Mark's Movie of the Week #3: Titanic

 

Titanic (Lightstorm Entertainment; Paramount Pictures/20th Century Fox; December 19, 1997; 195 minutes)

Produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau 

Written and Directed by James Cameron 

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film, based on accounts of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage.  In 1996, aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislay Keldysh, Brock Lovett and his team searched the wreck of RMS Titanic.  They recovered a safe they hoped contained a necklace with a large diamond known as the Heart of the Ocean.  Instead, they only found a drawing of a young nude woman wearing the necklace.  The sketch was dated April 14, 1912, the same day the Titanic struck the iceberg that caused it to sink.  Rose Dawson Calvert, the woman in the drawing, was brought aboard Keldysh.  She recounted her experience aboard the Titanic.  In 1912 Southampton, 17 -year old Rose DeWitt Bukster, her wealthy fiancé Caledon "Cal" Hockley, and Rose's widowed mother, Ruth, boarded the Titanic.  Meanwhile, Jack Dawson, a poor young artist, won a third-class Titanic ticket in a poker game.  After setting sail, Rose, distraught over her loveless engagement, climbed over the stern railing, intending to jump overboard.  Jack appeared and coaxed her back onto the deck.  The two developed a tentative friendship, but when Cal and Ruth strongly objected, Rose acquiesced and discouraged Jack's attentions.  She soon realized she had feelings for Jack.  On the forward deck, they witnessed the ship's collision with an iceberg and overheard its officers and builder discussing the serious situation.  With the ship sinking, Rose fled Cal and her mother, who boarded a lifeboat.  Jack and Rose returned to the boat deck.  The lifeboats departed and the ship's stern rose as its flooded bow sank.  As passengers fell to their deaths, Jack and Rose desperately clung to the stern rail.  The upended ship broke and the bow section dove downward.

The remaining stern slammed back on to the ocean, then upended again before it, too, sank.  In the freezing water, Jack helped Rose onto a wooden panel buoyant enough for only one person and made her promise to survive.  Rose was saved by a returning lifeboat, keeping her promise, and Jack died of hypothermia.  The RMS Carpathia rescued the survivors; Rose avoided Cal by hiding among the steerage passengers and gave her name as Rose Dawson.  In the present, Rose says she later heard that Cal committed suicide after losing his fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.  Lovett abandons his search after hearing Rose's story.  Alone on the stern of Keldysh, Rose takes out the Heart of the Ocean, which has been in her possession all along, and drops it into the sea over the wreck site.  While she is seemingly asleep in her bed, her photos on the dresser depict a life of  freedom and adventure inspired by her early conversations with Jack.  A young Rose reunites with Jack at Titanic's Grand Staircase, applauded by those who died on the ship.  Titanic also stars Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, Suzy Amis, Danny Nucci, David Warner, Jason Berry, Kathy Bates, Victor Garber, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Eric Braeden, Charlotte Chatton, Bernard Fox, Michael Ensign, Jonathan Evans-Jones, Mark Lindsey Chapman, Ewan Stewart, Jonathan Phillips, Simon Crane, Ioan Gruffudd, Edward Fletcher, James Lancaster, Lew Palter, Elsa Raven, Martin East, Gregory Cooke, Craig Kelly, Liam Tuohy and Terry Forrestal, and known for his famous line: "I'm the king of the world!"  Titanic was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won a record 11 Oscars including Best Picture (James Cameron and Jon Landau), Best Director (James Cameron), Best Art Direction (Peter Lamont and Michael D. Ford), Cinematography (Russell Carpenter), Best Costume Design (Debroah L. Scott), Best Film Editing (Conrad Buff, James Cameron and Richard A. Harris), Best Original Dramatic Score (James Horner), Best Original Song (James Horner and Will Jennings for "My Heart Will Go On "), Best Sound (Gary Rydstorm, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers and Mark Ulana), Best Sound Effects Editing (Tom Bellfort and Christopher Boyes), and Best Visual Effects (Robert Legato, Mark A. Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher and Michael Kanfer). With over $2.202 billion dollars worldwide at the box office Titanic was king of the world.