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King Of The World?

AP Photo/20th Century Fox

This photo from the 1997 movie "Titanic," showing stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in a scene from the film on the ship's bow railing with arms spread wide in a wind-swept embrace.

Commentary by AMANDA HENRY, Tribune correspondent

Published: December 18, 2007

The scope of the disaster, from the minutiae to the monumental, was front-page news. Eyewitness accounts mixed with morbid speculation, all devoured by the public with equal parts hand-wringing and schadenfreude. It had the makings of an epic catastrophe, the stuff of Greek tragedy - one man's hubris leading to utter devastation and ruin.

And that was before the movie even came out.

Yes, kids, there was a time when "Titanic" - the movie, not the ship - was regarded as a disaster of a different sort. A runaway budget, production delays and on-set accidents were only part of the bad buzz. What kind of maniac builds a 775-foot replica of the doomed ship - 90 percent of its actual size? Or a 17 million gallon tank in which to sink it?

An entire new studio was created to accommodate the filming, on 40 acres of Baja California waterfront. By the time "Titanic" finally reached theaters in December 1997, it was already notorious: the most expensive movie ever made, with reported production costs of $200 million. Many expected it to go down in infamy - capsizing a studio, multiple careers and the very idea of big-budget spectacles in its wake, like a waterlogged "Heaven's Gate."

The jokes about "Waterworld 2" were short-lived, though. In classic Hollywood fashion, the story had a preposterously happy ending, at least for director James Cameron, legions of swooning teens and anyone with a financial stake in the film. "Titanic" was No. 1 at the box office for 15 weeks, and it lingered in theaters for more than six months on its way to becoming the highest-grossing film of all time, worldwide. Nor was its success only popular; out of 14 nominations, "Titanic" won 11 Oscars, culminating in perhaps the most cringe-worthy moment in the history of acceptance speeches: Cameron crowing, "I'm the king of the world!"

But was it really such a triumph? A devoted fan of Cameron's earlier work - particularly the original "Terminator" and "Aliens," though I'm sure "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning" had its moments - I remember leaving the theater after "Titanic" with a sense of frustration. (It was an icy night, and I distinctly remember thinking, "If I die because of this movie, I'm going to be so peeved.")

Yes, the wreck was cool, but the rest? Three hours, Billy Zane in eyeliner, the silly business about the necklace, a girlie-man romantic lead, and, wait - there seems to be blood trickling out of my ears. Is that ... Celine Dion?

Ten years and many, many special DVD issues later (the movie opened Dec. 19, 1997) , I decided to go back to "Titanic," as Bill Paxton might say. Perhaps the old wreck was hiding forgotten treasures.

A Bloated Movie

"Titanic" begins, for those of you who haven't memorized every frame, with a modern-day prologue in which the above-mentioned Mr. Paxton and his gang of wise-cracking tech-geek buddies explore the deep-sea wreckage of the once-great ship. I have mixed feelings about this framing device. On the one hand, it's not what you expect - no credits or corsets, just a bunch of dudes playing with their machinery. So props for the element of surprise and for finding a convenient excuse to show a digital rendering of the ship going down.

On the other hand, if you wanted to shave half an hour from the bloated behemoth, this would be the place to start. On a dramatic level, it seems like a cop-out to let us know that at least one of the main characters is going to survive. Considering the amount of energy the filmmakers will later spend ratcheting up the tension, whisking us away from the world of the ship seems like a dubious choice, tantamount to saying, "Hey, I know it's a movie about a shipwreck, but don't worry! It'll all be OK in the end."

Nor do I buy Gloria Stuart as a latter-day Kate Winslet, and not just because we've since learned she grows up to be Judi Dench (in the movie "Iris"). On first viewing, I thought it was the performance that bugged me, but I realize now that no actor could carry off the kind of dialogue these poor souls are asked to deliver. Instead of being excited to hear her story, I felt a stab of pity for her captive audience. How much purple prose will they have to suffer through just to find the dang necklace?

And how much of this turgid pap will we in the audience have to swallow just to see a really cool shipwreck?

Performances A Mixed Bag

It's a relief when we fade back to the past, though the respite is short-lived. Apparently 1912 was an era of large hats and an omnipresent, vaguely Celtic-sounding heavenly chorus. Or perhaps some distant ancestor of Enya was performing on board. A lot. Either way, the soundtrack ricochets from New Age hosannas to portentous expositional clunkers more appropriate to an old stage melodrama. There are so many "casual" remarks about the unsinkability of the ship that you wonder why no one is telling iceberg jokes.

