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Titanic is an Academy Award-winning 1997 romantic drama/disaster film directed, written and co-produced by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson respectively, members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated 1912 maiden voyage of the ship. Bill Paxton plays Brock Lovett, the leader of a treasure hunting expedition, while Gloria Stuart has the role of the elderly Rose (renamed Calvert), who narrates the story in 1996. The film co-stars Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Caledon Hockley, Kathy Bates as Margaret "Molly" Brown, Frances Fisher as Rose's mother, Ruth, and Danny Nucci as Jack's best friend, Fabrizio De Rossi. Because Titanic was not completed in mid-1997, problems rose in Hollywood and there was discussion of trimming its length, but director Cameron fought to release it without additional editing. It was released to North America in theatres by Paramount Pictures (worldwide by 20th Century Fox) on December 19 1997, and while it performed well in its first weekend, it was not until the new year that the film would reach its highest ticket sales. It holds the record for the highest-grossing film of all time, generating over US$1.8 billion worldwide. It spent 15 weekends atop the weekend box office, making it second only to E.T. (16 weekends) as the movie with the most weekends at that position. In 1998 it was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards and won eleven, including the title of 1997's Best Picture (the second Paramount/Fox co-production with that honor in 3 years after 1995's Braveheart). Titanic shares the record for the most Academy Award wins with Ben-Hur (1959) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Along with 1950's All About Eve (another 20th Century Fox film), Titanic also holds the record for most Academy Award nominations.
PlotSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Distraught and frustrated with her forced engagement to Cal and controlled life, Rose attempts to commit suicide but Jack intervenes. They strike up a tentative friendship as he shares stories of his adventures traveling and sketching, and their bond deepens when they leave the first-class formal dinner for a much livelier gathering in third-class. Soon they are falling in love. Eventually, Jack confronts Rose alone, but she is inclined to ignore their growing affection because of her engagement and responsibilities. However, Rose later changes her mind and decides to offer her heart to Jack. As a sign of her affection, she asks him to sketch her in the nude wearing only the "Heart of the Ocean." Afterward the two run away from Hockley's manservant, Spicer Lovejoy. They run away below decks to the cargo hold where they enter a car and make love. In the midst of Jack and Rose's romance, Captain Edward J. Smith has seemingly been ignoring many warnings about upcoming ice fields in the ship's path, and the Titanic maintains high speed. At 11:40 PM, the two lookouts see an iceberg directly in the Titanic's path. Despite the efforts of the crew and engineers, the ship strikes the iceberg and water begins to flood the compartments and causes the ship to begin sinking. When Cal discovers Rose's relationship with Jack, he plots revenge, deciding to frame Jack for stealing the "Heart of the Ocean." Hockley orders the master-at-arms to handcuff and trap Jack in a room. Although Rose is at first indecisive, she later runs away from Cal, risking her chances of getting on a lifeboat, in order to find and rescue Jack. With the help of Titanic shipbuilder Thomas Andrews, Rose eventually frees Jack. After Rose manages to successfully free Jack with a fire axe, they reunite with Fabrizio and Tommy. They then break through a gate and make their way back to the boat deck, where Cal is searching for Rose. Cal and Jack manage to persuade Rose to board a lifeboat, but after realizing that she cannot leave Jack, Rose jumps back on the ship and reunites with Jack on the Grand Staircase. Infuriated beyond belief, Cal takes Lovejoy's pistol and chases Jack and Rose down the staircase, shooting at them. After running out of ammunition, Hockley returns to the boat deck and gets aboard Collapsible A by pretending to look after an abandoned child. This is one of only two lifeboats remaining on the ship. Although Jack and Rose manage to avoid Cal's fury, they find that the lifeboats are gone. With no other options, they decide to head aft and stay on the ship for as long as possible before it sinks completely. Eventually, the ship breaks in half and begins its final descent, washing everyone into the cold, icy waters. Image:Titanicpic1.JPG The Titanic's bow end plunges underwater Jack and Rose stick together after being separated by the suction created by the sinking of the ship. Jack and Rose are separated under the water, but eventually reunite, after the camera pulls back, revealing thousands of people struggling in the deadly cold water. Meanwhile, in Lifeboat 6, Molly Brown tries to convince Quarter Master Robert Hitchens to go back and rescue people, stating that they've "lots more room", and to the other women in the boat, "It's your men out there!" Molly's pleas go unheeded as Hitchens threatens to throw her overboard if she doesn't be quiet. So, in twenty boats, the few survivors wait and listen to the cries of their fellow passengers. In the twenty-eight degree water, Jack manages to grab hold of a wall paneling, but only one of them can climb onto the surface. While lying on the wall paneling, Rose manages to stay afloat, but Jack dies in the icy water. When Officer Lowe arrives with an empty Lifeboat 14, Rose tries to wake Jack, but then realizes that he has died. Upon this realization, she does her best to call out to Lowe, but he does not hear her and rows away, seemingly leaving her to die. After making a promise, Rose manages to unclasp Jack's frozen hand from her own, letting his body disappear into the sea. Throwing herself into the water, Rose swims over to where a dead officer floats on one of the deck chairs. She takes his whistle, blowing on it, and attracting Lowe's attention. She is pulled to saftey, joining the other surviors, that are so few. Rose later boards the RMS Carpathia. On the Carpathia's deck, Rose notices Cal looking for her. When he turns in her direction, she turns away, not letting him see her face. This was the last time she ever saw Hockley. Upon arrival in New York City, Rose registers her name as "Rose Dawson" rather than her maiden name, reflecting her commitment to Jack as his wife and implying their plans for marriage. She discovers the "Heart of the Ocean" tucked into Cal's coat pocket.
