What Cameron's movie gave us

[Adam McGuirk]

Hello, I am here to talk about the beauty of Cameron's movie and what it gave us. Cameron's movie is my favorite Titanic film out there. I don't care about the documenturies because they don't have a story raveled into them like Cameron's. Cameron's lets you see what it was like to be on Titanic through two lovers called Jack and Rose. I don't mind Jack and Rose because if theres no Jack and Rose theres no movie. Kate Winslet played her part perfectly leaving you with wanting more of her. I have heard people say that ell the movie is not about them. They are merely background people and Cameron knows that the Lightoller or Gracie were too flawed in the movie. The movie isn't about them though. It wasn't meant to be an exact historic recreation. I think it would have been hard to cast people that resemembeled the person exactly. People have said that the man who played Moody was not the right size like the real man. Well the movie wasn't about Moody. I don't think Cameron had time to waste searching for a build that matched the real person when he knew that most the audience doesn't know the real Moody's build. People have also said that the move was poor scriped. It may not have been perfectly scripted like the Godfather or a movie like that but is life allways perfectly scripted out? What Cameron did was give you a you were there feeling. I don't think we will ever see Titanic brought to life like that again. We got to see the Grand Staircase in its equisid beauty. We got to see the ship sink in a spectacular way. And we got to see it through two lovers. I think Cameron hit what it was like to loose someone when Rose is beating on Jack with no response. The movie was entertainment. No documentury. I think the I'm the king of the World saying by Jack is really Cameron predicting his own success. I think he knew it would hit with everyone. Titanic, buffs teenage girls, whoever. Like I said I don't mind Jack or Rose because there the movie. It was entertainment. What Cameron did was give us a gift. A gift to see what the real Titanic was like. A gift to see what it was like for two people to fall in love then end up losing each other. And a gift to himself for never having to work again. ;-) Cameron's Titanic is what it is and if your looking for a documentury or know Jack and Rose then your going to loose any enjoyment you would have got from the movie.
Adam

 

[Jamie Michael Angus]

Adam, I can only partly agree with you. The accuracy of the sets was amazing and the special effects were out of this world. However, the whole Jack/Rose thing was very formulaic. It was scripted like a made-for-tv love story. Surely it didn't win umpteen oscars for that! I tend to enjoy the film more when Jack and Rose are off the screen, principally because the film can then focus upon the truth rather than the fiction. And Cameron for the most part is pretty accurate about this (Murdoch's suicide not withstanding)! I sometimes wonder if the film could have been carried without the fictitious love affair. Perhaps such a film would only have appealed to the Titanic enthusiast.

One possible argument is that the death of Jack allows an emotional involvement with the tragedy that we may not otherwisw have got. I don't agree. I think "A Night to Remember" managed to get emotional involvement without focussing on any one character. One of the final shots in ANTR where the stern is sinking and the old man is trying to comfort the little child would probably have been more than enough. I would argue that that scene considered alone is just as potent as the emotional results of Jack and Roses long drawn out acquaintance. You say that there would be no film without Jack and Rose. I say it may well have been a better film without Jack and Rose.

Of course, all this has nothing to do with the fact that I think Leonardo DiCaprio has a face like a brussel sprout.

Best wishes,

Jamie

 

[Adam Leet]

To be honest I didn't feel any emotional attachment to the characters in ANTR. I did, however, cry my eyes out in Cameron's movie as Lowe entered the debris field. I guess seeing the dead had more of an impact. ANTR did not do that to me.


Adam

 

[Adam McGuirk]

Yes when you see the baby in the water it does it you pretty hard doesn't it Adam.

 

[Melinda Handshoe]

I somewhat agree with all that was said. I did not really believe the whole Jack and Rose love story, but it did give me the opportunity to think again about what some people have had live with all these years by us looking back through Rose's eyes, (all those people had a lot to think about) reading in print and watching on the screen can most times give you different feelings, I know that I am more likely to get emotional when watching a movie over reading the book. The set, IMO, was beautifully done. The fact that they cast Victor as Andrews did not hurt the film in my eyes at all, love that man.

Melinda

 

[Brandon Whited]

I did not much care for the Jack and Rose love triangle, but other than that it was an amazing film. I remember the one thing that really affected me the first time I saw it, and this might seem odd, was when Benjamin Guggenheim is shown sitting in a chair in one of the Grand Staircase foyers as the water and a group of people come washing towards him. The look in his eyes just struck a chord in my heart, and the look on poor Victor Giglio's face in that same scene made it all the more emotional.


