coming to a movie 24 years late

[asakiyume]

Editing a whole book on the Titanic made me FINALLY willing to take the plunge and watch James Cameron's Titanic (1997), which I have successfully avoided all these years.

But it's so long, people! A Night to Remember (1953) is so much shorter, and lets you see things on the Californian and the Carpathia.

Never mind, I took the plunge over the past two days. I have the following observations:

(1) 1997 was just about the last year that movie could have been made and have it set in the movie's own present-day. Rose was 17 at the time the Titanic went down; they say she's 101 in the movie's present-day . . . which actually makes the movie's present day 1996. Rose would be turning 102 in 1997.

I mean, there are people older than that who are alive and even active. But not a whole lot of people.

(2) The romance element was a thousand times less annoying than I was expecting it to be. I really thought I'd be fast-forwarding through most of it; I have no interest in rich-girl poor-boy stories (or in rich-boy poor-girl stories either, really, thought the reason for my dislike in the two cases is different), but these two were so exuberant and lively together I was actually kind of charmed. There was a decided absence of Drama between the two of them, THANK GOD, and also not too much cooey syrup either THANK GOD.

I did fast-forward through most interactions involving the Evil Fiancé, who had a Terminator-like quality to him.

(3) I really liked the character of Chief Engineer Andrews. I wasn't expecting (in spite of its reputation) to actually cry watching this film, but when Rose and Jack encounter him near the end, and he says "I'm sorry I couldn't build you a stronger ship, young Rose," I did tear up.



(4) The whole disaster-movie section of the film felt ... a bit repetitive. Many permutations of the same scene (people trapped behind gates, for example, or water crashing through windows or surging through corridors). On the plus side, it allowed for you to see different solutions to a problem. Gate is shut? Try using a piece of furniture as a battering ram. Try getting the steward to unlock it. Try turning around and going a different way. On the minus side . . . idk, I could have used a few fewer permutations. There were more shots of chinaware falling off shelves than I would have included if ****I**** were the director, Mr. Cameron!

(5) I really admired and enjoyed both Rose and Jack's resourcefulness at different moments. Though Rose, I would have gone for the axe solution sooner. But I forgive you; you're in a stressful situation.

(6) It was fun to see the different passengers Doug had referred to in his book--like Mr. Guggenheim and his butler.

(7) I found the very ending, where the ship comes alight again, and you are looking through Rose's eyes, as she enters the room with the grand staircase, and everyone is there, characters you saw throughout the film, even if they had no speaking role, and they are all smiling and welcoming, and Jack is there at the top of the staircase to take her hand, SUPER DUPER MOVING. I burst into tears watching it, and then again describing it to Wakanomori and again talking to the ninja girl, and I'm not exactly dry-eyed typing this, so.

(8) It was great to see from Rose's photos that she had lived life so fully, done all the things.

When I used to hear about this movie, I resented that she survived and he died, that he was like her manic pixie dream boy (so I thought) and that he sacrificed himself for her. But watching the film, it didn't feel so much that way. She does save him at least that once, and chooses to be with him on a sinking ship rather than a lifeboat. Ideally once they're in the water, they would have splashed around looking for a piece of flotsam for him to climb on, too, but there's a limit to what you can do when you're in hypothermia.

My final verdict? Very pretty, a bit long, but overall, satisfying.

Comments

[sartorias]

That was pretty much my take, too. I've only seen it the once, when daughter (then a teen) wanted to see it. Ordinarily I avoid disaster movies. But this one was really well done.

[asakiyume]

I was so surprised and relieved that I actually liked the main couple! I hadn't expected that at all.

... I did find some of the disaster aspects traumatic, but then, the actual thing was traumatic, and so I knew what I was getting into.

[threemeninaboat]

The costuming!

[gale_storm]

Yes! Oh, what a wonderful place it must have been to work in the wardrobe department on that film!

[asakiyume]

Now those are some dress-ups that would have been fun to have--that would still be fun to have :-)

[asakiyume]

Yes--it was gorgeous!

[mallorys_camera]

The scenes I liked in that movie were the ones where everyone was freezing to death in the cold waters after the boat sank. The ice crystals in their hair!

[asakiyume]

I noticed the ice crystals! It reminded me of a folksong about a girl who freezes on a cold sleigh ride: "The Frozen Girl"

[dark_phoenix54]

I put off watching that movie for years, too- I think I saw it two years ago- figuring it would be all flash and soppy romance. I was pleasantly surprised by it. The costumes were wonderful. I liked that they showed the class differences but didn't make the movie all about that. I wanted to slap some sense into Rose's mother! If it shows up again on a channel we get I'll probably watch it again.

[asakiyume]

Yeah, exactly, re: the class situation and the romance. It was nice to be pleasantly surprised. And I liked all the little glimpses you got of other people. And the costumes *were* wonderful.

[sovay]

(3) I really liked the character of Chief Engineer Andrews. I wasn't expecting (in spite of its reputation) to actually cry watching this film, but when Rose and Jack encounter him near the end, and he says "I'm sorry I couldn't build you a stronger ship, young Rose," I did tear up.

