I can't quite say I've ever understood people's general feelings for Titanic. You have most men that I know, who say, "That is the worst F*CKING movie I've ever seen! It is an absolute piece of sh*t, and LEONARDO DiCAPRIO IS GAY!" They paused. "AND KATE WINSLET'S A SLUT!!!!!!11111oneone". Then you have most WOmen I know... (through tears) "Oh my God, that is the...best...movie...ever...it made me cry so...much, I saw it 308,456,734 times in theaters, and Leonardo DiCaprio is so hot!"

What the public should do is come together and agree with my opinion of this movie: it's good, but it's far from great, and it's very far from bad. You know what I say: all people need to do is listen to the Beatles, and they'll be happy. Well, I've added something else to that rule: you have to listen to me, too. You might disagree with my politics, but I have officially named myself one of the great philosophers one of the 21st century. This kid that I work with, Andrew, also considers himself a great philosopher, the only "free thinker", but eh... you can only take that at surface value. He's a communist who listens to Sean Hannity (and Neil Boortz!). One might think that makes someone a free thinker. But he considers the Beatles to be a stupid 1960's boy band. Yeah, so much for the free thinking...

But aside from that, we have this movie. I can remember being fourth in a very long line at my local theater, when was I nine, and it was the fourth grade. My mother and I had heard good things about the movie, so we figured it'd be good to see. We liked it. But I can't remember much of the theater experience, other than her trying to cover my eyes when the boob scene came up, and me still seeing it through her fingers. I had a very big smile on my face.

Yeah... so after that whole event, I didn't watch this movie in full until last week, and to my surprise, amidst of the Titanic-hatred coming from my friends, I still liked it, though not in the same it's-the-fifth-greatest-movie-ever way I liked it as a kid. I have to say... it's not a very capturing movie at the start. If there's one thing that's starting to get on my nerves about recent historical films; they're all stories. People telling them. Gangs of New York. Full Metal Jacket. TITANIC!!! Argh!!! I personally think it's a better idea to just jump right into the story, since we all know what it's about anyway.

And this might just be what bores the hell out of some people at the beginning of Titanic- yeah, sure, it's real Titanic footage, but we've already seen that enough times on the Discovery Channel. That's exactly why they don't put animal sex into films. Because it's already on the DC.... anyway, the movie finally starts to get really good once we're past the barely-entertaining, mundane set-up crap and into the actual story, with a beautiful vision of the real ship, a melting pot of culture, attractive men and women, history, all that stuff... suddenly, the movie is interesting. It's all about Jack (Leo Di), who is a poor American boy, stuck in Britain (I think), winning third-class tickets on the Titanic through a poker game. Rose (Kate Winslet), a first-class British woman, is taking the voyage to NY with her family. One day, Jack saves Rose's life (somewhat superficially, I may add), and then, they're suddenly in love. And Rose's family doesn't like it.

Yeah. Bah. Who cares. The plot made the WOmen fall in love with the movie, and it made the men hate it. But my affection for the movie definitely doesn't come from that- it's just the general direction and beauty that Cameron provides. Before the Titanic, quite obviously, hits the iceberg, he gives us a very lush and pretty vision of a ship that looked... nice, back in it's day. It's just a nice thing to behold, and I just like how he portrays it- it really looks like heaven. And he directs certain scenes very well to give us the right image- he makes the aristocrats look pleasant but horribly snobby at the dinner table, while making the poor look a bit dumb, but humble and fun. Well, not polite... but they're good people. Plus, when you see the third-classies, you really want jump in on the joy

Then there's his direction after the collision. It's just good action directing in general- it's rather horrifying watching Rose and Jack scurry through the lowest levels of a gigantic ship, very close to drowning... and having all of these people on the upper levels fall, or be crushed, and all of that stuff... it's very well done. Very, very well done.

So, Cameron's direction is what carries the movie. The acting is on a decent level, but some bad lines here and there are nearly undeliverable. DiCaprio's the only one who can nail just about everything, having a natural acting talent- and Winslet gets most things right. And hell, Kathy Bates is good, and so is Billy Zane... but I mean, just from actors is general, some lines weren't too well delivered.

So what does that whole thing in the beginning have to do the movie? Something like, there's this old lady, and she's Rose (at about 101 years old?), and these dudes found this naked portrait of her (drawn by Jack), on the Titanic. And she calls. And they don't think it's her. Until she tells the story. Yeah. Unneeded. Kinda stupid. They could've just started with the movie. All that stuff.

To conclude, today's philosophy is, "Titanic isn't great. It isn't horrible. It's good, because Cameron's the man." -Tom Speaker

Rating: B

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older