Titanic at 25: Why it's still a cinematic masterpiece

To celebrate 25 years vanishing since the release of Titanic, this month the blockbuster film is getting a shiny starry digitally remastered 3D 4K HDR high frame-rate re-release in cinemas across the land.

Buried in awards ranging from the Oscars, Grammys and Globes to a Brit Award (and something called a Bogey Award), Titanic is one of the most critically acclaimed films in the history of the planet. Oddly it never won a BAFTA though.

Credit: AirstarInternational, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

For a film that is based on one of the most famous tragedies in history, Titanic is not merely a disaster movie.

It’s a love story that shows a young working-class artist named Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a wealthy first-class passenger called Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) breaking the social class barrier on the journey of a lifetime.

There are various ways you can make a film about an actual disaster like the Titanic, but by focusing on characters and their connections, Cameron injected the spectacle with a human side that makes it all the more powerful.

We all know what happens to the Titanic but because a third of the passengers survived while most died, it leaves us wondering: will any of the film’s characters make it out alive?

Titanic was also the first film to make a billion dollars at the box office (and more than doubled it since), although making money doesn’t necessarily mean a film is any good and it shouldn’t mean anything to the viewer.

Having said that, Titanic is a great film that had no expense spared when making it. Literally, it was the most expensive film ever made at the time and cost more to make than the actual Titanic itself.

Credit: Scott Smith, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, via Flickr

Perhaps one of the secrets to Titanic’s success is that it appeals to a broad range of people.

Action aficionados will be awed by the use of tilting sets while tech buffs will enjoy the models, reconstructions and awesome ground-breaking CGI used in a competent manner.

People looking for emotional depth will appreciate the humanity of the film, such as the chemistry between DiCaprio and Winslet.

History buffs can get their fix and people of all ages have good reason to watch Titanic.

There may also be an argument to be made that an awful lot of the most expensive films made today have a very narrow audience in mind, whereas Titanic’s audience is really cross-generational.

It’s not perfect of course, as few films are. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson informed James Cameron that the starfield seen in the night sky towards the end of the film would have been different in that part of the Atlantic at that time in 1912.

In response, Cameron changed it to the correct sky for the 2012 3D re-release.

It’s also worth pointing out that there are other films based on the Titanic, most notably the 1958 film A Night To Remember, which is a cracking watch in its own right. Bernard Fox actually stars in both films.

Many of the film's characters were based on real people, including the American socialite Molly Brown

Of course, for all the glamour and glory of the film’s production, we should spare a thought for all those affected by the tragedy. It might have happened back in 1912, but these were real people who lived real lives. They had hopes and dreams like we all do.

Perhaps it is important for the soul that we don’t allow the passage of time to dampen our empathy for people who died a long time ago.

That makes the film important even if the central characters are fictional. Spookily, after filming had wrapped, it was discovered that one of the victims was a young man named J Dawson who is buried in Nova Scotia.

Titanic's signature tune “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion became one of the best-selling singles of all-time, but arguably the film’s greatest legacy lies in turning DiCaprio and Winslet into household names.

Since Titanic, Winslet has won a trophy cabinet full of awards, including the Best Actress Oscar and even a Grammy.

DiCaprio meanwhile might be the most sought-after actor working in Hollywood today and, still only in his forties, has already worked with a string of top directors, such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino and Danny Boyle.

By all accounts it wasn’t easy for many of the cast and crew involved in filming Titanic. Reports of the conditions during filming make it sound like a challenging environment and during the water scenes, Kate Winslet says she developed hypothermia.

Winslet is starring in Cameron’s latest blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water, which is already one of the highest-grossing films of all-time and it’s only been out a few weeks.

Water way to make a living.

Banner image: Courtesy of Disney+

Read more: 10 Most romantic films of yester-year

Read more: The scandalous history of the Cannes Film Festival

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