In its day, there was nothing to compare with Titanic (1997), the film that leapfrogged Star Wars (1977) to take its place as box office conqueror extraordinaire. Now, fast forward 15 years and James Cameron’s epic waterlogged romance of the way too high seas has been given the obligatory 3D treatment and shipped back into cinemas for a second ill-fated voyage.
So how does it stand the test of time with its elite passengers and crew all resuscitated and stripped of the icy accoutrements of a collective frozen demise? Can we still summon sufficient enthusiasm for the love between a spoilt rich girl who dreams of tossing herself overboard to escape a loveless arranged marriage and a commoner who needs a lucky hand in a card game to even set foot aboard the ship?
Surprisingly, time has treated this vessel well. The scale, the size, the depiction of the calamity all still impress. Indeed, 190 short minutes confirm that Cameron’s elaborate confection still holds the weight of any grand cinematic entertainment conceived before or since. Much can be attributed to the precocious talent and exquisite beauty of a young Kate Winslet as Rose and although Leonardo Di Caprio as Jack Dawson still looks about 15, the chemistry between the pair is genuine enough. Cameron takes great lengths to establish their relationship too with nearly 100 minutes having elapsed before the iceberg is struck.
Certain scenes stand out, in positive and negative ways. The dinner scene is a highlight with humour exacerbating the colossal class divide separating Jack with high society and his own dignity in the face of both subtle and not so subtle ridicule. The naked portrait scene will no doubt stir many a loin all over again, whilst the final ghostly return to the top of the stairs will still quicken the mournful heart of true believers, both male and female.
Conversely, the scene in which Billy Zane grabs his offsider’s gun and begins recklessly raining bullets at the fleeing lovers smacks of absurdity. Standing out like a sore thumb it’s the one scene that might be most justifiably excised. Zane’s entire performance as the controlling pompous twat of a groom to be is farcical really but nobody could begrudge him a now immortalised bad guy considering how his career seems to have sprung a horrible leak in the intervening years. Kathy Bates has a couple of tasty lines as the imperturbable Molly Brown, whilst 87 year old Gloria Stuart as the modern day Rose is simply magical.
Composer James Horner deserved his kudos too for what should have been Best Partially Original Score after brazenly re-using his ‘Al Bathra’ action music from Courage Under Fire to accompany the dramatic contact with the iceberg. He also deserves credit for using vocalist Sissel and an angelic synth choir to fool most listeners into believing that Celine Dion’s participation existed beyond the My Heart Will Drip On lamentation of the end credits trawl.
The new release’s 3D translation is negligible really a paltry reason to resurrect the film considering how rapidly this overpriced gimmick has lost its sheen in recent times. But even without it the film retains the hallmarks of romantic melodrama on a grand scale. Certainly, Cameron’s decision to neatly weave a fictional thread into a recounting of a fabled natural disaster that rocked the world seems more than ever a canny move.
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