Cheers,

-B.W.

 

[Richard Paola]

i agree..too much attention was given to the Jack & Rose story..with 2200 passengers, there could have been many more interesting stories to add; and, ironically, the most moving scenes of Cameron's film had nothing to do with Jack and Rose at all...specifically, the part very near the end when the mother is reading to her two children waiting for their doom...i don't know about you but that brought a tear to my eye..!

 

[Paul Wilkinson]

I think two shots that hit me most were

1) The distance shot from above and to the west when the rocket was going up. That sea looked extremely empty and lonely. (Clever shot too, no need for Cameron to get involved with "how close was the Californian?", seeing as she was off to the north and hence out of shot.)

2) Titanic coming back to life as old Rose dreams/dies (argue amongst yourselves!). That was one extremely slick piece of filmmaking. I love how it wasn't just a cross fade from the wreck to the Titanic, but gradual, the lights coming on in the wreck windows, the rust gradually receding ...

Just my £0.02

Cheers

Paul

 

[Beth Barber]

Hi All - It's funny - I watched Camerons movie again last night. I am still in awe of all the sets and the special effects. This movie was a love story based on Rose and Jack, with the Titanic as a backdrop. I think that Cameron did a great job of trying to be historically accurate however, he was entertwining the Jack/Rose lovestory in it so, of course, there would be a lot of fiction. This movie wasn't meant to be a documentary.

I do believe that Cameron was trying to get us to feel an emotional attachment to several of the characters in Titanic, real people and the fictional people. I certainly feel a whole range of emotions when I watch this movie. It does really make you think about the severity of the disaster.

Paul - I think that is one of my favorite scenes too when Titanic "comes back to life" at the end of the movie.

- Beth

 

[William Ajello]

Hi Beth,

The sheer horror of that night in real life must've been dreadful enough....1500 people flailing in freezing cold water in the middle of nowehere, which happened to be miles and miles from anywhere in the middle of the night in pitch blackness............I think Cameron caught at least part of that emotional trauma because until that part of the movie came up, I had not realized the panic that ensued, not even ANTR came close to that feeling...it kind of opened my eyes to what all those people went through.

In Ballard's book "Discovery of the Titanic", he has a picture of what 1500 people looks like.....it was awe-inspiring that that many people died at one time...in one place....just horrible.

Regards,
Bill

 

[Melinda Handshoe]

I understand Camerons reasons behind the Jack/Rose story line, I just didn't buy them two as a couple, which IMO, made for the worst part of the movie. It is hard to even count on two hands the amount of scenes that just struck an emotional cord in me, of course the one where the mother is reading to her children, when Rose and Jack are hanging and Rose looks over and there is a woman holding a baby, the elder couple laying in bed, there are just to many scenes to count. It didn't have to be a documentary, but it would have helped if more time was spent on after the ship struck the iceburg, on those lives that were lost. I think a lot of directors underestimate the American public and what we want and can actually handle.

Melinda

 

[Don Tweed]

I wish Cameron had paid some attention to the Californian in his movie.
He could have shone some light into the controversy surrounding Lord and his officers failure to respond to the rockets and shown movie goers who knew nothing of Titanic before they went to see the movie, a side they may still not know of!!!
Just my thoughts!,-Don

 

[Brandon Whited]

Well, the Californian was at least featured in the film, although it was cut from the final version. I have saw a film clip that shows the scene where Cyril Evans attempts to warn the Titanic of the danger ahead, only to get rebuked by a tired Jack Phillips.


Cheers,

-B.W.

 

[Melinda Handshoe]

Don

But don't you think if Cameron had shown the public the "controversy" of the Californian, it would have taken away from what all on the Titanic went through that night? I think the movie should have been more about the lives that were lost and the lives that had to live with what they saw that night, than anything that might have distracted us from that. IMO

Melinda

 

[Martin Owen Cahill]

Two of you have refered to "a mother reading as story to here children"

By way of clarification the Mother is an Irish immigrant who boarded the ship at Queenstown [now Cobh]. She is retelling the legend of Oisin, a Celtic legend about eternal life and youth. In doing so the mother is going back into her celtic ancestry, way before christianity, to help her children through what was coming.
For me this was the most emotional scene of the film.

ise mise le mas

Martin