“A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind, but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.”
So, it’s been a while…. I’ve moved across the country since my last post. So, that’s the main reason that there’s been such a huge gap between posts. But, my life is a little more sorted now.
No joke, I have started this same blog entry three times now and have deleted it every single time. It may take me a while to get back into the groove of writing so, for that, I apologize, and I ask you, whoever you are, to bear with me.
When it comes to film, there is one opinion of mine that has stayed constant from the beginning. I do not like James Cameron as a filmmaker. I’ve given his films chance after chance after chance but, each time, I have the same problem. I do not like his writing. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the film Titanic, because I do enjoy it. I mean, I have a heart. I’m not a total monster. But, half of my notes on this film all say the same thing: if it weren’t for the setting of this film, it would just be a love story that we have all seen a million times over. And that’s frustrating to me. He places an otherwise average love story on an ill-fated ship and, boom, he’s got one of the highest-grossing films ever made. Well, until he made Avatar, and don’t even get me started about that film. I mean, one of the best lines in the entire film wasn’t even written by him. It was improvised by Leonardo DiCaprio.
I’m just going to stay on the subject of Cameron’s writing for a bit longer, if you don’t mind. The entire plot of this film relies on the knowledge that the audience has that the Titanic will hit an iceberg and it will sink. That’s what provokes any real emotion from the audience. He relies fully on a real, historical event to create any emotional response from the viewer. And, that’s not necessarily good writing. That’s just using certain things to your advantage.
I’d also just like to point out how funny I think the tag line for the film is. “Nothing On Earth Could Come Between Them”.
As far as things that I do love about this film, James Horner’s score is at the very top of the list. It’s beautiful and each time any part of it plays, it fits the scene perfectly.
Things I feel the need to mention:
-That floating piece of wood was obviously big enough for the both of them and it will bother me until the end of time that Rose doesn’t move to even try to let him on. Like, I understand needing a character to die for dramatic reasons, but then make the piece of wood smaller.
– Rose’s line about not being able to feel her body is irritating. She says it to Jack, who is fully in the water, actually not being able to feel his body with not even a chance of surviving. Perspective, Rose, perspective.
– “I’ll never let go.” But, like, in a metaphorical way.
-Rose’s dead husband must be, like, super pissed that when the woman he spent his life with and had children with dies and she goes to spend eternity with a man that he had no idea even existed.
Grade: B