Titanic (1997)

James Cameron’s Titanic came out when I was a Junior in High School, and was a great source of controversy for LDS Seminary students such as myself. You see Kate Winslet has a brief nude scene and that sort of thing is anethma in Mormon circles, especially as regards Mormon parents whose teenage children might be drawn to the film by the force of the cultural phenomenon it was (as just one example, the film had the biggest selling instrumental soundtrack since Chariots of Fire (a movie Mormons approve of by the way)). I remember then hearing a rumor that the film was released as a PG-13 only in the high Mormon population states of Utah and Idaho, whereas it was given the ‘more appropriate’ R rating everywhere else in the country (not true). Wicked gentile’s trying to corrupt our youth. I ended up renting the 1953 film version of Titanic staring Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb, as a sort ideocentric rebellion against the decadent Clinton era. Oh times have changed.

Having finally seen the film I defiantly liked it. It succeeds as old school epic in a way few films of the 1990's did, which was just part of it’s broad appeal. Leads DiCaprio and Winslet where minor Hollywood players at the time, and there was defiantly a risk taken in casting them (just as there’s a ‘tempting the gods’ type risk to making a hundred plus million dollar film about a doomed ship just a year after the disaster of Water World). Anyway the casting paid off, arguably launching two superstar careers, as did the other risks of the film. The whole sinking of the ship, though in my opinion a little too long, has an enormous cinematic energy to it and is really a marvel to see. I even liked the framing story with Gloria Stewart and Bill Pullman. An important film literacy movie that is worthy of that standing. Limited sequal potential. Four out of Five.