Titanic (1997)
Review of Titanic (1997), directed by James Cameron
It took two very specific events for me to finally sit down and rewatch the 1997 Titanic movie. First, I chose to traumatize myself by watching the young Leonardo DiCaprio movie where he plays that super drunk young hotshot French poet that’s highly obnoxious. That movie quickly turns into gay erotica, which I didn’t know the full extent of until I was too deep into it. The second event that finally kicked my ass into watching this movie was visiting the Titanic museum an hour outside of Knoxville. Super strange that the world’s largest Titanic museum is in a tourist trap, but as I was surrounded by screaming kids who didn’t care about the history and felt the ice-cold water that was the exact temperature of the ocean, I felt inspired. So as soon as I got home, literally the night of, I watched this movie until midnight. And there were things that I remembered and things I didn’t. Anyhoo, let’s get into this review.
Content
I imagine most people have seen the Titanic movie. Except for my parents. We had to explain to my father what the Titanic was halfway through the museum because he had no idea what he was looking at. Halfway through he finally realized and went “did this boat go underground?” And that, y’all, is my father. Anyways, I imagine if you vaguely know anything about movie culture, you know the gist of the movie. Epic, doomed romance. Sinking ship. It’s the perfect equation, isn’t it?
Watching this as a much older person who knows way too many Titanic facts (it’s one of my favorite guilty pleasures, a period of history where a tragedy became an entertainment minefield for Hollywood), it was interesting particularly to compare and contrast the historical accuracy of the film. Having taken a costume in film history class that taught me the basics of costumes from the era in which this film was replicating, the costumes tend to skewer towards moderately accurate. My professor of that class actually did this wicked awesome video about it. I’m in love with my professor y’all. She’s so cool.
Looking at the historical depictions of the liner itself, it was a perfect example of the time and the society that Rose herself lived in. This was the late-stage Gilded Age depicting largely the wealthy society, as Rose was from the upper elites of the society. Her corset slowly begins to loosen as she continues seeing Jack on the ship, showing how she feels she is becoming freer in his presence.
However, outside of the stunning visuals and the historical depictions of the Titanic and Gilded Age society, I find that this film really lacks something. It relies way too much on the doomed romance and the tragedy itself to propel the plot forward. It’s convenient that this just happens to be the Titanic, and I can see why some survivors refused to see the film. In a way, it can be seen as romanticizing the tragedy. Sure, the leading man dies, but now many may only associate this truly tragic event with romance.
I will say though, I cried as I watched the last scenes of this movie. I don’t think it was for the actual characters. It’s moving to me to think about how this was such a real moment, that many people died in this accident. Some may say that it was the lack of binoculars (a crew member who had the key was dismissed right before the ship disembarked, leaving the entire lookout without a method for long-distance spotting). Others may say crew negligence. But at the end of the day, this film humanizes it for many people but may cause an association that may be damaging.
Overall Thoughts
It’s a solid movie, if you want entertainment and enjoy romance and/or sad films. I just wonder at the end of the day the ethics of making a film about a tragedy, especially when it becomes a cult classic like this. It kind of creates this alternate reality, especially in the era where all the remaining survivors have passed away. There are few people who remember the story of the Titanic and the people on it, so having this be the representative of them kind of strikes me wrong. Especially when the film largely depicts the upper class, the ones who largely survived. Many third-class passengers, like Jack, perished. Many never made it up to the decks even. I think, at the end of the day, my point is to remember that this is fiction utilizing real events to propel a narrative forward.
