Is Titanic James Cameron's Best Film?

Gazz

Gazz

Member

Hi all, just popping in to post a video review of Titanic, the film that singlehandedly kickstarted my interest in the disaster as well as continuing my love affair with Cameron's movies. On the last watch through I actually came to realise that this is probably Cameron's best film and certainly the one that represents his filmmaking sensibilities the most. From his approach to the technical aspects of filmmaking, utilising every cheap trick and, well, not-so-cheap trick, to his script chock full of cheesy Cameronisms, this could be the quintessential JC movie. But I do wonder how the film has gone down in communities surrounding the disaster itself. Do these Cameronisms detract from the historical story (as it did for my co-host) or is this flaw actually a feature for you?
 
Oh dear. I was hesitant to reply but here goes: I think 'Aliens' is far superior [although for me it's not dated anywhere near as well as Ridley Scott's original].

I saw 'Titanic' once at the cinema when it was first released. I primarily went because I wanted to see the recreation of the ship, which was certainly very cool. The rest of it...um... 'A woman's heart is an ocean of secrets'...that's the level. I thought the film itself was mawkish trash. Just trash. The script is diabolical. The 'cheesy character archtypes', as you call them, are risible. It just wasn't my thing. I felt it was dumb and it made me feel dumb for watching it, which then made me resent it.

I appreciate that a lot of people got into the topic via Cameron's film [for me it was a battered old copy of Geoffrey Marcus's 'The Maiden Voyage' I found as a kid in a second-hand bookshop] but I find it hard not to resent slightly how the film and the topic have become almost interchangeable. I recently joined, and left, the Titanic sub on Reddit as almost every post was something about 'Jack and Rose'.

Anyway, it is what it is. A lot of people like it! I enjoyed the review.
 
William Oakes said:
11 Academy Awards....
Nuff Said.
Click to expand...
William, I know that you and I disagree about the merits (or lack of) James Cameron's Titanic film and so I won't go into that directly again. But honestly, I have never felt that the number of Academy (or any other) Awards won by a film is a reflection of its quality, especially in the last 35 years or so where there have been other agendas involved. Using another example, I believe Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire won a few, although I am not sure about the details. It was one of the most nauseatingly bad films that I have ever seen, and as a person who spent the first 29 years of his life in India, know that it does not even come close to real-life as depicted. Awful, stupid, disgusting film.
 
Reply
  • Like
Reactions: William Oakes
Aliens. Cameran took over three hours to tell Jack and Rose's story. In 1953 Jean Negulesco told the story of Richard Ward Sturgess and his wife Julia and kids. The first time you see it, it will rip your guts out, and in 97 minutes.
 
Gazz said:

Hi all, just popping in to post a video review of Titanic, the film that singlehandedly kickstarted my interest in the disaster as well as continuing my love affair with Cameron's movies. On the last watch through I actually came to realise that this is probably Cameron's best film and certainly the one that represents his filmmaking sensibilities the most. From his approach to the technical aspects of filmmaking, utilising every cheap trick and, well, not-so-cheap trick, to his script chock full of cheesy Cameronisms, this could be the quintessential JC movie. But I do wonder how the film has gone down in communities surrounding the disaster itself. Do these Cameronisms detract from the historical story (as it did for my co-host) or is this flaw actually a feature for you?
Click to expand...
No, for me Terminator and Alien are better.

Liked Titanic because I wanted to see a recreation of the Ship but the story is not my Cup of Tea.
 
Reply
  • Like
Reactions: Roger Southern and Rich Hayden
Arun Vajpey said:
William, I know that you and I disagree about the merits (or lack of) James Cameron's Titanic film and so I won't go into that directly again. But honestly, I have never felt that the number of Academy (or any other) Awards won by a film is a reflection of its quality, especially in the last 35 years or so where there have been other agendas involved. Using another example, I believe Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire won a few, although I am not sure about the details. It was one of the most nauseatingly bad films that I have ever seen, and as a person who spent the first 29 years of his life in India, know that it does not even come close to real-life as depicted. Awful, stupid, disgusting film.
Click to expand...
It's Okay to disagree. I value your opinion. You are always a gentleman. Something that I am striving to master.
 
Reply
  • Like
Reactions: Arun Vajpey and Andy A Carter
I watched it when it first came out as a teenager, the visuals were amazing for the time, and the story itself heartbreaking and thus very memorable, but I don't think this film was Cameron's best. He's a fantastic director but I think Terminator 2 Judgement day was his best film ever. The 97 titanic film did do the best job at drawing public interest into the sinking of the titanic though, for whatever that's worth. It's been more than 100 years since the tragedy occurred and yet people still talk about it to this day. Can't say that for many historical events, even horrific ones, much worse than this particular event.
 
I'm really torn between Titanic and Terminator 2 but I'll go with Titanic because it's about the Titanic and it's got better music than T2. I also love the Avatar movies, but for some reason they don't resonate with me as much as Titanic (the movie) does.
 
I confess, I have only seen four films of Cameron. "True Lies" which needs to be freed from the purgatory that has kept it off a legit Blu-Ray release is the one I liked best. I remember liking "Aliens" but it's been years since I've seen it. I'm not going to revisit "Titanic" which I have disliked intensely from the very beginning. The one other film of his I've seen that I also disliked intensely is "The Abyss" which I hated for the same reason I hated "Titanic." It has the most unlikable central characters I've ever seen that I am told I'm supposed to care about. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are two self-centered individuals who at the beginning don't give a damn about the fact that a sub is missing and they are needed to possibly help rescue 150 people (they were all dead anyway as it turned out but that doesn't excuse their behavior and the fact that they have to be dragged into helping). And then Cameron expects me to give a damn about the state of their marriage and that supposedly it's *their* feelings for each other that keeps an arrogant alien race that killed the sailors of that sub for no good reason from destroying the world? Forget it. That's an even worse script than the one he didn't get nominated for with "Titanic."

I've never seen any of the Terminator films.
 
I have to confess about this, the Cameron's Titanic film wasn't the first thing that hook me that much. It was Ship Simulator 2006. I started watching Cameron's way later in primary school. I still love the Baja Studios' movie set, props and score in the film, but never liked the love story which didn't get me to the story during that first watch and a later rewatch.
 
Back
Top