When Titanic was released in 1997, no one was quite sure what to expect.
At the time it was the most expensive film ever made, nearly doubling its original estimated
budget and eventually costing the studio $200 million, and with a runtime of 195 minutes,
limiting its potential daily screenings; it was almost a guarantee that the film was going
to lose money, it was just a matter of how much money.
If it weren't for James Cameron's proven track record as a filmmaker with a string of box
office successes, he likely would have been shut down long before the film was ever completed.
But the studio was ready to take a chance on his vision; a depiction of the ill-fated
maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic with a teenage love story at the center.
It went on to become the highest grossing film of all time, the first ever to cross
$1 billion in revenue, and remained the highest grossing film until 2009 when James Cameron
released his next film, Avatar.
And while it did receive a fair amount of criticism, it still went on to win a record
11 Academy Awards, a feat only accomplished by two other films since the Academy's inception
in 1929.
Basically, by any metric Titanic was the biggest movie of all time, and represents one of the
Last Great Hollywood Epics.
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Alright, back to the video.
The scale of the film's production was truly massive, funding an underwater expedition
that sent James Cameron and a crew down to the actual Titanic, they built a full scale
replica of half of the ship that was the largest set ever built for a film at the time.
They also built dozens of full scale interior sets that were based on the actual blueprints
of the ship, many of which could be tilted and flooded as needed.
They built miniatures of individual rooms as well as the Titanic itself that allowed
them to show the full ship as it was in 1912 and as it exists today.
But as much as they relied on practical effects, they also made use of many groundbreaking
CGI techniques like digital doubles or CG face replacement years before they became
commonplace.
The Titanic was a modern technical marvel, the epitome of luxury and sophistication in
its day, and for the film to truly work on an emotional level, they had to create a fully
realized vision of the ship in its glory.
As Cameron puts it: "If you didn't appreciate the ship you couldn't appreciate the sinking.
So you had to appreciate it in the terms, the subjective terms that people felt about
it before they knew they were on "The Titanic".
It just makes it seem like the idea that you're gonna die, that disaster and doom are coming
are so far away and so impossible to conceive and if you don't start from that place, you'll
never understand what it was like to be on that ship."
"So the question was, how do we do it?
Where do we start?"
An exhaustive research process that involved a Russian submersible crew diving to the bottom
of the Atlantic, consulting with multiple Titanic historians, and pouring over countless
historical evidence from witness testimony to old photographs or newspapers allowed them
to recreate this iconic piece of history exactly as it was when it set sail a hundred years
prior, right down to the carpet.
"Every prop had to be made, cutlery had to be found of the right design, glassware, tableware,
everything.
The carpet in the dining room all came from the original manufacturer BMK Stoddard, they
still had the old designs and it was all specially woven for us."
This level of attention to detail went beyond just the construction of the ship, but extended
even to the depiction of its passengers, many of whom were based on real people that were
known to have been on the ship, casting actors specifically for their likeness to their real
life counterparts.
And when it came to the sinking, they studied the forensic science of the shipwreck, and
even did some experiments of their own to make sure that it was portrayed exactly as
it happened, at least to the best of their ability based on the current science.
But all of this would have amounted esssentially to a $200 million History channel special
if it weren't for Cameron's story at the center, and what separates Titanic from your run of
the mill disaster film.
Say what you will about some of the film's cheesier moments, or dialogue that feels out
of place for the time, there's a lot of subtext enriching the story beyond what you'd expect
from the standard tentpole movie of the mid to late 90s.
It's a commentary on the nature of class inequality, gender roles, the dangers of ego and greed,
our relationship with technology, as well as serving to remind us that life is short
and we shouldn't let it go to waste.
"I figure life's a gift, and I don't intend on wasting it.
To make each day count."
"Well said, Jack."
"To making it count."
"To making it count!"
By putting a fictional love story in the middle of this very real tragedy, Cameron gives the
audience a direct line of empathy to this moment in history.