I love Victor Garber as Thomas Andrews. He was my main emotional attachment when I saw the film in 1997 and should I ever rewatch it, I expect nothing to have changed. I am glad the romantic element worked for you, though.

(8) It was great to see from Rose's photos that she had lived life so fully, done all the things.

Yes! My other strong opinion about this film is that Gloria Stuart as centenarian Rose is wonderful and it is the right choice that she lost the love of her life at seventeen and still had a life that she loved. People do.

[asakiyume]

His line, "She's made of steel; I assure you, sir, she can sink," was great. (Or maybe he said iron--in any case, a great line.)

My other strong opinion about this film is that Gloria Stuart as centenarian Rose is wonderful I agree--she was wonderful! Still full of life. When she climbs up on the stern of the ship to throw the necklace into the water, I loved the closeup of her painted toenails. She was great.

[kore]

It's really not such a bad movie! It's not the Best Movie Evar, maybe not even the best movie of that year, but who cares, it's a grand gorgeous spectacle and it really does care about the characters. At the opening, the salvage crew just sees the lost people as a giant number, faceless, and by the end, it's all about the individual stories and they're all crying. It's great. And, like William Goldman pointed out, the spine is just a great story. It's got levels of suspense built right in even though everyone knows what's going to happen -- that makes the tragedy.

I wasn't going to see it at all because I also thought, mushy love story, and Cameron was already an asshole at that point, but I read this long article in I think Newsweek (lol) about how he'd gone completely overboard trying to resurrect the ship, down to the White Star logo on the backs of china plates that no one would ever see. More like recreations than props. So I saw it on the big screen for that, and it was gorgeous.

Still CANNOT STAND that song, tho, not even on its own merits, but it was just everywhere.

[asakiyume]

it's a grand gorgeous spectacle and it really does care about the characters --yeah, exactly!

[osprey_archer]

I actually saw this in theaters! I would have been, hmm, nine at the time? I went to see it for a friend's birthday, IIRC, and if I hadn't I suspect that I, like you, probably would have avoided it for years in silent stubborn protest against the hype.

It's one of those movies that - lives up to the hype seems like the wrong phrase? - because what movie could live up to being hyped as the Most Amazing Movie Ever. And yet also it's better than the hype would lead you to expect.

The part at the end where they're all freezing to death in the water gave me nightmares. (I also recall finding the sex scene EXTREMELY racy.) It's such a sumptuous movie - so visually stunning that I can still recall images from it all these years later.

[asakiyume]

I confess I skipped the sex, but I did enjoy when he was drawing her--that I found very sexy and very egalitarian sexy--liked that! (Obviously there is a relation to my saying this and my response to your recent entry!)

You could really tell that Cameron was not only interested in the love story *but also* in the Titanic story--that in his way he was as obsessed with the story of the Titanic as so many people are who come into its orbit. And that he wanted to inspire in viewers the feelings that the treasure-hunting crew guy says--that he wanted to make people's experience of the story intense and personal. And I think he succeeded.

[amaebi]

I thought I'd die with all the running back and forth and down and up and in and out and then doing it again and again and again and....

I could do without corpuscles, purely personally.

When I started watching (the one time I've watched it) I was surprised and pleased by the class material at the beginning, but there was so little of top-to-botto class issues. (Though rich-top / non-rich top / middle / artisanal got decent play.)

This week I finished a first draft of the middle, Titanic section of a poem. I wouldn't have the image that brought me that without your interview with Doug. Without that section, the phrase that founded the first section would still just be flapping around in my poor tender head. (I have still a third section to draft.)

[asakiyume]

I really love the webs we weave and the seeds we plant by talking with each other--not just you and me, but people at large (but also you and me!)

And yeah, I felt like there was a lot of doing things several times in the movie when once would be enough!

[amaebi]

I am clearly missing Kate Beaton cartoons, because I am moved to say, "Yes, it's kind of like the rainy house party where Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, except that Lord Byron isn't trying to copulate with everyone!"

BTW, in my earlier comment "corpuscle" should have been "corpse-sicle."

[asakiyume]

Ahhhh! "Corpse-sicle"! I figured it somehow referred to people dying, but I thought it was referencing blood, which there wasn't much of. But corpse-sicle makes better sense!

[ladyherenya]

I was introduced to "My Heart Will Go On" in high school singing lessons and others in the group, upon discovering that I hadn't seen Titanic, proceeded to fill me in. Mostly about the ending. Which completely squashed any interest I might have had in watching the film.

I still don't really want to watch it, but your post has made me think that if I ever did watch it, I would probably find that I liked more about it than I'd previously expected to.

[asakiyume]

I found everything about the movie SO off-putting when I heard about it. I hated the movie posters. I thought it would be Two Well-Known Actors Prance Around on the Titanic and Then We All Cry at the End, and I thought, who needs that!

I still nearly didn't watch it. It was so long. I had to rent it. I was so sure I was going to be mainly bored. But in the end it was a positive experience! ... I still don't know if it's worth searching it out, but yeah, as you say, if you find yourself in a position to see it, maybe your experience will be like mine.