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TITANIC
REVIEWED
BY CHARITY BISHOP
Our
rating: 3 out of 5 Because
of: nudity, brief sexual content, language,
violence
Rated:
As
the small craft sinks through the watery darkness, the
lights illuminate a bow crusted with barnacles. Then it travels
along the expanse of twisted steel that once made up the sleek lines of the most luxurious ocean liner
ever to set sail. This is the beginning of Titanic,
the film that swept the critics nationwide and became the largest
box-office blockbuster since Gone
With the Wind. It is the tragic story of ill-fated
lovers separated by class and distinction, of revenge, of
tragedy, a ploy of emotions and disaster that will have you
in tears as the ship finally breaks and the sea is filled
with a swarm of screaming passengers.
The
lights come from the small craft of treasure hunters
searching for a long-lost blue diamond. Instead what they
find is a waterlogged sketch dating to April 14th, 1912...
the day Titanic saw its last stretch of
daylight. The girl stretched nude upon the divan is
wearing the Heart of the Ocean. The find is televised and an old woman
comes forth claiming to be the girl in the picture. Rose can
remember the details of the greatest shipwreck in history as if it
were yesterday. Through her eyes we enter the world of splendor
and pretense which was Titanic. An aristocratic young woman
whose father has just died and left both her and his wife
destitute, Rose (Kate Winslet) has unhappily accepted the proposal
of wealthy American tycoon Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). After a
successful tour of Europe they are returning to New York on Titanic,
the greatest ship in the world.
A
aspiring artist Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) wins steerage
passage on Titanic with a lucky hand of poker on the day of the
sailing. Barely making the ship, he rapidly is befriended by
fellow passengers... but is the most interested in a beautiful
redheaded girl seen in First Class. One evening while relaxing on
deck with a cigarette, he observes Rose run to the railing above
the propeller and attempt to throw herself overboard. Coaxing her
back to safety, Jack is then invited to attend first-class dinner
the following evening by Cal as payment for being of assistance.
Taken under the wing of Molly Brown, the boisterous Colorado millionaire
history would deem "unsinkable," Jack begins to pry
through Rose's resolve to the woman within. But their blossoming
love is threatened by her fiancé's jealousy and the restrictive
boundaries of society. As the ship sails into the night toward the
fateful iceberg, the two will learn there is more to fear than icy
water.
This
film won Best Picture, among 11 other Oscars, and shows its high
class quality in gorgeous costuming, breathtaking scenery, and
incredible underwater photography. For me the true film glows
through the historical aspect of the production rather than the
more modern setting which opens and concludes the movie. From a
purely critical perspective, Titanic does have its
failings, namely in the way of dialogue. The storyline is fairly
predictable but the audience never seems to mind since the setting
is so unique. The dialogue in the last half is comprised primarily
of Rose and Jack screaming each other's names, which is
understandable considering the circumstances but does feel
slightly repetitive at times. Careful planning and painstaking
recreation show us Titanic as it truly was with only a few
flaws. To a history buff like me, who has studied the ship and her
passengers since I was old enough to use a library card, the
historical inaccuracies seem painfully obvious but for the sake of
nitpicking I won't comment further than to say that the crew was
not as insensitive or cruel in the actual disaster as they are
portrayed on screen.
Beyond
that, the classes are stereotyped. The rich white males are
all boorish, overbearing, dishonest, selfish, and greedy.
The steerage passengers are understanding, kind, unbiased,
and selfless. The hero is an artist who draws nude women, a
characteristic I have a hard time rooting for. Even so the
romantic leads are empathetic, particularly in the final half when
Hockley reveals his true colors. If it weren't for the nudity and
sexual content prevalent in the film, I would say this is a
fantastic cinematic experience that almost all audiences would
enjoy. But in good conscience I cannot recommend the film
unedited.
There
is an abundance of language (including half a dozen GD's, minor
abuses of deity, sh*t, and one f-word), one use of the middle
finger, and various slanders. (Rose icily informs Cal she'd rather
be Jack's whore than his wife, spits in his face, tells her mother
to shut up, and goes out of her way to insult Bruce Ismay of the
White Star Line with a double innuendo.) The nude
scene may not be graphic but leaves very little to the
imagination. Through most of the sequence her body is
blocked by Jack's sketching pad, but we are given several
glimpses of upper nudity -- not merely in real life
but in the pornographic drawings scattered throughout the
film as well. Later Rose and Jack are shown
passionately kissing in the backseat of a car, then sweaty and breathless
afterward. There's some mild innuendo in a few scenes.
Violence
is extreme throughout the last hour as the lifeboats are
loaded and Titanic founders. Hundreds of people fall
to their death, are crushed by the funnels, and slide down
the decks to a brutal end. We are treated to the sight of a
returned lifeboat finding its way through a sea of frozen
corpses. Gunplay is also present, and parents should be
aware that several scenes include rapidly flashing lights. Titanic
is excellently filmed,
gorgeously costumed, and the lavishness of the ship will
have you breathless. James Cameron in this aspect is at his
element... he just didn't write a completely worthwhile script.
Fortunately these elements can be scraped aside through the
careful editing of family-friendly companies, and leaves you with
a much more positive, likable cast of characters and events.
Whichever version you view and learn to love, Titanic is a thrilling and
tear-jerking film that will give you a mere glimpse into
what those terrible last hours of the ill-fated ocean liner were like.
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