Product Description: Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio play ill-fated lovers in this epic romance set against the backdrop of an unforgettable disaster. Their budding romance is scuttled when the luxury liner on which they are traveling strikes an iceberg and plummets to the ocean floor on april 15, 1912.
Amazon.com essential video: When the theatrical release of James Cameron's Titanic was delayed from July to December of 1997, media pundits speculated that Cameron's $200 million disaster epic would cause the director's downfall, signal the end of the blockbuster era, and sink Paramount Studios as quickly as the ill-fated luxury liner had sunk on that fateful night of April 14, 1912. Some studio executives were confident, others horrified, but the clarity of hindsight turned Cameron into an Oscar-winning genius, a shrewd businessman, and one of the most successful directors in the history of motion pictures. Titanic would surpass the $1 billion mark in global box-office receipts (largely due to multiple viewings, the majority by teenage girls), win 11 Academy Awards including best picture and director, produce the best-selling movie soundtrack of all time, and make a global superstar of Leonardo DiCaprio. A bona fide pop-cultural phenomenon, the film has all the ingredients of a blockbuster (romance, passion, luxury, grand scale, a snidely villain, and an epic, life-threatening crisis), but Cameron's alchemy of these ingredients proved more popular than anyone could have predicted. His stroke of genius was to combine absolute authenticity with a pair of fictional lovers whose tragic fate would draw viewers into the heart-wrenching reality of the Titanic disaster. As starving artist Jack Dawson and soon-to-be-married socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater, DiCaprio and Kate Winslet won the hearts of viewers around the world, and their brief but never-forgotten love affair provides the humanity that Cameron needed to turn Titanic into an emotional experience. Present-day framing scenes (featuring Gloria Stuart as the 101-year-old Rose) add additional resonance to the story, and although some viewers proved vehemently immune to Cameron's manipulations, few can deny the production's impressive achievements. Although some of the computer-generated visual effects look artificial, others--such as the sunset silhouette of Titanic during its first evening at sea, or the climactic splitting of the ship's sinking hull--are state-of-the-art marvels. In terms of sets and costumes alone, the film is never less than astounding. More than anything else, however, the film's overwhelming popularity speaks for itself. Titanic is an event film and a monument to Cameron's risk-taking audacity, blending the tragic irony of the Titanic disaster with just enough narrative invention to give the historical event its fullest and most timeless dramatic impact. Titanic is an epic love story on par with Gone with the Wind, and like that earlier box-office phenomenon, it's a film for the ages. --Jeff Shannon
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On Titanic If ever there was a film which should have been whittled down to a 25 minute all action/no nonsense cut, it's Titanic. As for the remaining 2 and a half hours, well, those reels should have been stored on the mother of all boats, and set on a collision course with the nearest sizable iceberg...
For Titanic fanatics This 3 disc collection is the ultimate for a Titanic Fanatic (of which I am not one). This has more information than most viewers will ever need or want to know about the making of this movie. I did enjoy the "making of" featurettes and the underwater sequences that explored the interior decks. All in all it was worth the price I paid in its used condition which was in like-new shape. I like the movie well enough and will watch and enjoy it. It is a welcome addition to my collection.
Unforgetable Movie Good business I paid for what I wanted and they sent it in that manner!
Why This Film Works for Me, Despite Its Flaws Like many people, I thought the love story between Rose and Jack was crass, silly, poorly written, and unrealistic (the First and Third Class passengers never mingled, and class consciousness was so ingrained at the time that a real-life Jack probably would have had serious doubts that any romance with a rich girl would succeed). Perhaps the nadir of the film is when they engage in a spitting match over the deck of the ship! This vulgarity would have been unheard of in a well-bred girl of the 1900s, no matter how the filmmakers would like to believe that a Rose of the early 20th century would behave like a 1990s spoiled teenager popping bubble gum at a shopping mall. In addition, poor Cal is treated like a villain, even though he gives her the Heart of the Ocean, expects only that she acts like a lady, and treats him with respect. We are asked to identify with Rose, however, as if bad manners and the freedom to spit over a deck is admirable. These are 1990s values, not the 1900s.
So why is such a film with glaring inaccuracies so successful and sometimes poignant? The answer lies in the way Cameron strangely mixes in moments of genuine poignancy, loss, and respect for the Titanic dead. Unlike other films, he shows real respect for old people and shows everyone the beautiful young woman lurking beneath an aged crone's face. I cannot remember any other film in which the presumably youth-obsessed audience is asked to remember that elderly Rose Dawson was once a naked, beautiful Kate Winslet. And the ship is treated the same way - he starts the film showing a decayed, ugly, broken down ship and flips back to reveal how beautiful the Titanic was in her youth. Cameron's willingness to capture what it really feels to lose someone through death or through age is what makes the film powerful. Unlike other Hollywood "feel-good" films, Titanic doesn't stint on the tragedy and finds beauty and meaning in death and even ugliness. Even the Jack character shows an appreciation for beauty in ugly things - he draws pictures of an old lady wearing a moth-eaten coat, waiting for her love to show up, and a one-legged prostitute. The fact that the characters value life, no matter how ugly, and understand how precious life is, makes this film more memorable and more powerful.
Some people think the special effects made this movie, but I think it was only part of why it was so successful. It used special effects to capture the loss of a great tragedy, and did this so well people were willing to overlook the more stupider aspects of the screenway.I know I did!
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