Speaking of melodrama, Zane's bad guy - who dares to presume that his fiancee actually wants to marry him - does everything but twirl his mustache (but only because he doesn't have one) and chortle with glee. He can't appear on screen without finding another way to damn himself. Why, he doesn't even appreciate Picasso - unlike the sensitive Rose (Winslet), who is forever demonstrating her superior intellect, albeit in a superficial, I-read-this-on-Wikipedia-last-night kind of way.

Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack, on the other hand, was less offensive to me this time around, largely because the actor was so excellent in "The Departed." His floppy hair didn't seem quite as greasy, and I forgave his anachronistic dialogue and behavior as part of the general awkwardness of the proceedings. He's still too slender and pretty for my tastes, but apparently it works for some people.

Another pleasant surprise was his friend Fabrizio (Danny Nucci), who has an astonishingly bad eye-talian accent. It's too bad we don't see more of him.

Not In Love With Love

Blah blah blah. The rich are rotten. The poor are perfect. Stop torturing me with all these expensive gifts. Carpe diem. Flirt, flirt, flirt. Excruciating below-decks dance scene. We're in love!

No, the human story still isn't working for me. We're supposed to see Rose as some kind of cultured, proto-feminist victim, but her idea of liberation seems to consist of giggling, guzzling beer and giving the finger, then getting it on in the back seat of a car. So the big dream being quashed by her heartless fiance is to be a modern teenager? Maybe the real villain isn't Zane and his glam rock makeup or even the iceberg but the fact that she's living in 1912. Not even the cheerful, rosy-cheeked poor got to enjoy a prolonged adolescence back then, sweetheart.

It's not that teenagers-in-love can't carry a disaster movie. I'm sure there were some misunderstood Romeo and Juliet types at Pompeii who were totally bummed to be incinerated. I just hope they were less trite than Jack and Rose.

Finally, Action!

Finally. The nudie picture has been drawn, the sweaty handprint smacked onto the window of some poor slob's automobile. I had entirely forgotten that "Forrest Gump"-ish bit in which the ship's lookout is too busy watching Jack and Rose suck face to notice the giant popsicle in their path. New tagline: Their passion will sink Titanic!

The good news is that the movie is about to drop its frilly knickers and get all action-adventure on us, for at least the next 40 minutes. This is the part of the movie that works. Cameron is clearly in his element now, churning out one dramatic, death-defying set piece after another, from Rose braving the flooded lower decks to rescue a handcuffed Jack to the actual sinking of the ship. How an itinerant artist from Wisconsin knows so much about the physics of a sinking ship in the open sea is beyond me, but let's go with it.

Some of the CGI looks slightly dated, but considering this was made a decade ago, the overall effect is still impressive. The Celtic chorus eventually returns, bringing with it fireworks and slow-motion, for those who need assistance picking up on the emotional subtext. For the most part, though, the would-be "Masterpiece Theatre" preciousness of the early scenes - in which Cameron the writer appeared to be channeling his inner 12-year-old girl - is forsaken. The dialogue is still pretty rank, but you expect cheesy one-liners in an action movie. Or perhaps a simple mantra: "Jack!" "Rose!" "Jack! Jack! Jack!" "Rose! Rose! Rose!"

If they weren't at sea, you just know someone would have been tied to the railroad tracks.

It Needed A Writer

Cameron apparently filmed a longer epilogue, in which the Paxton character has time to fall in love with Rose's granddaughter Lizzy, which would I guess explain the latter's presence, as well as that half-top she wears.

I think he might also have spared us Paxton's ridiculous line about "getting" Titanic, and "letting it in," as if he'd been in intensive group therapy for the last two hours, or Rose's equally on-the-nose "he saved me in every way that a person can be saved."

Some viewers must have really grooved on the whole doomed love-ultimate sacrifice thing, but I thought that actually worked better in "The Terminator," where the survival of the whole species was at stake, instead of just one borderline annoying girl.

And don't ask me what that last scene is about. I was kind of hoping old Rose had kicked the bucket, and her heaven was Titanic, only with even more people watching her make out with Jack and then ... clapping?

But my real wish was that Cameron had either saved some of his $200 million to hire an actual writer, or just given up the attempt to be a big-budget Merchant-Ivory and gone for straight-ahead action all the way. Having Rose know a little kung fu wouldn't have been much more preposterous than the rest of her story. And I know I would have enjoyed a few ice sharks, or maybe some giant aquatic aliens for Jack to battle at the end.

As it is, the bulk of "Titanic" is like watching a pig in a dress - or Schwarzenegger in a tutu.