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James Cameron's Titanic was released 20 years ago this year...

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Lender

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To be fair, Titanic had such a nightmarish production everyone thought it was going to be a mega bomb and finish Cameron's career for good. A second studio had to step in to speed the risk, the food poisoning fiasco, lots of reports of how big an asshole Cameron was on set, a summer to Christmas delay and launching head to head against a James Bond film hot off Goldeneye with Costner's The Postman(lol) looming the next week.

The food poisoning story really is bizar.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Titanic-Someone-Secretly-Snuck-PCP-Cast-Crew-Food-69464.html
 
I saw Titanic when I was 12 or 13, me my grandma and grandpa were staying at Butlins, and they had a movie theater next to where we were staying. I think I saw that movie 3 or 4 times with a bunch of other kids I met.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Inarguably one of the GOATs. And in my opinion, the best action sequence in all of film. The entire second half with the ship sinking is masterful cinema. 20 years later it still holds its own. 20 years ago it was downright Voodoo.
 

-shadow-

Member
I remember seeing this in the summer of '98 when I was seven years old in the cinema in Egypt. I still remember actually wanting to stay until the end because I didn't feel very well. Well that and they found it pretty hardcore for a seven years old.
 

Bit-Bit

Member
Oh how a dream of a Leo And Cameron reunion on film. Maybe Leo could play the villain in Avatar 2-4? That could be incredible. Titanic was for a very long time my most favorite movie. It's got everything!
 
Terrible dialogue, acting, storytelling. So much pathos. And I haven't even mentioned that terrible Dion song...

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Pictured: Weyland Yutani employee reacting to Lydecker's Titanic review.
 
Oh how a dream of a Leo And Cameron reunion on film. Maybe Leo could play the villain in Avatar 2-4? That could be incredible. Titanic was for a very long time my most favorite movie. It's got everything!


Doubtful it will ever happen. All signs point to Dicaprio being another in a list of actors who hated working for Cameron. He is a demanding perfectionist that expects everyone to be invested 24/7 with the same intensity he exudes. Not a director for the fate of heart or the thin skinned. Hence why certain actors love working with him and others hate it. His Temper on set is legendary. Even his stars aren't immune. One famous story was during True Lies, Cameron and the crew were taking forever setting up a particular shot so Arnold went off with a few members of the crew to buy them coffee when the shot was ready. Cameron blew his lid when Arnold returned screaming at him to never do tha again "or get Paul Verhoeven to direct this fucking film" or something to that effect.


shot0003.jpg

Pictured: Weyland Yutani employee reacting to Lydecker's Titanic review.

I kinda get where he is coming from. The script is weak, the love story is cliched and while Winslet is great, DiCaprio is having one of his "gives no shit" performances. It's also an inferior retelling of the actual sinking compared to amazing A Night to Remember.

Still it's a technical marvel, the back half of the film has that classic Cameron pacing and it's still a fun albeit very flawed film. A good movie that I rank along with True Lies and The Abyss as Cameron's good but not great films. Better then most films but not in the same league as The Terminator or Aliens.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
I saw it opening night. The crowd was almost entirely people who worked on it.
 
Because in Cameron's words: "The script says Jack dies, he has to die. The dude's going down."

I love his explanation!
He's actually explained it further for the people it wasn't already obvious to.

It wasn't a matter of space on the door. It was a matter of buoyancy. Myth busters tried to concoct a scenario where Jack spends a bunch of time tying their life vests underneath the door, forgetting the freezing temperature he'd have to work underwater in to do it. There was no saving Jack if Rose was gonna live.
 

CREMSteve

Member
I have a collection of Titanic memorabilia that I put together over the course of the film's original run. I opened it for the first time about a month ago, first time in 20 years. Newspaper clippings, magazines, etc. all detailing the historic run it went on. I had forgotten about it and just happened across it when I was unpacking our storage room. Some pretty cool stuff in there.
 
Fantastic film. I do kinda wish it had been made more recently though so the special effects stand the test of time better. Not that they are bad, but they are showing their age now.
 
I hardly remember any of it, can't remember if I watched it fully or not.

I do remember it's not as great as you all are making it out to be.
 

CREMSteve

Member
Fantastic film. I do kinda wish it had been made more recently though so the special effects stand the test of time better. Not that they are bad, but they are showing their age now.
Really the only effect that doesn't hold up are the sweeping shots with digital actors walking on the decks of the ship. To be fair though, it was one of the very first films to try for photo real actors like that. Was very convincing at the time.
 

CrazyDude

Member
I was 5 when I watched it. My sister and I were living with my grandparents in Hungary at the time and my parents sent us a VHS copy of Titanic. My grandmother cried even without understanding a word of English.

Great movie.
 

Solo

Member
It was surreal watching it in 2012 in theatres on the day of the 100th anniversary of the sinking.
 

Peltz

Member
Really great movie that was also a bit overrated. The romance was pretty corny/heavy handed, but the spectacle lived up to the hype.

I loved it as a 10 year old kid.... plus it had boobs in it.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Really great movie that was also a bit overrated. The romance was pretty corny/heavy handed, but the spectacle lived up to the hype.

I loved it as a 10 year old kid.... plus it had boobs in it.

I think it's a strong case of some clumsy setup leading to big payoffs. Like, the whole Rose throwing herself off the back of the boat scene is a bit awkward, some intentional, some not. But the payoff of "This is where we first met" is just huge and works. Scene after scene in the first act works out that way. Even the worst scene in the movie ("Someone Picasso?") is called back to in an effective way and provides some insight into Rose's behavior later on. There's a lot of that as the climax unfolds, and Cameron lands them pretty solidly.
 
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