10 Years On: Revisiting James Cameron's Titanic

The year was 1998, mention anything about Titanic, Jack, Rose, My Heart Will Go On, You Jump I Jump and probably you'd invite some menacing looks from your high school mates. But then, its hard to say that this film has not made an impact on anyone. Its as famous back then as George W. Bush is today.

I remember the first time i watched Titanic. It was a pirated copy vcd (so i get to see more, harharhar). Being an adolescent back then, you're always enticed by steamy stuff, but as i watched on, it wasn't Kate Winslet's fat boobs that caught my attention. It was three hours worth of pure exhilaration, joy, and sadness witnessing the disaster of the century. When the band strikes 'Nearer, My God to Thee', the tears started to accumulate.Now after almost ten years, I still regard this as one of the best movies ever. Here's why.

Historical and scientific inaccuracies aside, Titanic makes a perfect example of the three act structure. Make the beginning like how you'd end? You got that, Titanic started with a research team finding the wreck. Atto Uno begins with Rose recalling the events before boarding the ship. Meet her badass rich fiance, Calderon, who's the typical antagonist. Speaking of contrast, lets pit the rich with the very poor. At the other end of the dock, we see lowly Jack, winning a getaway low class ticket from a poker game. Walla! The steamer goes to the sea and to its doom, with our poor characters and in it. Of course, our two protagonist developes love ("You jump, I jump") amidst the social gap and the looming threat of the fiance.

Atto Due kicks off with a BANG, literary. Titanic hits the iceberg (THE, because its another antagonist). The ship starts to sink! Now, the sinking ship itself becomes the ultimate antagonist. Our protagonist barely escaped the humans, now are faced with the wrath of destiny. Here, main plot and subplots intervene and mixed perfectly for a juicy disaster. The lifeboat rush scene was particularly captivating. Arriving at the climax, the ship starts to dip violently, bow first into the water. Then, the ship cracks in half, with our lovers at the very end of the stern. Off it crashes into the freezing arctic water. Bringing the last of many survivors with it, including our lovers. That's where our oh-i'm-so-cold Jack speaks his cheesiest dialog in the entire movie, dies from hypothermia and sinks underwater, leaving poor Rose alive and living to her nineties, where she joins the researchers to revisit the sunken HMS Titanic. The whole thing is melodrama to its max.

Are there any character developments? You bet, or maybe not so detailed. But hey, most of them have a purpose to the entire story. We might have known or guessed the motives of the characters: the captain wants to speed up the ship, the fiance just wants Rose for himself, Jack and Rose wants each other, and at the sight of impending doom, most people wants to survive. There are ample contrasts shown throughout the movie. The lavishness of the upper class contradicts with the rags of the lower decks. The conflict of man versus disaster is contrasted with the struggle for lifeboats between the social class and the genders (to some degree). The band playing courageously while the ship sinks? Classic surrealism.

You may hate it for its cheesy dialogs or think its overrated, or, like me, enjoys it for what it is. Either ways, there is no denying that Titanic is memorable, if it isn't influential. I think there's not much movie after it that made such significant impact on viewers. Too bad, Cameron doesn't have any directorial roles after Titanic. But once in a while, Hollywood comes out with something close (ie. Gladiator, LOTR). So when's the next major blockbuster phenomenon?

Happy birthday Titanic!

no-fark!