Titanic 3D

When I think about some of the all time great onscreen movie couples throughout the years a few come to mind. For my parents’ generation it may have been Scarlett and Rhett. For today’s generation it may be Edward and Bella. For me it was Jack and Rose.  Watching Titanic for the very first time back on New Year’s Day 1998 was one of the most memorable movie moments I had experienced up until then.  To say the film stirred passions within me is putting it mildly. I felt I had endured something massive after the credits began to roll. I recall going to sleep that night and reliving all the scenes repeatedly in my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking it and equally could not wait to watch it again. I had caught Titanic fever along with half the country that night. While my enthusiasm may have subdued through the last fifteen years, my fondness for the film remains true. 

Titanic has mockingly suffered over the last decade due to its overwhelming popularity.  Many view it as over rated, cheesy, melodramatic, and dated (which is ironic seeing it’s primarily a period piece). I agree it is all those things at times (even I cringe during Winslet’s “I’ll never let go” speech and Jack's "King of the World" proclaimation), but in my estimation it’s also a fine example of superior film making. What other three hour film can remain engaging from start to finish after repeated viewings? I personally can’t think of any. Yes it’s long. Yes I know how it will end, but I watch it every time. 

James Cameron was able to achieve something remarkable with this film.  He managed to tell a fictional love story set to a well-known tragedy. Even the idea of creating a movie about Titanic was not original seeing as how there were several movies and one miniseries (also with a love story) already released. He pushed forward and created (at the time) the most financially successful movie of all time. No small feat! As I watched the 3D re-release a few nights ago I remain a firm believer in Cameron’s ability to create works of art. I’ll refrain from commenting on his latest venture Avatar.  With Titanic, he used the latest technology at the time and displayed it in a uniquely magical approach. He made us all feel like we were on that ship. He also made us care about these characters as if they were real. The film begins as a story about Titanic sinking, but ends as a story about the value of human life and as Jack says “making it count.” My all time favorite scene is the "you jump, I jump" moment when Rose finds herself on a lifeboat separated from Jack only to throw herself back on. She looks above at him knowing full well she'll never see him again and risks surviving alone to have a few more hours with him until the ships goes under. I've watched that scene roughly a hundred times in the last fifteen years and my heart swells each time along with the music when she makes her decision to stay with him.

What I love most about this film is how we see every intricate part of the ship from the boiler rooms to engine rooms to the captain’s quarters to third class and above. Probably one of my favorite sequences is the interaction between the crew upon viewing the alarming iceberg. They work quickly without panic knowing full well the lives of over two thousand people are on the line.  As it makes contact I’ve always been amazed by the sound of the ice smashing into the ship. It sounds like a T-Rex roaring angrily. The unsinkable ship is destroyed. As Mr. Andrews says it will founder; it’s only a mathematical certainty. All those scenes play such a pivotal role in raising the intensity and mounting fear. We are then thrusted back into the world of Jack and Rose wanting them to remain together as long possible. I hope I’m not spoiling the end for anyone out there who hasn’t seen it yet in discussing Jack’s early demise. The ending wouldn’t remain as solemn without his passing. During those last minutes in the freezing water he did not focus on the abrupt ending to his life, but at what he experienced during those few short days with Rose. In return her life was spared and salvaged by this man who enabled her to see just how much she had to live for. As I’m writing this the plot sounds convoluted and sappy, but on film it works for me. The acting (especially from Leonardo DiCaprio) is believable though slightly over the top at times. But when dealing with a movie about an enormous sinking ship I suppose it has to be. 

Ironically I came away feeling slightly more sympathetic towards the character of Cal Hockley played by Billy Zane. Perhaps because I'm now thirty-six years old instead of twenty-two, but I feel maybe Cal just needed some good therapy and he wouldn't have been such a bad catch! In one of the deleted scenes we come to learn Cal's entire family became vultures seeking money from him. He got what he deserved, but it was still sad to know he never found happiness beyond his fortune. I wish James Cameron hadn't written him so one dimensionally especially towards the end as he splashes around the sinking ship shooting a gun at the lovers. It all becomes too much; as if they aren't in enough peril. Although he does remain a one note villain, I always loved Billy Zane's performance as Cal. He's a snake, but a damn charming one. As he searches for her on the Carpathia after the rescue, you get a sense of how he may have really cared for her. Or he could have been desperately searching for the diamond.

Now onto the 3D. I personally could have done without it. Most of the time it remained two dimensional. It wasn’t filmed in 3D therefore there could only be so much done to make it look like images had depth to them. I found the underwater sequences towards the beginning with Bill Paxton to be most beneficial using the 3D conversion. We see the bow appear like a ghost out of the water with the fish swimming by. However, when dealing with the fictional characters and love story it was as if I was watching 2D only with the irritating glasses. I would have enjoyed it just as much watching it digitally remastered and without the 3D. I hadn’t heard the film in a theater surrounding since 1998 and I had forgotten how incredible the sounds were of the ship creaking and rattling as it was sinking. The sounds of it breaking in two and completing going under added such realism and intensity. I feel sorry for those who never wish to watch this film on the big screen the way it was intended. So much is lost on dvd and video. 

I continue to be fascinated by both the film and actual real life events surrounding the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic. As I write this today April 14, 2012 it has been one hundred years since the incident. It’s a heartbreaking story which showed the arrogance of men and the overconfidence in technology to survive any type of disaster.  It was a remarkable ship which in the end proved as fragile and temporary as human life. For a film so strong in it's message, 3D conversion was never necessary.