Review & Synopsis of Titanic Film (1997) ‘Love in the Middle of Disaster’ Released in December 1997 The Most Popular Film in History
Titanic is the work of the famous director James Cameron. Released in December 1997, Titanic managed to close a net profit of $2.194 billion dollars in later additions including a 3D redeployment in April 2012 in honor of the sinking.
In February 2023, James Cameron is releasing his film again in 4K 3D format which can be seen in theaters for a certain period of time. The release coincided with Valentine’s Day. Wow, romantic huh? Another reason for Titanic being released again is to celebrate 25 years of this film being shown and its success as the best film of all time.
Synopsis
The film opens with an underwater expedition led by Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton), he and his team use the Academic Mstislav Keldysh research vessel to search for the wreck of the luxury Titanic which sank in 1912. But in between searching for the carcass, Brock also has a hidden plan, to get treasure.
The treasure was a large diamond necklace with the name Heart of The Ocean which was listed as one of the valuable items on the ship. Once he managed to find the wreck, Brock then started looking for where this treasure was. He also managed to get an iron safe which he was sure was where the object he was looking for.
Brock and his team then returned to the ship, once the safe was opened, he found nothing but a painting of a naked young woman wearing the necklace he was looking for. The sketch was then published and attracted the attention of an old woman named Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stewart).
Old Rose then immediately called Brock and confessed that the woman in the painting was her. The atmosphere was in an uproar, Brock and his expedition team then invited old Rose to board the Keldysh to tell about her experiences while sailing with the luxury liner Titanic.
Rose began to tell the story, the image of the wreck that was seen on the screen began to change into a brand new ship and Rose (Kate Winslet) returned to the age of 17 years. He was seen downstairs with his mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater (Frances Fisher) and his 30-year-old billionaire fiance Caledon Nathan Hockley (Billy Zane).
Rose, who will soon marry Cal, was brought to New York on the Titanic’s inaugural voyage which departed from Southampton, England. Rose has no love for Cal, she does the marriage to save her family’s name and make her selfish mother stay rich and live comfortably.
Once Rose has boarded the ship, we will be taken to a young male character named Jack Dawson (Leonardo Di Caprio) who is playing poker to win class 3 tickets for the Titanic with his friend Fabrizio de Rossi (Danny Nucci). The bet they won and brought them aboard the luxury ship.
The Titanic lifted anchor, thousands of people escorted the departure of the luxury ship. All passengers on board were on the outer deck to say goodbye. Soon, the ship was already in the open sea. Rose, who was already in her room, began unloading all her belongings, including her beloved Pablo Picasso & Claude Monet paintings.
As night fell, the Titanic docked in Cherbourg, France to pick up other passengers, one of which was a wealthy woman named Margaret ‘Molly’ Brown (Kathy Bates) who was often called ‘new money’ or new rich people by Ms. Rose. The next day, Titanic made its final pick-up in Ireland.
On the ship, Rose feels completely bored with the life of the rich and feels that she has no one to rely on to cheer her up. He was disappointed in everyone and decided to commit suicide by jumping from the stern of the ship. This is where Rose met Jack who persuaded her not to kill herself and Rose complied.
Rose and Jack became good friends, Rose told her life story and Jack listened, and vice versa. All day together, the two young people actually like each other. The closeness lasted when Jack was invited to have dinner with the first class passengers & continued the real party on the deck with Rose.
Cal, who found out about this after receiving a report from his bodyguard, namely Lovejoy (David Warner), was furious and asked Rose not to see Jack again, Ruth also asked his son not to act up. This made Rose discouraged, she was forced to stay away from Jack, but Jack was able to open his heart again.
Jack took Rose to the bow of the ship and gave Rose a special gift. Rose was really happy, after that they returned to Rose’s cabin because the girl asked Jack, who is good at painting, to draw himself wearing only a necklace Cal gave them as their wedding present. Jack complied.
As soon as they finish painting, Rose and Jack escape from Lovejoy’s pursuit, who is looking for Rose on Cal’s orders. They went down to the cargo deck. There they were making out in a classic car and after that they managed to trick the ship’s security officers who were looking for them again. Rose and Jack climbed onto the foredeck of the ship.
In the viewing tower, the controllers saw an iceberg right in the path of the Titanic, an iceberg warning was issued in the wheelhouse. Despite trying, the Titanic still could not avoid the iceberg and ended up being grazed; tearing the hull of the ship makes the ship sink quickly.
Passengers who knew the Titanic as an unsinkable ship, relaxed about the incident, not knowing that the big ship would sink. As soon as the water entered the wheelhouse a dozen floors below the surface, the new passengers panicked and scrambled for the lifeboat, which had a capacity of only half the 2,200 passengers.
At that critical moment, Cal slandered Jack about taking his necklace so he was imprisoned, this made Rose run away from Cal and her mother to help Jack. Once successful, they both climbed to the upper deck. There, Rose got on a lifeboat but jumped back into the ship because she didn’t want to leave Jack.