However, In the 3-Disc Special Collectors edition, there is a deleted scene in which Jack and Rose see a shooting star and Jack says, "My pops used to tell every time you saw one, it was a soul going to heaven." There is also and alternate ending in which right before you see Rose in her bed you see a shooting star, indicating that Rose may have died. Another hint that Rose died is in the last scene of the movie; called 'A Promise Kept'. Which is the scene where Rose is seen lying in bed. This refers back before Jack dies, he makes Rose promise that she will die an old lady warm in her bed. Spoilers end here.
Cast and CharactersImage:031028e-p.jpg Gloria Stuart as 101-year-old Rose Calvert
Production
A brand-new studio was built for the making of this film, at Popotla, near Rosarito Beach in Mexico, just 40km south of the international border. A giant tower crane was used for aerial tracking shots of the 90% scale model of Titanic that was built in the ocean. When this epic disaster film was not finished in time for its scheduled July 1997 release,[2] shockwaves were sent through Hollywood; executives started wondering if a situation similar to that of Heaven's Gate would occur. The releasing studios 20th Century Fox (which handled the film's distribution outside the U.S.) and Paramount Pictures (which handled the U.S. distribution) panicked. With a budget of $200 million,[3] Titanic became the costliest film of all time by mid-1997 (now the fourth most expensive movie ever). When director James Cameron delivered the film to Paramount, it ran over three hours and speculation arose whether he would work in Hollywood again. Cameron defended his production and threatened most executives that they were not going to shorten the film's length. Cameron admitted that he felt as though Titanic would be unsuccessful. Titanic was released across North America on December 19 1997. In its first weekend it grossed $28 million in ticket sales, but it was not until the new year that the film had reached $100 million. Titanic was number-one at the box office for four months and became the top-grossing film of all time. It generated $1.8 billion in worldwide ticket sales. In 1998 Cameron was awarded the Academy Award for Best Picture. Filming occurred from 16 September1996 to 23 March1997. ReceptionCritical ReceptionThe film garnered mostly positive reviews from critics. It has been a "Certified Fresh" film on Rotten Tomatoes with 82% overall approval from critics and 81% from users.[4] The film also received a 74 out 100 metascore on Metacritic, classified as a generally favorable reviewed film. The metacritic users also awarded it with a 7.4/10 average rating.[5] Roger Ebert said "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted and spellbinding... Movies like this are not merely difficult to make at all, but almost impossible to make well. The technical difficulties are so daunting that it's a wonder when the filmmakers are also able to bring the drama and history into proportion. I found myself convinced by both the story and the saga."[6] It was one of his top ten films of 1997.[7] James Berardinelli gave the film four stars out of four, placing it #2 of the year 1997 (behind The Sweet Hereafter). In his review he mentioned: Cameron's flawless re-creation of the legendary ship has blurred the line between reality and illusion to such a degree that we can't be sure what's real and what isn't. To make this movie, it's as if Cameron built an all-new Titanic, let it sail, then sunk it... Titanic represents Cameron's most accomplished work to date. It's important not to let the running time hold you back -- those three-plus hours pass very quickly. Although this telling of the Titanic story is far from the first, it is the most memorable, and is deserving of Oscar nominations not only in the technical categories, but in the more substantive ones of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Some reviewers felt that the story and dialogue were weak while the visuals were spectacular. Kenneth Turan's review in the LA Times was particularly scathing. Dismissing the emotive elements, he says "what really brings on the tears is Cameron's insistence that writing this kind of movie is within his abilities. Not only isn't it, it isn't even close."[8] Barbara Shulgasser of San Francisco Examiner gave Titanic one star out of four, citing a friend as saying "the number of times in this unbelievably badly written script that the two [lead characters] refer to each other by name was an indication of just how dramatically the script lacked anything more interesting for the actors to say."[citation needed] Box officeThe film received steady attendance after opening in North America on December 19 1997. By Sunday that same weekend, theatres were beginning to sell out. The film debuted with $28,638,131. By the new year Titanic had increased in popularity and theatres continued selling out; unusually, it took fifteen weeks for its weekly gross to decline 50%, the most for any film in the 1990s. By March 1998 it was the first film to earn more than $1 billion worldwide.[9] The movie stayed in theatres for over 6 months. Some theatres in South Africa ran it for longer than a year, bringing in approximately R40 Million ($5,490,671) Titanic holds the record for the highest-grossing film of all time in the North American market with $600,788,188. The previous North American record of $460,998,000 was held by Star Wars (another 20th Century Fox film).