Titanic Review
by Jonathan Williams (jwbarney AT concentric DOT net)February 17th, 1998
The Titanic
Written and directed by James Cameron
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson), Kate Winslet (Rose DeWitt Bukater), Billy Zane (Cal Hockley), Kathy Bates (Molly Brown), Frances Fisher (Ruth DeWitt Bukater)
Reviewed by Jonathan Williams
Titanic: Small, Thoughtful Hollywood Movies Goes Down with the Ship
In his book Adventures in Screen Trade, William Goldman identifies two types of movies: real, and comic book. Long before the end of my review you will guess which one I think Titanic is.
I initially didnıt want to see the Titanic. I figured I knew what was going to happen, so why bother? And I had heard stories about how it was three hours long, and that you had better go to the bathroom first, etc. Eventually I was forced to give in and this review is the result.
Since so much has been said about the movieıs plot, I will confine my comments to my immediate reactions. First, I liked the movie more than I thought I would. Second, it didnıt seem as long as it was, so it certainly held my attention. But third, although I liked the movie, the longer it has been since seeing it, the more disappointed I am because of its little flaws.
First, the story of the young, star-crossed couple (you knew they were star-crossed because they fell in love on a boat that you knew would sink) was not entirely believable, although there was enough energy there to draw you into the show. That this love story works in spite itself is less a testament to the script or the casting, both of which were flawed, than to the power of a good old fashioned love story. Leonard DiCaprio (Jack Dawson) looked too young, and Kate Winslet (Rose DeWitt) too old. His dialogue was filled with anachronisms and had a modern day smart-aleck sound, and even though there was some chemistry between the two, their union seemed improbable. I found it hard to believe, for instance, that after her motherıs plea to stick with the rich fiance Cal Hockley (played by Billy Zane), Winsletıs character would abandon her family and go after a penniless young boy. Chase your own dreams to your own detriment if you will, but abandon dear old mom to creditors? Only in storybook romances are rich girls that impractical and willing to abandon their parents. Also, casting an older-looking MAN (versus boy) than DiCaprio might have helped their relationshipıs credibility. As I watched the movie I found myself wondering whether the formula story book romance between social unequals may be getting a bit hackneyed for our post-modern sensibilities.
Then there is the old woman. She is allegedly the young woman eighty or so years later. For some reason her character irked me. Perhaps itıs because she wasnıt a character but a plot contrivance. She didnıt look 100 plus years old or enough like I would imagine Kate Winslet would look like as an old crone. And I couldnıt see how she could have lived this long and not have told anyone this incredible story. Add to that her possession of a pricless diamond necklace, which she even wore around her neck while doing the gardening, that no one knew about? At times, these and other features of Titanicıs story book plot kept nudging me to remind me that it was just there to make the rest of the disaster a little more palatable. And that was another problem too, the jarring juxtaposition of dime store romance novel plot with real life tragedy. The sinking of the Titanic was a real disaster, an historical event with all sorts of amazing coincidences and instances of both sacrifice and utter selfishness, and most of that went ignored so that a plot that would have barely sustained a made for TV movie could take center stage. Without the magnificent special effects (mostly magnificent, occassionally you could tell that the people walking on deck in the long shots were computer generated), would this be a movie? Which leads me to summarize what both these flaws signify: that the plot and character were secondary to the spectacle. And a comic book movie is nothing if not a great spectacle.
This raises a disturbing question: Are we still able to make and watch movies that arenıt comic book? There are still a few of them made, but their numbers seem always to be in decline. Special effects are here to stay, in part because people expect them, but also because they allow film makers to get away with contrived plot and shallow characters. (Consider how flat and comic book-like both the Jurassic Park moviesı characters are.) And now that movies are made on a scale so large that most have to succeed in foreign markets in order to turn a profit, the comic book movie is easier to translate and export, with its easily distinguishable good and bad guys and its shorter more declarative sentences played atop an obvious spectacle.
Of course, few people notice the decline of the small movie anymore because most of us have been weaned on a diet of flat, convenient characters in movies and tv. In the end, the Titanic will make a lot of money and inspire a few fond memories, but little more. It is not a movie that we can revisit to mine for hidden meaning or allegory. Thatıs a sad memorial for a disaster that needlessly claimed the lives of so many innocent victims. But at $200 million, you canıt risk making a sophisticated movie since you need half the population of the US to watch it just to break even. Such is the legacy of the Hollywood blockbuster, starting with Jaws and Star Wars through the Jurassic movies and down to Titanic, that the studios, greedy for the outrageous profits to be had from them, all want a blockbuster of their own. The small, thoughtful Hollywood movie, once almost extinct but making a slow comeback, may at last have been dealt a final death blow. We now hear that Titanic may now be the only movie to gross over a $billion worldwide. The Titanic took down with it more than its 1500 plus brave souls.
Again, donıt get me wrong, this is a movie I enjoyed, but as soon as it was over, I had a nagging sensation of not quite being satisfied, a sensation I have sadly gotten used to. As I walked to my car after watching the Titanic, I thought I could hear a bell tolling. It wasnıt tolling for the brave dead from the Titanic, but for a new casualty, the small, serious Hollywood movie. I got in and drove away as fast as I could, hoping to avoid the funeral.
İ1998 Jonathan B. Williams
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
