Wherever you are in the world, James Cameron, I would like to shake your hand. Titanic is renowned by many as being a stunning epic, but with the four disc DVD edition, it truly becomes a masterpiece. Everyone knows the short story of the unsinkable ship that hits an iceberg and ironically sinks, however this movie version adds real depth to the renowned tale.
With a smart mix of appealing storyline and historical knowledge, director James Cameron and his team have created a movie that will appeal to all. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett gratify the love story which is the heart of our emotions. Half way through, Titanic slowly transforms into one of the most famous disaster movies to grace our screens; beautifully created yet thrilling and epic. The 4 Disc edition of Titanic will excite an enthusiast, as it truly unveils the sheer scale and complexity of the production.
So, the plot outline. It's 1912, and free-minded Jack Dawson (DiCaprio) wins a lower class ticket aboard the newly created Titanic. A ship so grand and spendid in design that it would not be forgotten; it was the ship of dreams. Rose DeWitt Bukater (Winslett) travels back to America with her fiancé, on the brink of despair from her dull life. By chance encounter these two characters meet, progressively fall in love, and try to overcome their class difference. The love story is born.
Captain Smith controls the Titanic, demonstrating the speed and strength of the ship across the open waters of the Atlantic sea. Ignoring an ice warning, the crew make fatal mistakes which despite their best efforts, lead to a collision with an iceberg. Minutes afterwards, they know all is lost. So the epic disaster scenario collides with the world of Rose and Jack.
The end
result goes far beyond amazing. Titanic was released in 1997, in the days when special effects were only just taking off in the digital form that we experience so frequently today. Building a giant ship in great detail, complete with animated passengers, ripples, smoke and surroundings is no easy task even today; and the featurettes on the disc really highlight the difficulties that concerned all the cast and crew. Studying the film closely like I do, you can see where visual effects are in place as the character animation isn't quite real and smoke effects can look quite false. However, these facts are not obvious and are even so perfectly excusable, for Titanic is bold and tackles many complex issues with a mix of old, new, and adventurous technology.
The story is narrated by a hundred year old version of Rose in the present, reflecting her past when on Titanic, to a team looking for a rare diamond that was lost on board (no guesses as to who has it). The situation of flashbacks is handled incredibly well in my opinion, and it's a better option that just producing the whole film as if in 1912. Old Rose adds a narrative voice which is helpful in the opening scenes, adding character introductions and a reliable commentary on the beauty of Titanic. Most of the story is in the past, with occasional cutbacks to the present, acting as a helpful extra layer to the film's complexity. If anything, this method of narrative greatly enchances the pace and feel or certain sequences; almost acting as a slight break from the action. It appears the best way to unravel the plot.
So the first half of the film is a good love story, take my word for it. The second half of the film, with the disaster sequences, is difficult to express the brilliance of. Imagine the foolish ignorance of the passengers, as they assume there's a false alarm and it's "just the English doing everything by the bloody book". Imagine the crew, struggling to keep control of the panicking passengers as they desperately try to find a lifeboat. Imagine passengers trapped below deck as water floods in around them. And imagine that Jack and Rose are in there too. It is stunning! So accurate. So detailed. So believable. Titanic is the only film which has ever made me feel so excited yet so scared at the same time. Perhaps one of the wierdest things to think when watching Titanic sinking is that this actually happened!
A great film to watch, truly. But the 4 disc DVD edition prides boasts a whole host of short featurettes on the making of Titanic, providing an overwhelming sensation of how difficult and how well planned each scene must have been. And it suddenly makes you realise why Titanic was over budget at a cost of £200 million. Worth every million spent, I have to say. There are also outtakes in this extended edition, which have been edited and coloured and enchanced in every possible way to look as if they actually belong in the movie, complete with the compelling music. At first I was disappointed that these extended scenes were not mixed into the original film, as Peter Jackson did with the Lord Of The Rings extended DVDs, however it's now clear that these clips do not belong in the original epic film, and they should be viewed separately. And there are a lot of these scenes to see!
On top of all this, there are extra documentaries about the less intriguing yet still interesting issues such as marketing the film, speeded up film of set design, and a section of 3 Titanic parodies, including my all time favourite - "Titanic in 30 seconds with bunnies" made in Flash. If only I'd thought of it first. Two and a half discs of extra features, one and a half discs of the movie itself. Coupled with this, there are a range of commentaries from cast, crew and Cameron; even for the deleted sequences.
Clearly my review so far is lacking any actual review of the film. That's because complimenting every single aspect of the film would get boring, which is what I would do anyway. Acting is superb, unbreatable and unimprovable. The editing is clear, faultless and key to the film's pace. And so on. I have no issues with the plot either; what was left in the final cut should have been left in, although it would have been great to have seen a fantastic deleted shot of Jack and Rose kissing in the boiler room.
And the music is, well, suitable. It's not Celine Dion throughtout, if that concerns you, only at the credits, however the main Titanic theme is repeated at fairly common interevals in a variety of tones. The awe of Titanic, particularly in what James Cameron described as his 'million dollar shot', could not be expressed any better with the energy from the orchestral music, and for that praise is due to James Horner. And there's some bouncy Irish jig music to hear as well.
Whilst I made an earlier gripe about the animation effects being slightly detached from the film, this is really only applicable to the trained eye. It's more than excusable for Titanic to have slightly poor animation effects when using new technology, and even so the experimentation really does look great 95% of the time. As the 4 Disc DVD edition will tell you too. While searching on IMDB may bring up a barrage of continuity errors, these are not noticable in the slightest, unless you're really concentrating hard for changes in Rose's jewelry.
So what have we learnt? The film is outstanding, a 5 star rating in almost everyone's books, and something which will never be forgotten. The 4 Disc DVD Edition provides the added advantage of having a large quantity of extra features in nicely arranged animated menus. The thing that's mostly made Titanic so successful is the fact that it appeals to any viewer, although it's only rated 12 which did surprise me a little, especially conisdering the horror and nudity aspects of the film. But it is so great that everyone should see this film. Even if you've already seen it eight times like me, watch it again!
Titanic: the ship of dreams and the power and magic of unbeatable filmmaking.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1995 - Drama - Director: Ang Lee - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie, Robert Hardy
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 1995 - Drama - Director: Ang Lee - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie, Robert Hardy
Great review!! I love this film too and i have this exceptional dvd! I'm italian, but the dvd is the same! :))
harlequin21 28.05.2006 22:55
A fantastically insightful, thorough, yet concise view that expertly sums up both the technical side of the film, without losing any focus on the emotion and power of the story!
MAFARRIMOND 28.05.2006 17:39
A briliant film and what a wondeful soundtrack. Maureen
Advantages: Adtional deleted scenes, alternative ending, commentaries, documenturies and much more Disadvantages: Film on 2 discs, deleted scenes and alternative ending seperate from film
![Titanic (2 Disc Special Edition) [1997] [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78505860.jpg "Titanic (2 Disc Special Edition) [1997] [DVD]")
![Titanic (Special Edition) [DVD] [1997]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78491991.jpg "Titanic (Special Edition) [DVD] [1997]")
May 27th, 2006
(May 28th, 2006)
exceptional by (18%):
very helpful by (82%):
![Titanic [Special Edition]-DVD](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/99753752.jpg)
