reviewed by Charity Bishop
        

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 fianc'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.