Movie Review: Titanic (1997)
Hi friends. I am feeling very very angsty and stressed today. I have had a lot of high-pressure work deadlines, high energy social obligations, and very triggering familial obligations that I have been forced to tend to. All of this, plus drinking too much red bull and not enough water, has seriously contributed to THE VIBES BEING ALL THE WAY OFF TODAY.
For real---- today can go to hell.
I feel angsty. I feel an ennui that I fear will never be sated. I have a terrible migraine.
After realizing that this required self-care to cure, I drew a bubble bath, cracked open a diet coke, and fired up the angsty teen girl masterpiece that is TITANIC.
Come along with me on this journey as I try to reset the vibes.
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I think that I was in the second grade when this movie came out. It was the late 90s, nothing bad had ever happened to me yet, and I was too young to watch this movie in theaters (there's boobs!).
I was too young to watch the movie, but it was ubiquitous. Everyone's parents watched it; the kids at school who had parents that let them watch anything had watched it. The trailer was everywhere and the Celine Dion MASTERPIECE that is MY HEART WILL GO ON was spinning on the radio. I was convinced that the boy I had a crush on in my grade looked like Leonardo DiCaprio (he absolutely did not). And everyone knew generally what the movie was about (a big ship sinks in the ocean).
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Rather than giving you a play by play recap of the movie (because be real, we've all seen it numerous times), I'm just going to list off my favorite aspects of the movie and why it works.
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One of the jarring things to me when I think about this movie is that it is one of the greatest pieces of art that speaks to angsty, sad girls universally----but it was directed by JAMES CAMERON??????
That's right. This specific piece of angsty, sad girl hallmark material is not the product of a trio of genius sisters (Bronte, Haim)----- it is the work of one James Cameron, a boomer man. The same James Cameron that gave us unabashed dude movies like the Terminator series, Aliens, and Avatar. So off the bat, this sin't a movie that should appeal to angsty sad girls, but because of its quality and universal emo girl themes----it still feels great to rewatch even 20 something years after its initial release.
Obviously Titanic rules because it is a period piece of a time that is far enough away for us to romanticize, but still has universal themes that still feel relevant.
I think the biggest, overarching, most universal theme in the movie is that we must eat the rich.
Movie based: Rose, our protagonist, is an angsty sad girl. Like a Bronte heroine, she is a member of the landed gentry, but her dad has no money, and she has to marry rich to stay in the upper crust. This is very important to Rose's mom, who is a Karen, but feels very hollow to Rose. Rose is constricted from doing the things that she wants to do because of her class and gender. And meeting Jack is so earth-shattering to her because Jack is the only person she has ever met before who is totally free and encourages her to be free too.
Rose is surrounded by rich people who all suck. She's engaged to Cal (BILLY ZANE), who has hair and I'm pretty sure is wearing eyeliner for the whole movie (he's def wearing mascara).
(This movie is so insane because the cast was so beautiful that Billy Zane looked like this ^ but Leo was such a heartthrob that it completely overshadowed Billy!)
Billy Zane is the perfect cartoonishly villainous rich person. For real, this man was in his bag when he made this movie. He's so snobby and mean and objectively wrong about art--- he really captures the unwavering confidence that only a wealthy white dude in pre-war America could have. He slaps Rose, he throws tables, he frames Jack for stealing, and he also STRAIGHT UP CHASES THEM WITH A PISTOL THROUGH THE SHIP AS ITS SINKING IN A SCENE THAT KINDA FEELS LIKE IT BELONGS IN A BOND MOVIE.
In a scene that feels especially deliciously villainous, Rose's Karen mom asks if the life boats will be separated by passenger class. Rose, speaking for the audience, shouts at her mother that there aren't enough life boats by half- a significant number of people will die. Cal pouts and looks at her with his gorgeous eyeliner eyes and says "not the better half".
The only cool rich person on the Titanic is the unsinkable Molly Brown (played by the delightful Kathy Bates), who befriends Jack and Rose. Molly is new money and recognizes the shallowness of the first class passengers. When the ship goes down, she's the only rich person urging the others to go back and save people. Molly understands working class solidarity.
Meanwhile, on the ship as its sinking, the ship crew locks the working class passengers below deck to control the chaos. This enables the rich passengers to get into their life boats but means that the working class people ARE LOCKED BELOW DECK ON A SINKING SHIP WITH NO ESCAPE.
