TITANIC (1997)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
"Titanic" is back in cinema screens due to the 100th anniversary of the real-life tragic event of 1912, and it is now in 3-D. Why in 3-D? I can't say except that it is almost like depicting "Schindler's List" in 3-D. Again, I said almost because "Titanic" represents both the best and the worst of Hollywood filmmaking. At its best, "Titanic" is a lavish, thrilling account of one of the biggest disasters of the 20th century. At its worst, the movie is flawed in the screenwriting department, and presents numerous cliches and particularly bad acting with a dash of silly escapist moments that should have zero association with that sinking disaster. In other words, it is nothing like "Schindler's List" but it should have been.
"Titanic" tells its tragic tale via the only survivor of the actual sinking of the ship - a 102-year-old woman (the late Oscar-nominated Gloria Stuart) who recounts the vivid tale to a group of research scientists led by a marine scavenger (Bill Paxton). This scavenger is looking for a jewel aboard the Titanic's ruins, but instead he finds a sketch of a nude girl wearing the long-lost jewel. The nude girl is, of course, the elder woman, Rose Dewitt Bukater, who is played as a 17-year-old girl by the stellar actress Kate Winslet (who went on to roles more suited to her dramatic range).
In luminous photography and sweeping visuals, "Titanic" quickly takes us back to that fateful day in April, 1912 when the first of the Titanic's 2,207 passengers began boarding the ship in Southampton, England. We are introduced to the major characters such as the itinerant-artist Jack Dawson (Leonard DiCaprio, who has had a more varied career than expected) who wins a steerage-class ticket in a poker game, the aforementioned Rose, along with her assertive mother (Frances Fisher), and Rose's snobbish fiancee, Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). We also meet the shrewd, unsinkable Molly Brown (Kathy Bates).
Director James Cameron spares us no expense in showing us the elaborate decks of the ship, the ballrooms, the pretentious bedrooms, the tiny steerage compartments and the hot and heavy boiler room. We also see the differences in the lifestyles and treatment of the haves and the have-nots (a sort of twist on the "Upstairs, Downstairs" scenario). These differences are further exemplified by the forbidden teenage romance between the near-suicidal, potentially wealthy Rose and the clever, destitute Jack who awakens a new sensibility in her by teaching her how to spit, and sketches her in the nude. This causes problems between Rose and the violent, spiteful Cal who orders his thuggish partner (David Warner, a waste of a great actor) to keep an eye on Jack. Before you can say romantic soap opera, the ship hits a big iceberg. According to the ship's builder Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber), this will cause the ship to sink within an hour. The lower levels of the ship gradually start to sink, including the boiler room, forcing the stewards to shut off the boilers and begin evacuation. Unfortunately, there are only a limited number of lifeboats available for the thousands of panicked passengers.
"Titanic" is at its best during the last hour and a half where we see the destructive nature of the sinking of this massive ship. At this point, Cameron's main theme comes forth - man's technological advancement (and arrogance) spells death for humanity itself. Thousands of lives are lost, and we see how the stewards lead the first-class passengers into safety first. There's also a terrifying scene where one of the stewards threatens and kills a couple of eager passengers. We also see Rose trying to rescue Jack who's locked away in one of the lower levels by Cal's partner. This whole section is so stirring and emotional that you're not likely to leave the theater with dry eyes.
Cameron's weakness is in his writing. The romance between Rose and Jack certainly evokes a passion and sense of love that is not unlike most other tragic love stories. Cameron's main fault, however, lies with some of the supporting characters. Billy Zane as the cocky, snobbish Cal is laughably oafish emitting numerous cliched line readings - he seems to have drifted in from a bad Harlequin romance novel. The same can be said for the predictably cold character of Rose's mother who does not approve of Jack because she wants her daughter to marry Cal for the security he can provide. There's also too little of the boisterous Kathy Bates as Molly Brown who brightens the screen whenever she shows up, and too much of Cal's gun-toting partner who seems to have drifted in from an Indiana Jones adventure.
Other bland characters include Titanic luminaries such as the worrisome Captain Smith (Bernard Hill, who appeared in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy); the Whites Star Lines executive (Jonathan Hyde) who insists that the ship travel at full speed so they can arrive in New York a day early; and a couple of other forgettable wealthy passengers. Another lesser weakness is the movie's obligatory framing device of having the elder Rose tell us her story of that fateful night - it's interesting yet unnecessary in its own way because the power of the film is the compelling story itself that we need no guidance in following.
Still, this is among Cameron's best technical work by far, and it is a tribute to him that we don't actually notice any of the special-effects. In a sense, he makes us feel we are aboard the ship, before and after it sinks. "Titanic" is an awesome spectacle and perversely entertaining, but its narrative style and characters are less than stimulating. From director James Cameron, I'd prefer his "Terminator" films and the spectacular "The Abyss" over this sinking behemoth. The notion of it being released in 3-D feels like a bad joke and it is bad taste (the movie is already visually three-dimensional with two-dimensional characters). Then again, on the night of the Academy Awards in 1998 where "Titanic" won an undeserved slew of Oscars, James Cameron told the crowd to stand in silence to remember the victims of that disaster. Then he abruptly told them, "Let's party!" Not a subtle bone in his body.
No comments:
Post a Comment