The Titanic sank completely. Rose & Jack floated with 1,500 other people. Jack helps Rose climb onto a broken piece of wooden wall so she doesn’t catch a cold, while Jack is in the water and dies. Rose continues to live by fulfilling her promise to Jack to continue to survive no matter what.
‘Nothing on Earth Could Come Between Them’
Do you agree that this film deserves a rating of 10/10? For me personally and maybe other Titanic movie lovers would agree! This film does not only present spectacular cinematics. But there are many stories that can be learned as lessons. You will know how love conquers all from Jack and Rose’s love story.
From the beginning of the film, we can see the look on Rose’s face that it’s hard to travel on the Titanic. Rose thinks her mother is too selfish by ‘matching’ her with a man Rose doesn’t like at all just to save their family’s finances. Not to mention Rose’s fiancé, Cal, has a hot temper! Makes Rose even more dizzy.
Jack’s presence at that time was absolutely perfect. Jack can ‘take’ Rose out of the cage and can make Rose smile again. Rose falls in love with Jack and vice versa. Like the tagline of this film; ‘Nothing on Earth Could Come Between Them’. Sounds very romantic right? But that’s the truth. Until her last moment, Rose kept thinking about Jack.
Worth it to Watch!
Even though the duration of this film is quite long, I guarantee that you won’t get bored watching it. The storyline is neat, added with the spices of Jack and Rose’s love drama, which is very exciting. You will also be presented with the appearance of a ship and a very cool ship interior. I guarantee you will love watching it.
The best scene for me is when the ship lifts anchor and sounds a long horn. They didn’t know that when the ship departed, the Titanic would not come back. Followed by a scene where Jack takes Rose to the bridge to spread his arms as if he were flying. Very sweet! Coupled with a beautiful Atlantic sunset sky background!
The last 1 hour of this film is the climax story. You will be presented with a dramatic scene when the Titanic hits an iceberg, tearing the ship’s hull and causing it to sink. The whole mess starts here. You will see everyone’s struggle including Jack and Rose to stay safe.
I myself couldn’t imagine if I had to be in Jack or Rose’s position or other Titanic passengers who at that time could only wait to see if they would live or die when the ship they were on sank. They panicked uncontrollably, confused did not know where to go and could only surrender to see the water rolling in front of their eyes.
Not to mention the few lifeboats for a ship the size of the Titanic. It seems ridiculous, a ship with a capacity of 2,000 people only has lifeboats which can only accommodate half of the total number of passengers. Do you know the reason why there are not enough lifeboats? The ship’s designers saw that if there were too many lifeboats, the appearance of the ship would be messy. Seriously!
There are many scenes that caught my attention. If I remember, I can get goosebumps myself. When the mother and her two children who missed the lifeboat chose to return to their room to wait for death. The mother read fairy tales to her child until her child fell asleep even though on the deck, everyone was trying to save themselves.
Plus the scene when the wealthy couple Ida & Isidor Straus choose to stay together. Do you remember the footage where a pair of grandparents sleep hugging each other when water starts to enter their room? Yes, this couple I mean. History also relates that Ida refused to board the lifeboat because she did not want to leave her husband, Isidor, alone on board.
Filmmaking
Produced at Baja Studios, James Cameron actually rebuilt a replica of the Titanic, even a little bigger. It would take more than 19,000,000 gallons of water needed to sink the replica setting. Initially, the production house of Paramounts & 20th Century Fox was reluctant to even reject the idea of making this film.
Level C in the two production houses doubts that a love story for 3 full hours is able to attract people to watch it. Moreover, the costs that were disbursed at that time were enormous, 200 million dollars. However, thanks to James’ expertise in directing, providing detailed information and benefits, he finally agreed that the film Titanic would be made soon.
Soundtrack Hits My Heart Will Go On
Maybe the Titanic movie wouldn’t be special if this song didn’t exist. The song sung by Celine Dion is considered the most suitable soundtrack after Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You from the film Bodyguard. My Heart Will Go On was written by Will Jennings and turned into the best song by James Horner, the same composer who made Music Scoring for the film Titanic.
But you know what? Initially Celine Dion did not want to sing this song. He considered this song too sad and according to him, he had enough to sing mellow songs for a film after Celine successfully sang Beauty and The Beast.
When James Horner met Celine and started playing the intro; Celine immediately said to her husband who is also her manager, ‘I will not sing that song’. However, Celine’s husband persuaded her to do a demonstration first. If you don’t like it, Celine can refuse it at least after doing a demo.
Celine Dion finally flew to New York to do a demo. Celine sang My Heart Will Go On as best she could. Guess what happened? The demo was a success! Unbeknownst to Celine, James Horner had already set up an orchestra behind the studio. So when Celine sings, she is actually accompanied by all the musical instruments.
The result? The song My Heart Will Go On that you are listening to now is not a recording. But it was really a demo of Celine who didn’t want to sing the song at that time. Now both the film Titanic and the song My Heart Will Go On have become films and are even included in the 10 Most Popular and Best Film Soundtracks of all time, according to Bacaterus! Celine was proud of her decision to keep doing the demo.