In furtherance of this plot to serve the interests of the rich, a crew member kills Jack's very Irish friend moments after he shouts "Won't you bastards give us a chance to live!" (they won't). Everyone is bleeding and screaming and fleeing for their lives. The ship band plays on.
If I'm not already crying when I'm watching the movie by the time the ship starts to sink, I absolutely am by the time that James Cameron does a cut scene to a bunch of 3rd class passengers who are making their peace with dying on the ship. An old couple embraces as the water quickly rushes into their room. A mom reads to her two little Irish kids and tucks them into bed (Jesus Christ, James Cameron, dude why?).
What kind of ghoulish society prioritizes lives by class? Remember friends, you're only a few unlucky streaks away from being Jack Dawson. You'll likely never be Cal Hockley.
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The other fantastic thing about the movie is that it is like 3 hours long and almost perfectly bifurcated into the first half which is mostly chick-flick romance, and the second half, which is actually really fun action. At about the half point of the movie, the ship hits the iceberg and slowly starts to sink-which kicks off the increasingly frenzied quest to get off the ship.
First of all, the CGI of the ship hitting the giant iceberg and immediately taking water into the hull was SICK for 1997. And even now in 2023, it still looks fantastic. James Cameron gives us great cuts of water filling the lower decks and the machinists running out, Indiana Jones style, through quickly sealing chamber doors. Crowds are mobbing. Authorities are shooting. The lower classes revolt. The mighty ship snaps in half easier than a Twix.
Rose and Jack running around the lower decks of the ship as it quickly fills with ice cold ocean water- while also being chased by a murderous Billy Zane. Brilliant. Rose and Jack having to devise new ways to escape from the locked lower decks- nerve-wracking. The drunk chef falling into the water and then getting hit by a propeller on the way down- chef's kiss.
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And finally, the greatest part of the movie to me is that they actually sell me on the love story. And like all angsty sad girls, I am a sucker for a story about everlasting love.
I know that Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were just acting and not actually in love, but when I think about the almost cast actors who could have been Rose and Jack, I don't think that I would have bought into it as much. I mean would you believe that Claire Danes had a life-changing love affair with Jeremy Sisto??????
In the present-day frame story, elderly Rose tells Bill Paxton and the shipwreck hunters that Jack saved her "in more ways than one". One of the reasons that this story speaks so much to angsty sad girls is that Rose saves Jack too. Rose isn't solely a damsel in distress. She's gutsy and capable. And her relationship with Jack feels like two equals.
There's a part where Rose refuses to get on the rich people life boats with her mom and Cal and runs away to rescue Jack, who is handcuffed to a pipe somewhere below deck. Jack is handcuffed because Cal framed him for stealing the giant Heart of the Sea sapphire necklace. When Rose comes back, Jack says "How did you figure out I didn't do it", and she says "I didn't, I just realized that I already knew". <3 <3 <3
I love them so much you guys.
The other factor that really sells me on the love story is the score----which is almost entirely the aching, haunting love ballad My Heart Will Go On. Is this the best ballad ever written? Honestly, probably. Do I get emotional every time I hear it? Absolutely.
I wrote in an earlier blog about my favorite depictions of the after life. The best ones always feel visceral or deeply meaningful. This movie has one of my favorites. I think the last scene is controversial. Some people think that Rose is dreaming, but I think she dies. I think she dies because James Cameron gives us some context clues that Rose has lived a full life, just like Jack told her she would. She has flown planes, and had adventures, and now, at the end of it, she is an old lady, warm in her bed. She's at peace. She's ready. And in the end, she finds herself back on the ship, pre-sinking. It's light and airy and pristine. The other passengers smile at her. She skips up the steps, and finds herself in Jack's arms. And everything is ok again, forever this time <3
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One of the great ancient societies believed that unabashedly bawling your eyes out was cathartic- that the arts should push you to do so to cleanse your emotions. I think that they're right- there is something deeply cathartic that comes with sobbing so hard that you think your body doesn't have any more moisture. There's something cathartic about watching Rose grow into the survivor that finds the strength to blow the dead crew guy's whistle and escape and reinvent herself when she comes to shore.
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Post-script: Rose gets so much hate for the whole two people on the door thing---BUT THATS NOT HOW BUOYANCY WORKS! Myth Busters did a Titanic episode and proved that two people would not have fit on the door! I have heard people say- "Well couldn't they just take turns?". No. That's so dumb, so that they can BOTH freeze to death? Hypothermia doesn't work like that! Justice for Rose!
Absolutely sublime film. 10 out of 10.
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