[10] Titanic also holds the record for the highest-grossing movie of all time in the worldwide box office with $1,835,300,000 [11]. The second place Return of the King is about $700 million short of Titanic's record. However, it will only place third, if the ticket price is adjusted for inflation worldwide. Gone with the Wind would be the number one movie on this ranking. AwardsTitanic began its awards sweep starting with the Golden Globes, winning four including Best Film (Drama), Best Director, Best Original Score and Best Song.[12] Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Gloria Stuart and James Cameron's screenplay were also nominated but lost.[13] It won the ACE "Eddie" Award, ASC Award, Art Directors Guild Award, Cinema Audio Society Award, Screen Actors Guild Awards, (Best Supporting Actress Gloria Stuart), The Directors Guild of America Award and Broadcast Film Critics Association Award (Best Director James Cameron), and The Producer Guild of America Awards, It was also nominated for ten BAFTA awards including Best Film and Director. It tied All About Eve for having the most Oscar nomination in history with 14. It won Best Picture and Best Director. It also picked up best costume design, visual effects, sound, sound effects, original dramatic score, film editing, song, art direction and cinematography. Kate Winslet, Gloria Stuart and the Make-up artists were the only other nominees that failed to win. James Cameron's original screenplay and Leonardo DiCaprio were not nominated.[14] It was the second movie to win eleven Academy Awards after Ben-Hur. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King would also match the record in 2004. The love theme song also won the Grammy Awards for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. It also managed to win Best Movie and Best Male Performance for Leonardo DiCaprio at the MTV Movie Awards. The film was voted as Best Film at the People's Choice Awards. It won various awards outside the United States, including the Awards of the Japanese Academy as the Best Foreign Film of the year. Titanic eventually won 87 awards and had additional 47 nominations from various award giving bodies around the world.[15] American Film InstituteSince its release, Titanic has been constantly appearing on the AFI's award winning 100 Years... series. It is ranked #25 in the most thrilling movies of all time and #37 in the most romantic movies of all time. The song "My Heart Will Go On" is at #14 in the best movie songs of all time, and the line uttered by Jack Dawson played by Leonardo DiCaprio, "I'm the king of the world!" is at #100 as one of the best movie quotes in history. Titanic is also one of the 44 new eligible films in contention to the updated version of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies. This will count down the best films in American cinema. The list will be unveiled in June 2007. Titanic was not eligible when the first list was revealed. ControversyIn one scene, First Officer William Murdoch is shown to shoot and kill some passengers during the frenzy to get to the lifeboats. Ashamed, he commits suicide. When his nephew Scott Murdoch saw this, he objected as he claims that Murdoch had never committed such an act. [16] A few months later, Fox Vice-president Scott Neeson went to Dalbeattie where Murdoch lived to deliver a personal apology, and also presented a £5000 donation to Dalbeattie High School to boost the school's William Murdoch Memorial Prize.[17] Soundtrack
The soundtrack CD for Titanic was composed by James Horner and sold more than twenty-seven million copies, notable because it included only one pop song with lyrics. The soundtrack includes performances from the Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø, and the famous Canadian diva Céline Dion. It became a worldwide success, and led to the release of a second volume that contained a mixture of previously unreleased soundtrack recordings with newly-recorded performances of some of the songs in the film, including one track recorded by Enya's sister, Máire Brennan of the Irish band Clannad. "Hymn to the Sea" features Bad Haggis's Eric Rigler on the uilleann pipes and whistles. James Horner wrote the song "My Heart Will Go On" in secret with Will Jennings because Cameron did not want any songs with singing in the film. Dion agreed to record a demo with the persuasion of her husband René Angélil. Horner waited until Cameron was in an appropriate mood before presenting him with the song. After playing it several times, Cameron declared its approval, although worried that he would have been criticized for "going commercial at the end of the movie".[18] DVDTitanic was first released to DVD on July 31, 1999 in a widescreen-only (non-anamorphic) single disc edition with no special features other than a theatrical trailer. Cameron stated at the time that he intended to release a special edition with extra features at a later date. Six years later, on October 25, 2005, a special edition release finally occurred with a 3-DVD set in North America that included an anamorphic widescreen-only presentation of the movie divided onto two of the discs, 45 minutes of deleted scenes, an alternate ending, a faux 1912-style newsreel, a crew tribute/gag reel, and other features. Ed Marsh was originally commissioned to shoot and edit a two-hour retrospective documentary, and had completed it when Cameron decided to drop it from the DVD set. An international two-disc and four-disc edition followed on November 7, 2005, the fourth disc containing an HBO special, spoofs and parodies (available as easter eggs in the Region 1 edition), and a gallery of trailers and TV spots. ReferencesTop Grossing Films Ever. The Movie Times. Retrieved on November 16, 2005.
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