Titanic Review

James Cameron’s famous masterpiece Titanic has been seen by viewers worldwide for fifteen years. This movie has become an epic motion picture event that has become a rarity. You don’t just watch Titanic, you experience it. Cameron's flawless re-creation of the legendary ship has blurred the line between reality and illusion to such a degree that we can't be sure what's real and what isn't. To make this movie, it's as if Cameron built an all-new Titanic, let it sail, then sunk it. When people think of Titanic, they automatically think of the motion picture. That is how big of a hit it was, and still is today.

I honestly don’t think that James Cameron could not have picked two better people to play the main roles. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet did a magnificent job with really getting into the characters and showing off the chemistry they had. You can just feel their connection when you watch the film. I will have to admit, as love stories go; this was a very compelling one. Certainly, the best one I've ever seen. After seeing this film I couldn't imagine it being made with actors other than DiCaprio and Winslet in the lead roles. A fact that I think speaks volumes about their performances. There was truly no doubt, in my little mind at least, that by the end of the movie the characters of Jack and Rose were deeply in love.

Now to get off topic for just a second, I was one of those who asked the burning questions before the movie came out. Who in their right mind spends 200 million dollars to make a film? Better yet, on a film that everybody knows the ending to? If you are crazy enough to spend such huge amounts of cash, why wouldn't you cast some big name actors in the lead roles, so we the audience would have some reason to go? A whole lot of people asked those same questions. If they are anything like me, after seeing Titanic they had to ask themselves -- Why would I have ever asked such stupid questions? Why? Well, because critics are not filmmakers, and while we like to comment on films, and are relatively knowledgeable on the subject, for the most part we don't know as much as the people who make them. This is lavishly true with regard to Titanic's director James Cameron. The same man, who many considered would be run out of Hollywood just a few short months before the film opened, is now being recognized as being among the greatest directors of all time. I really don't think that anyone can say enough about the job that this guy did.

This brings me back around to the reason I went to see this film -- the special effects. The movie opens with breathtaking shots of the real Titanic on the bottom of the Atlantic, shot specifically for this film by director James Cameron. Although that almost pales by comparison to the special effects used during the last half of the movie as the ship is sinking. The 200 million dollar price tag is certainly evident on the screen. Both in the long shots where we get to see the great ship break up, and in the interior shots that were done in giant flooded tanks. If, like me, you go to Titanic for the special effects, I promise you will not be disappointed by anything that appears on the screen. A funny thing happened as I was watching the Titanic in its final minutes above the water. As much as I was in awe of the effects, and the complexity of the production, something else happened. An eerie feeling came over me. Unlike other disaster movies, this one really happened.  All too often, when we think of the real Titanic sitting there on the bottom of the ocean, we forget something. Oh, we remember the tragedy of the situation and that hundreds of lives were lost, but most of us never stop to think what it must have like to be there on that ship as it was going down. James Cameron has captured those last moments, in a way that will make you think wonder why you never thought about it like that before.

As spectacular as the special effects were, they could not overshadow a simple love story and the tragedy associated with one of the worst disasters of all time. A truly remarkable film, it is no wonder that so many people have gone back to this masterpiece several times. One of the greatest films ever made. Titanic is a definitely well-earned 10/10

Word count: 780 words

Link to customer review: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/reviews-2670