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List Price: $24.99 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 59382
Released: August 31, 1999 |
| Our Price: $9.99 |
| Used Price: $2.77 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
When the theatrical release of James Cameron's Titanic was delayed from July to December of 1997, media pundits speculated that Cameron's $200 million disaster epic would cause the director's downfall, signal the end of the blockbuster era, and sink Paramount Studios as quickly as the ill-fated luxury liner had sunk on that fateful night of April 14, 1912. Some studio executives were confident, others horrified, but the clarity of hindsight turned Cameron into an Oscar-winning genius, a shrewd businessman, and one of the most successful directors in the history of motion pictures. Titanic would surpass the $1 billion mark in global box-office receipts (largely due to multiple viewings, the majority by teenage girls), win 11 Academy Awards including best picture and director, produce the best-selling movie soundtrack of all time, and make a global superstar of Leonardo DiCaprio. A bona fide pop-cultural phenomenon, the film has all the ingredients of a blockbuster (romance, passion, luxury, grand scale, a snidely villain, and an epic, life-threatening crisis), but Cameron's alchemy of these ingredients proved more popular than anyone could have predicted. His stroke of genius was to combine absolute authenticity with a pair of fictional lovers whose tragic fate would draw viewers into the heart-wrenching reality of the Titanic disaster. As starving artist Jack Dawson and soon-to-be-married socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater, DiCaprio and Kate Winslet won the hearts of viewers around the world, and their brief but never-forgotten love affair provides the humanity that Cameron needed to turn Titanic into an emotional experience. Present-day framing scenes (featuring Gloria Stuart as the 101-year-old Rose) add additional resonance to the story, and although some viewers proved vehemently immune to Cameron's manipulations, few can deny the production's impressive achievements. Although some of the computer-generated visual effects look artificial, others--such as the sunset silhouette of Titanic during its first evening at sea, or the climactic splitting of the ship's sinking hull--are state-of-the-art marvels. In terms of sets and costumes alone, the film is never less than astounding. More than anything else, however, the film's overwhelming popularity speaks for itself. Titanic is an event film and a monument to Cameron's risk-taking audacity, blending the tragic irony of the Titanic disaster with just enough narrative invention to give the historical event its fullest and most timeless dramatic impact. Titanic is an epic love story on par with Gone with the Wind, and like that earlier box-office phenomenon, it's a film for the ages. --Jeff Shannon
Titanic Reviews:
Good Romantic Thriller 
2009-11-24 - Love Story meets The Poseidon Adventure as two star-crossed lovers keep their romance afloat even as everything around them is sinking. Despite choppy scene transition and staginess, James Cameron manages to turn a well-known disaster into a story of love (almost) triumphing over life itself.
Great Love Story Of Our Time 
2009-11-11 - There is really nothing to say but this is the greatest love story of our time and a very good drama this movie is awesome. one of Leonardo Dicaprio's Best performance of his Carer I Recommend it for everyone
"A Blockbuster"
2009-11-09 - "Titanic" has gone on to become a blockbuster movie, heavily regarded as the greatest film ever made. Released on December 19th, 1997, "Titanic" became the movie everyone wanted see, eventually hitting #1 at North American theatres for 15 consecutive weeks, a record still not broken to this day. The film would eventually gross over 1.8 billion dollars worldwide becoming the biggest money-making film. Nominated for 14 Academy Awards (tying with "All About Eve") and winning 11 including Best Picture and Best Director for Canadian born James Cameron, "Titanic" is also known for the beautiful theme song "My Heart Will Go On" performed by Celine Dion that won four Grammys. Cameron, who also wrote the screenplay, documents how the ill-fated ship struck an iceberg on the early morning hours of April 15th, 1912 off the coast of Newfoundland, while telling the fictitious story of Jack and Rose, star-crossed lovers who meet on "Titanic", fall in love, and who enter the hearts of millions of movie goers. The special effects are the best of any film, the acting and writing are excellent, and Cameron's direction is exceptional. Movies do not get any better than this. For a 3 hour plus film the movie captures your attention from the beginning until the end credits roll. This DVD set is filled with beautiful bonuses including deleted scenes, commentary by Cameron, Kate Winslet, and other cast members, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and more. No DVD collector's library will be complete without this amazing set.
