Thursday, April 7, 2011

#83 Titanic (1997)

How exactly this movie is only one spot ahead of Easy Rider is mind-boggling. Yes, I know that it was maybe over-advertised when it came out. I actually remember reading girly magazines like"Tiger Beat" when I was thirteen (a full two years before the movie came out), when they had already cast Leo, and he was all OVER the covers. :) And I'm pretty sure everyone was tired of it by the time it came out on video, but it was #1 in the box office for 15 consecutive weekends. That's the longest of any movie, ever. Everything about this movie was huge. The actors, the timeline, the length of the movie, the number of extras, the sets, and I read that the cost of the movie ($200million) was actually more than what it would even cost to rebuild the Titanic today ($150million).

In my first post on here, I mentioned that the definition of a good movie, to me, is that it is one that affects me somehow. As soon as the movie started, I was already tearing up. And hours after the movie was over, I was reading all I could find online about the Titanic sinking...  Apparently many of the characters on Titanic were real people (not Jack & Rose, though), and their stories were real. The older couple lying in bed cuddling as the ship sank were Isador & Ida Straus, co-owners of Macy's. They both were offered spots on a lifeboat, but he turned it down since not all women and children had been saved. She decided that she didn't want to leave him, so the two stayed on the boat together. (Sigh.) John Jacob Astor IV, the man with the young, pregnant wife, was truly the wealthiest man on the boat, and they were finally returning from their long honeymoon abroad since his divorce and new marriage were so scandalous.

There's just so much history surrounding this tragedy, and Jack and Rose's story is so beautiful and moving that I have to say that James Cameron knew exactly what he was doing. This movie deserved all the credit that it received. Such a well-made tribute to the horrific tragedy.

Rating: 10/10

Big Names: James Cameron, Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, James Horner (I read somewhere that Cameron first wanted Enya to do the music, so that's why so much of the music sounds dreamy and Enya-like)

Big Lines (or at least my favorite):
Jack: I'm king of the world!

Rose: I'd rather be his whore than your wife.

Cal: You're a good liar.
Jack: Almost as good as you.

Man on Carpathia: Can I take your name, please love?
Rose: Dawson, Rose Dawson

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