Titanic [M]

It is the maiden voyage of the most luxurious and exquisite ship: the Titanic, and there are over two thousand passengers on board from all walks of life coming to America. Amongst those are Jack, a penniless artist and nomad, and Rose, a woman of high society engaged to a rich inheritor. Their two completely different worlds collide when they meet by the rail of the great ship and fall in love with each other. For a while their romance means a great struggle to overcome the political and societal barriers that harbour them in, but when the ill-fated cruiser hits an iceberg it soon turns into a strong struggle for survival. 

Winner of eleven, count them, eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Titanic is the most epic, grandiose, and breathtaking film to grace cinematic history since Gone With the Wind. Written and directed by James Cameron, this movie harbours absolutely everything from vintage 20s fashion, to sexism, to political and social inequalities, to a whirlwind and most passionate romance, to action, and even murder. Plus it just goes to show that my theory about man’s inbuilt need to dominate Mother Nature is correct: people, you just cannot beat nature! You look at this ship: a most incredible and extraordinary display of man’s brain and ability to create, and in the end it gets defeated by a piece of ice and claimed by the sea! You can’t trump Mother Nature, so don’t bother trying! 

It is the maiden voyage of the most luxurious and exquisite ship: the Titanic, and there are over two thousand passengers on board from all walks of life coming to America. Amongst those are Jack, a penniless artist and nomad, and Rose, a woman of high society engaged to a rich inheritor. Their two completely different worlds collide when they meet by the rail of the great ship and fall in love with each other. For a while their romance means a great struggle to overcome the political and societal barriers that harbour them in, but when the ill-fated cruiser hits an iceberg it soon turns into a strong struggle for survival. 

The film is set in modern times and then the great love story, which comes close to scaling the lofty heights of Moulin Rouge!, as well as the ship famous demise, is recounted by the leading lady. Titanic is a most breathtaking film as it delivers exactly as its title offers. Everything about this movie is epic and huge: the budget alone is enough to blow the mind clean out of its own harbour in the head. The technology and sets that recreate the great ship and its mechanics from the 1920s was absolutely unbelievable. Add to that the costumes, the music, and the script, and what you’ve got is nothing short of extraordinary. 

The film is also titanic in its duration. Running at three hours long, most of that time is devoted to the ship’s impact with the iceberg and then its long journey to a watery grave, which history tells us was about an hour or two. Of all the disasters that can occur and that we see on film, I think there is nothing more sad and tragic than when ships sink. The ordeal is slow and painful and there is always that little spark in your mind that says “there are so many ways of escape” when in fact there aren’t. I personally find it horrendously tragic and sad when I see ships sink, get claimed by the sea, so slowly and torturously pulled down to the depths of nothingness… 

Our two romantic leads deliver most beautiful performances with Leonardo DiCaprio being the perfect rough and charming scallywag and Kate Winslet being a wholly gorgeous high lady with a wild and fun side that, until she meets Jack, she has never been allowed to indulge in. 

And the cast is completely star-studded as it includes Kath Bates, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Victor Garber, Bernard Hill, Ioan Gruffudd, Jonathan Hyde, David Warner, Danny Nucci, Suzy Amis, Bernard Fox, and Bill Paxton. 

Filled with passionate romance, comedy, drama, action, incredible machinery, beautiful costumes, suspense, and of course that immortally romantic song that was so much more glorious when it was played by a flutist and not Celine Dion, Titanic is a true epic in cinematic history. It’s so beautiful, so reflective, and so cleverly written and filmed, you can find no fault in it…aside from when the credits roll and we have My Heart Will Go On with lyrics.

  I’m the king of the world!