If you do a breakdown of the film's runtime, the first twenty-one minutes are dedicated
to opening titles and the present day story with Brock Lovett and crew searching for the
Heart of the Ocean.
The next hour and twenty minutes, nearly a feature length film in and of itself; is dedicated
to Jack and Rose.
From their arrival to the Titanic, to their first meeting, early flirtations and eventual
blossoming romance.
We get a full 3 act structure of just their love story, with a clear beginning, middle
and end, with Rose planning to run away with Jack and start a life together.
"When the ship docks, I'm getting off with you."
"This is crazy."
"I know, it doesn't make any sense.
That's why I trust it."
You take out that first twenty minutes and cut the film there and you've got a complete
romantic film, and a good one at that, but we've just reached the half-way point.
The rest of the film is essentially a full-stop disaster film, much in the same vein as The
Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure, but because we've spent so much time with
these characters that we've come to love, the stakes feel so much higher than your average
disaster flick.
We actually care about what happens to them, we want to see them and everyone else make
it safely to the lifeboats even though we know they won't.
We know that some will get killed in the ensuing panic, crushed under the weight of this sinking
titan, trapped with nowhere to go as the water gets higher, or die simply from the cold of
the open ocean.
People once full of life, dreaming of a new start in the New World, killed before their
time.
Their final moments consumed with fear, totally helpless to prevent their fate.
It's a horrific sight, and Cameron doesn't pull any punches.
There are no pauses for levity, he lets the sense of terror and panic permeate every scene.
And suddenly these sweeping camera movements that once captured the grandeur of the ship
and Jack with his boundless optimism, now give us an omnipotent perspective over all
of the carnage, helplessly watching as thousands face certain death.
We witness acts of courage and acts of cowardice, of love and sacrifice, and we view it all
through the lens of two characters we've grown to care for a great deal, with a complete
tonal shift from what we saw in the first half of the film, that not only creates a
proxy for the audience to empathize with the larger tapestry of what's happening, but this
genre blending makes the characters feel like they've entered into a story they don't belong
in.
That's how I think all people must feel when caught up in such horrific circumstances.
Before the story of the Titanic became legend, these people thought they were taking the
vacation of a lifetime on the greatest ship ever built.
They were told it was unsinkable, and they would be arrive at port in America in record
time.
None of them were thinking they were headed towards their own deaths, they were just living
their lives as normal until one day, or even one moment, changed everything.
You'll hear people complain that they both could have fit on the door, or maybe they
should have just taken turns, whatever the case may be there had to be some way for Jack
to survive, but that's missing the whole point.
Jack and Rose are the empathetic heart of the story, our personal window into this tragedy,
and killing Jack forces the audience to feel the full weight of what happened on that day.
Because it's difficult to empathize with the past.
There's something about looking at old photographs, or reading through a history book that just
makes it all feel separate from our own lives.
It's hard to imagine the people in those old photos as real people with the same complex
emotion as ourselves, but they all had mothers and fathers, friends and lovers, hopes and
dreams and fears; and Cameron wanted us to feel the weight of all that was lost.
More than 1,500 people lost their lives that day.
Each and everyone one of those passengers and crew had a life, they had a story, they
had a family.
Stories like Titanic, both Cameron's fictionalized re-telling and the historical event itself
remind us of how fragile life really is, and how important it is to make the most of your
life will it's still yours to live.
And despite the tragedy surrounding Rose, the silver lining of it all is that she doesn't
waste it.
She makes good on her promise to Jack, to never let go of the hope and optimism that
he instilled in her, she goes on to live a life of adventure and love, and dies peacefully
in her sleep.
I think this is why Titanic became the biggest movie of all time.
It offered the best spectacle that money could buy, competing with any other of the best
in escapist entertainment.
But it also offered something more, Titanic hits everyone on some level, because it truly
has a little bit of everything.
History, action, romance, humor, tragedy; and it captures the best and worst of the
human condition.
Ending with an inspirational message to live your life to the absolute fullest.