April 14, 2006
Five Times?
Ok, I admit I’m a sucker for an epic Hollywood love story. So, I decided to, for the 5th time, go back in time to see Titanic again.
I really love everything about this classic - the sound track; the great characters and performances; the to-the-tee replication of the ocean liner down to the fine china; and the dramatic yet realistic portrayal of it’s demise on an eerily calm, cold ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. There is no great plot outside of the love story except the arrogance of the ill-fated ship’s senior crew and it’s designers attemtping to break a trans-Atlantic speed record, but having the story seen through the eyes of one of the vessel’s last remaining survivors while just a few thousand metres above it’s dark grave made the 200 million dollar epic even more brilliant.
Although I’m not a huge fan of Leonardo DiCaprio (I did like him in The Aviator though) I thought he played the care-free, street artist from steerage class, Jack Dawson, very well, especially when pitted against the upper crust snobbery of Cal Hockley, fiancee of Rose DeWitt Bukater, Jack’s love interest, played by Kate Winslet. From the moment he began talking her down from taking a dive off the stern after reaching the end of her rope with her apparent elitist future, the opposites-attract chemistry begins brewing and reaches the boiling point through the steamed-up windows of a Packard sedan parked in the cavernous bowels of the 900 foot long giant. That scene, as was the portrait posing of Rose wearing only the Heart of the Ocean pendant, one of the film’s centerpieces, was done in great taste by the revered director, James Cameron. As the blend of fiction and history would have it, just as Roses possibilities for a life beyond upper class trappings were opened, so was the hull of the ‘unsinkable’ liner by an iceberg the under-ruddered Titanic could not out-manouvre.
What impressed me the most was the acting during the last part of the film, the final two hours of Titanic’s life above the waterline, when impossible choices had to be made in the face of impending doom. I’m quite certain from everything I’ve read about in the history books that these heroics were not overplayed. They may even have been understated. Even the villainous Hockley showed signs that were grace saving.
With the strains of one of my favorite singers, Celine Dion and My Heart Will Go On still freshly ringing, I will leave you with this. If you’ve seen Titanic four times, make it five. This is one of the best films ever made and it deserves a front row seat in your DVD collection.
Rick
Filed under: General Ramblings, Movies that Moved Me
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