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Titanic

Titanic 3D: A Chance to Relive ‘97

  • Kate WinsletLeonardo DiCaprio
  • 3DRomance...
  • James Cameron
reviewed by
Yasmin Shehab
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Titanic 3D: A Chance to Relive ‘97

Titanic was
momentous and its effect on pop culture was probably bigger than its effect on
cinema. There hasn’t been a film since Titanic
that has managed to create such a fuss; attracting everybody and their
grandmother to the cinema, and dominating everybody’s conversations regardless
of age or ethnicity. Even the Harry
Potter
series, arguably the biggest films of this millennium, have a fan
base that maxes out at a certain age. Besides, the Titanic onslaught was also aural; Celine Dion’s theme song was
inescapable and remained that way for a few years after. It’s actually a wonder
that something so fantastically irritating was so popular, but luckily it seems
we’re being spared the musical assault this time around.

In
hindsight, Titanic is pretty cheesy. Actually scratch pretty, it’s super
cheesy. The dialogue is basically clunker after clunker; one of them in
particular: “A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets,” sounds like something
out of a bad dating manual. The younger Rose contends with her share of duds where
Kate Winslet seems very ill at ease while she delivers them. In fact, she only
loosens up somewhat when she starts to fall in love with Jack; it’s the romance
that enchanted viewers the first time around that has kept the film culturally
relevant and generated it so much goodwill. It’s the epitome of a love story.
You have two very attractive leads acting out a forbidden love story between a
girl stifled by upper class norms, and a free spirited artist from the wrong
side of the tracks. Toss in her stubborn, arrogant fiancé, who she’s being
pressured into marrying to save her family from financial ruin, and you have
just the right elements of a great forbidden love. The Titanic going down is
just window dressing and the only reason we care about the accident is because
of its effect on Jack and Rose’s relationship. As a viewer, you spend the
length of the film rooting for them to end up together; the iceberg is just one
more obstacle keeping them apart. And yes, the part where Rose lets Jack go at
the end is still as tear inducing as ever.

It’s
interesting to see Leonardo DiCaprio at his teen heartthrob peak. It’s easy to
forget now but back in the ‘90s DiCaprio was inescapable; he was to the ‘90s
what Zac Efron and Taylor Lautner are to this decade.

The
3D effect adds considerable depth to the picture but like most reissues, the
real draw here is seeing the film in the cinema; the 3D doesn’t add enough to
warrant another viewing if you’re just lukewarm about the film, or if you’ve
already seen it a trillion times on TV. The true experience here is reliving 1997
all over again; in other
words, feeling nostalgia. Whether it’s for the days when ‘blockbuster’ wasn’t just a code
name for a superhero flick; for when film events weren’t a dime a dozen and managed
to capture the general public’s attention for extended periods of time; or for
when one film would come along and give everybody something in common to be excited
about.      

Like This? Try

Romeo + Juliet, The Notebook, Atonement

360 Tip

Titanic swept the Oscars the year it came out winning eleven of the fourteen awards it was nominated for.  

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