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Movies: Titanic 3D

Oh Titanic. You either loved it or hated it. You either mocked the young Leonardo's effeminacy, or worshiped his perfect visage. You either rolled your eyes at the horrendous dialogue or whispered it to yourself as you fell asleep at night.


You can probably guess which side I was on. Given that Titanic first came out when I was in the 6th grade and on what we might call the "cusp of womanhood", the epic film was huge for me (no pun intended). Titanic, along with Dave Matthews Band's CD "Crash" and Dawson's Creek, contributed heavily to my growing awareness of sexuality and romantic love. Titanic was perfect in this regard: an intelligent, feisty, curvy (I was a heavy kid, so I always liked curvier actresses) heroine and a protective, boyish, thoroughly safe hero. A forbidden love that lasts a lifetime. Steamy sex in a car. Let's face it: Titanic was catnip to moony pre-teen girls. It was the Twilight of my time (with better acting and a more feminist message, but I digress).

I've seen Titanic any number of times: three times in the theater when it first came out, probably half a dozen more times once the VHS tapes were released, and maybe about twice since then (I once watched it "just for the hell of it" while I was lounging around my parents' house during spring break of my freshman year of college). So seeing it again in the theater was not a big deal. I still remembered all the lines. But one difference struck me. When I was a kid, I was far more into the first half of the movie--you know, the love story half where Leo draws Kate naked and then they boff in the car below decks. After getting the VHS tapes, I usually stopped watching at this point. I really only cared about the sex. But watching it again as an adult I found myself fascinated with the actual destruction of the Titanic and, more so, the reactions of the passengers. My dad read an article recently about passenger behavior on the Titanic versus the Lusitania--a ship that sunk in 1915; a few years after Titanic met its fate. While people generally kept their cool on the Titanic--letting the women and children get on lifeboats first; the passengers on Lusitania reacted with panic, fighting their way to lifeboats while paying no regard to the conventions of society. Why? Because Lusitania sank in 18 minutes. There was no time for civility--only survival. Titanic sank in 2 hours and 20 minutes--plenty of time to reflect on and accept your fate, and realize that social conventions (whether altruistic or not) were more important than savagely fighting your way to a lifeboat. That's not to say that certain passengers on the Titanic found that they were not as brave as they thought in the face of imminent death. Bruce Ismay, the director of the White Star Lines, for example, did sneak his way onto a boat full of ladies and children. But other men--Captain Edward Smith, industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, and the ship's designer, Thomas Andrews--all went down with the ship. Their fear and courage--and the realization that their loads of money wouldn't save them from a terrible death--fascinated and touched me.

The 3D didn't add much to the movie, although a few scenes where the water filling the ships is filmed at eye level looked very cool, like the water was about to spill out into the movie theater. The real spectacle was seeing the movie on the big screen again. It's really the only way to watch it. Titanic is an epic of massive proportions and deserves a big screen to fit its big vision. Yes, the lines are still cheesy. But the movie still resonates with me today.

*Squee!*

4.5 out of 5 stars