THAT SCRIPT - I - the significance of rain
2009-10-11 - To be honest, this is more critique than review, so if you're thinking of buying the DVD having yet to see the movie, I suggest you skip this and go straight to the next review or the ADD to BASKET button, which if you do you won't regret. But let's face it, just about everyone's seen this movie and if you have but are still considering purchasing the DVD as a gift or to have as a permanent copy, then you may safely read on because there's no intention here to put you off. On the contrary, I wish to extol the movie's virtues having had what could best be described as a Saul to Damascus conversion regarding a movie curmudgeons such as my x-self seemed to just love to hate.
A great spectacle hampered by a poor script. That appears to be the general feeling about Titanic, and one I used to harbor myself, but nothing could be wider off the truth, now, in my opinion. This script is as highly polished as the floor Cal Hockley slid upon as he chased Rose and Jack through the sinking ship. Those who rate the script poorly are, for one thing, likely confusing script with dialogue and for another, finding fault where there is so little. They're also forgetting, else not aware to begin with, that the characters' spoken lines are the lesser part of the script. They should realise that every picture, sound, mood, every jaw-dropping scene, every moment of joy, love, terror, every smile, frown, wince, lip-waver, and expression of fear on the characters' faces, has been written into the script. Then there's the characterisations, plot, pace, action, backdrops and coincidences, which are all carefully managed, weighted and envisaged by the scriptwriter. And they must all mesh with each other as they must with the dialogue. So this is in defense of a great script and that part of it subject to the most undue criticism, the perfectly formed love story.
When Rose deWitt Bukater sailed under the statue of liberty into New York harbor at the end of her voyage, it was lashing with rain. And significantly, though you'd be forgiven for missing this, Rose wasn't seeking shelter from the rain. Does anyone think the rain wasn't part of the script or that rain wasn't necessary to the story? It seems a trivial detail but to the scriptwriter the rain in the scene is everything. I'd go further and say the movie doesn't work without it. Rain cleanses. It reflects a change of mood. In terms of script dynamics alone, the rain marks the passing of time, and not just the sailing time of the rescue ship, Carpathia, from the disaster zone to New York, but also the eighty-four years separating the stories of young and old Rose. Rain is never just rain. It always has a function in a script. It's a dramatic device specifically chosen and precisely timed by the writer. Whether historically it rained or not as Carpathia docked is neither here nor there and matters not to the teller of this story. Here, more than anything, the rain symbolises a new beginning and the end to young Rose's story with the statue of liberty itself offering its own significance. The rain's also our cue to let Rose go, but without its cleansing, almost baptising effect, she cannot begin to make a new life for herself. Rose has to move on and we have to let her, as though we are steering the script with our expectations. Without the rain, Rose cannot become old Rose.
The script is near flawless, even given the almost cartoonish characterisations of Billy Zane's Cal Hockley and sidekick, David Warner's Lovejoy. But when I ask myself how such a man as Hockley, the spoiled, handsome and eligible heir to a major fortune would react to the provocation of his beautiful young fiancée falling for the charms of some scruffy kid, I expect the answer would be pretty angrily. The dastardly villain might seem a cheap device, but for me it works exceptionally well in Titanic. Watch how long the character tries to maintain his composure and win Rose around - but his shallowness, cowardice and jealousy can't help but surface like scum in the end as he effectively sinks himself in Rose's esteem. Simplistically drawn he might be, but Hockley falls just the right side of believable and with that equal propensity for charm and flying off the handle makes all the right moves for a classic villain...
(more at UK...)
bleedin' shame
2009-10-05 - Bleedin' shame director James Cameron was such a ninny at the Oscars. And that Kate Winslet was such a temperamental diva. And that Leonardo is such a heartthrob. And that this movie was so expensive to make.
Because focusing on any of those irrelevant things will prevent you from enjoying one of the most immersing movies ever made. Danged if after watching it, you don't feel like you were actually on the Titanic yourself!
