Cinema Sunday: Titanic

It's November Nineties here on the ol' I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You blog thing! 

And Cinema Sunday will be participating in this month long theme.

And today's post kicks off with what may be the most quintessential movie of the 1990's. 

It may well be the last movie that was both a box office juggernaut AND a critics darling for movie awards like the Oscars.

From 1997, it's Titanic. 

So here's the write up: 

An unsinkable ship hits an iceberg, the ship sinks and lots of people die.

And my work here is done.

And yeah, there's more to it than that.

Let me share how Andrea and I finally got to see this movie on January 25, 1998.  

Titanic was released in the United States on December 19, 1997 but various efforts by Andrea and I to see the movie were thwarted by sold out showings. (This was in the dark ages before Fandango.) It wasn't until January 25, 1998 that we finally found a showing that was not sold out. 

And in case you're wondering how I know precisely it was on that date we saw Titanic, it's the same day as Super Bowl XXXII.   

After we saw the movie, Andrea and I had dinner at a restaraunt that sadly no longer exists called Rock-Ola Cafe that was surprisingly not that busy. Then I noticed that the TVs were tuned to the Super Bowl and I'm all like, "Hey, that was today?"

I will attest that I am a red blooded all-American heterosexual male. No, I don't care what you think. 

After dinner, we went home and I watched the game where the Denver Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers, 31 to 24.  

The halftime show was titled "A Tribute to Motown's 40th Anniversary" and featured Boyz II Men, Smokey Robinson, Queen Latifah, Martha Reeves and The Temptations.

(Thank you, Wikipedia!) 

Anyway, back to Titanic...

So "big ship hits bigger floating ice mountain and sinks" does not in and of itself make for a movie. So we spend a lot of time before that cataclysmic event embroiled in an epic tale of forbidden romance, a young woman from the upper crust of society and a young man, a struggling artist, poor and unrooted, always on the move, living by his wits. 

Presenting Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson, a Romeo and Juliet romance challenged by hide bound structures of high society. And just like the young lovers in Shakespeare's play, the romance of Rose and Jack is also doomed. 

You almost forget...

There is a lot going on.  

Rose is engaged to a stuffed shirt, egotistical jerk named Cal. Rose is most definitely not inclined to marry this prattling bore of a man but her mother makes it clear that marrying Cal will resolve the family's financial problems and maintain their upper-class status.

Well, Rose would rather die than put up with that guy so she's ready to throw herself off the ship. 

That's when Jack shows up to convince her not to do that. 

Rose and Jack bond and develop a close friendship that turns into love. Ah, love! Oh, the heady rush of passion as Rose and Jack explore the ship and each other. 

Jack sketches Rose naked save for one very expensive necklace.  

(We get to see Kate Winslet's breasts which is really not that big of a deal, actually. In his song "We Saw Your Boobs", Oscar host Seth McFarlane sang about different actresses who have gone topless in at least one movie. Except when he gets to Kate Winslet and Seth gets stuck because we've seen her boobs in a lot of movies.)  

You almost forget...

And suddenly...

Oh crap! I almost forgot about the iceberg! 

The captain orders a maneuver that is at once completely understandable and also a tactical error.  He orders the ship to turn away from the iceberg. 

If the Titanic had hit the iceberg head on, the front of the ship would've crumpled but the overall integrity of the ship would've remained intact and would not sink.

By turning the vessel, the iceberg digs a long gash down the side of the Titanic which floods all the lower compartments and the ship starts to go down.

Director James Cameron let's loose here with a powerful and graphic display as the ship sinks and then breaks in half. The engine room flooded, the ship's light wink off, it's golden glow receding against a star dappled darkness as the mighty Titanic slides into the icy waters of the Atlantic as the few remaining survivors look on in horror.  

Jack falls into the inky blackness of the sea, leaving Rose alone on a floating door that quite frankly had room for more than one person. 

(This week's edition of Your Friday Video Link offers an alternative take on this sequence.) 

Millions of teenage girls sobbed as Leonardo DiCaprio dies. 

After making his rep as an epic sci-fi adventure filmmaker with Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss, James Cameron was looking to be taken seriously, much as Steven Spielberg had with The Color Purple, Schindler's List and Amistad. And Cameron saw Titanic as his bid for some serious award circuit cred.  

In many ways, Titanic brings to mind an old school sensibility with it's emphasis on the romantic drama at it's core. 

The music score by James Horner as a sensibility that combines classic Irish music with a modern new age sound. It almost sounds like the music of Enya which is cool since it's her music James Cameron was listening to when he was writing the screenplay. I'm a big fan of Enya myself and I was liked the flourishes of Horner's score that evokes her musical style.  

I started this post with the remark that Titanic was perhaps the last movie that was both a box office juggernaut AND a critics darling for movie awards. In the last couple of decades, there has been little to no overlap between big box office and artistic credibility. How many times have I slogged through an Oscar telecast hearing about movies that most people (including me) did not know existed. 

Titanic checked a lot of boxes that brought people out to buy tickets. Young women hot for Leonardo DiCaprio came out in droves. Men willingly tagged along because they trusted James Cameron enough not to make this totally boring and fine, I'll look at Kate Winslet's boobs if I have to.   

Titanic is a comprehensively solid movie going experience. Other than some spectacular effects of the sinking of the ship, the movie didn't really break any new ground and that was kind of the point. It proves the old model still works, a classic story well told with characters we care about can still move us. 

What I've written to this point doesn't begin to completely summarize this movie. (Hell, I skipped over the present day framing sequence with Gloria Stuart as 101 years old Rose visiting the expedition that is exploring the wreckage. I especially like the twinkle in her eye when she sees the recovered nude sketch Jack drew of her when she was a much younger woman.) 

It just hit me I am not entirely certain when I last saw this movie.  But the first time I saw Titanic on January 25, 1998 left an indelible impression, 

The main thing I wanted to address was how much Titanic was an iconic film of the 1990's and how it sadly may have marked the end of an era.

Next week, Cinema Sunday  continues with November Nineties as we look at a classic sci-fi comedy starring one of the decades biggest stars.