive (free tickets - I wouldn’t have paid that much, as interesting as it was).
As for my (positive) opinion:
I thought Titanic was a very good movie, and I still do. ***1/2 out of **** on my personal rating scale.
I thought DiCaprio was over-hyped, but by no means did I think he gave a bad performance. I thought both Kate Winslet and Victor Garber gave excellent performances. I was somewhat disappointed to see that Zane’s Cal Hockley never does manifest a good side as I expected him to, but by the same token I can’t claim that his character was predictable. And what else can I say but that I admire Rose for establishing herself as a free woman, breaking out of her “mind-forged manacles.” Is that an old story? Yeah, but none the less a good one for that.
Obviously, the special effects were superb, but that’s true of many mediocre movies. I liked them in Titanic not just because of their quality, but because I found the effects enhanced the story rather than distracting from it. And finally, I was pleased that Cameron didn’t take the easy option of using the disaster as an excuse to kill the characters we don’t like and save the ones we do. There’s no pretense that the universe plays fair with us.
Sure, Titanic’s got flaws; its MacGuffin is silly, it starts very slow, etc. But I honestly consider it a good movie.
I avoided Titanic like the plague when it first came out, but I happened to catch it on HBO one Saturday afternoon when I had nothing else to do, and was surprised at how much I liked it. I didn’t cry at the end, but I was quite moved by the final scene, no matter how much I tried to tell myself it was sentimental schlock. I still watch it whenever it comes on HBO.
I have to agree with Crunchy Frog that it wasn’t nearly as good as L.A. Confidential, though. I’ll take Kim Basinger and Russell Crowe over Leo and Kate any day of the week.
One weekened, we were at a con, in the con suite. One of the ladies there hadn’t seen it, and it was on HBO. So we sat around and either watched it or made fun of it. Nitpicking, the like. I was cheering when Leo died. Great scene.
I liked Titanic all right. Didn’t change my life or anything.
I agree with most of what Crunchy Frog said about it, however. The whole romance story line was trite and formulaic as hell. If it had been surgically excised from the movie, it wouldn’t have caused me any heartache.
The dialogue throughout the sinking was nothing more than “Jack!” “Rose!” “Jack!” “Rose!”
How it won Best Picture over “LA Confidential” boggles my mind, too.
But it had an outstanding soundtrack (Celine Dion notwithstanding), outstanding special effects, a few highly dramatic moments, and Kate Winslet isn’t hard to look at.
