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- This Movie - VLC Media Player* Director: James Cameron
* Genre: Epic
* Movie Type: Romantic Epic, Period Film
* Themes: Star-Crossed Lovers, Ship Cruises, Disasters at Sea
* Main Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher
* Release Year: 1997
* Country: US
* Run Time: 195 minutes
* MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
This spectacular epic re-creates the ill-fated maiden voyage of the White Star Line's $7.5 million R.M.S Titanic and the tragic sea disaster of April 15, 1912. Running over three hours and made with the combined contributions of two major studios (20th Century-Fox, Paramount) at a cost of more than $200 million, Titanic ranked as the most expensive film in Hollywood history at the time of its release, and became the most successful. Writer-director James Cameron employed state-of-the-art digital special effects for this production, realized on a monumental scale and spanning eight decades. Inspired by the 1985 discovery of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, the contemporary storyline involves American treasure-seeker Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) retrieving artifacts from the submerged ship. Lovett looks for diamonds but finds a drawing of a young woman, nude except for a necklace. When 102-year-old Rose (Gloria Stuart) reveals she's the person in the portrait, she is summoned to the wreckage site to tell her story of the 56-carat diamond necklace and her experiences of 84 years earlier. The scene then shifts to 1912 Southampton where passengers boarding the Titanic include penniless Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), returning to Philadelphia with her wealthy fiance Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). After the April 10th launch, Rose develops a passionate interest in Jack, and Cal's reaction is vengeful. At midpoint in the film, the Titanic slides against the iceberg and water rushes into the front compartments. Even engulfed, Cal continues to pursue Jack and Rose as the massive liner begins its descent.
Cameron launched the project after seeing Robert Ballard's 1987 National Geographic documentary on the wreckage. Blueprints of the real Titanic were followed during construction at Fox's custom-built Rosarito, Mexico studio, where a hydraulics system moved an immense model in a 17-million-gallon water tank. During three weeks aboard the Russian ship Academik Keldysh, underwater sequences were filmed with a 35mm camera in a titanium case mounted on the Russian submersible Mir 1. When the submersible neared the wreck, a video camera inside a remote-operated vehicle was sent into the Titanic's 400-foot bow, bringing back footage of staterooms, furniture and chandeliers. On November 1, 1997, the film had its world premiere at the 10th Tokyo International Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
Size of all sorts mattered for James Cameron's blockbuster Titanic, whose magnitude was in all ways unprecedented. Cameron and two studios spent $200 million on a 90% scale Titanic replica at a newly constructed Mexico studio; their efforts included duplicating furnishings from original Titanic designs, diving trips to shoot footage of the wreck with a specially designed underwater camera, and months of post-production on computer effects ranging from overhead "shots" of the Titanic at sea to characters' puffs of freezing breath. Delayed several months and beseiged by negative word-of-mouth, Titanic finally opened to rave reviews, especially for its bravura visuals. A few doubts were expressed over the Jack-Rose romance, but nothing could beat the spectacular recreation of the ship sinking or the powerful image of the floating corpse field. That love story, however, proved a potent draw, as Leonardo Di Caprio fans (many of them teenage girls) came back for repeat viewings, helping to power Titanic to a sojourn of more than 3 months at the top of the U.S. box office; the most expensive film ever made became a titanic moneymaker, grossing over $1.6 billion internationally. Cameron's coronation as blockbuster artist arrived when Titanic received a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations (like 1950's All About Eve) and won a record-tying 11 (like 1959's Ben-Hur). Cameron's screenplay, however, was ignored. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Cast
* Leonardo DiCaprio - Jack Dawson
* Kate Winslet - Rose DeWitt Bukater
* Billy Zane - Cal Hockley
* Kathy Bates - Molly Brown
* Frances Fisher - Ruth DeWitt Bukater
Gloria Stuart - Old Rose; Bill Paxton - Brock Lovett; Bernard Hill - Captain Smith; Jonathan Hyde - Bruce Ismay; Victor Garber - Thomas Andrews; David Warner - Spicer Lovejoy; Danny Nucci - Fabrizio; Suzy Amis - Lizzy Calvert; Bernard Fox - Col. Archibald Gracie; Eric Braeden - John Jacob Astor; Jenette Goldstein - Irish Mommy; Ewan Stewart - First Officer Murdoch; Jonathan Phillips - Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller; Mark Lindsay Chapman - Chief Officer Henry T. Wilde; Ioan Gruffudd - Fifth Officer Harold Lowe; Craig Kelly - Harold Bride, Junior Wireless Operator
Credit
Martin Laing - Art Director, Charles Lee - Supervising Art Director, Pamela Easley Harris - Associate Producer, Mali Finn - Casting, Martin F. Katz - Consultant/advisor, Al Giddings - Co-producer, Grant Hill - Co-producer, Sharon Mann - Co-producer, Deborah L. Scott - Costume Designer, Josh McLaglen - First Assistant Director, James Cameron - Director, Steven Quale - Second Unit Director, James Cameron - Editor, Conrad Buff - Editor, Richard A. Harris - Editor, Rae Sanchini - Executive Producer, Simon Thompson - Hair Styles, James Horner - Composer (Music Score), Jeff Altman - Musical Arrangement, Randy Gerston - Musical Direction/Supervision, Tina Earnshaw - Makeup, Caleb Deschanel - Camera Operator, Peter Lamont - Production Designer, Russell Carpenter - Cinematographer, James Cameron - Producer, Jon Landau - Producer, Peter Francis - Set Designer, Michael Ford - Set Designer, Dominic Masters - Set Designer, Marc Niro - Set Designer, Thomas Fisher - Special Effects, VIFX - Special Effects, Digital Domain - Special Effects, Mark Ulano - Sound/Sound Designer, Christopher Boyes - Sound/Sound Designer, Mario Roberts - Stunts, Simon Crane - Stunts Coordinator, Rob Legato - Special Effects Supervisor, James Cameron - Screenwriter, John M. Stephens - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Aaron Schneider - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Roy Unger - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Bob Skotak - Visual Effects Supervisor, Dennis Skotak - Visual Effects Supervisor, Tom Bellfort - Sound Effects Editor, Tommy Johnson - Musical Performer, Michael D. Kanfer - Visual Effects, Jeff Altman - Featured Music, Fred Fisher - Featured Music
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