Oscar Review: Titanic (1997)

Tied for the most nominations ever received by a single film with 14, and tied for the most wins with 11 James Cameron's Titanic is an ambitious film that takes us back to the tragic voyage of the doomed ocean liner and a love affair that could never be.

Searching among the wreckage of the sunken vessel, Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) finds a drawing of a woman wearing a blue diamond once owned by Louis XVI and pleas for any information about the girl and the whereabouts of the necklace. An old woman (Gloria Stuart) contacts Lovett claiming to be the subject of that very drawing.

Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a poor boy who wins a pair of tickets aboard the Titanic moments before it is to set sail. Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) is a young woman who is traveling to America to be forced into marrying Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). When Rose feels that committing suicide is her best option, Jack is right there to talk her down.

Following that fateful night, Jack and Rose continue to secretly see each other under the noses of Cal and Rose's controlling mother (Frances Fisher). On the evening of April 14, 1912 disaster strikes and the "unsinkable" Titanic begins to go down. Through the tragedy, Rose and Jack find each other and hold on as long as they can as the ship goes down and they drift along in the freezing waters of the Atlantic.
*****
Well, I knew it was coming and here it is. I don't have a particular problem with Titanic, I just felt that it was hyped WAY too much. Even though Cameron did some great work with CGI and bringing the ship back to life I didn't think it quite lived up to the greatness it claimed.

Titanic won statuettes for Best Picture, Director (Cameron), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Music (James Horner), Original Song ("My Heart Will Go On"), Sound, Sound Effects Editing, and Visual Effects.

Titanic made its way onto 4 of AFI's top 100 lists including:

• #100 Quote - "I'm king of the world!"
• #14 Song - "My Heart Will Go On" - Performed by Celine Dion, Music/Lyrics by James Horner/Will Jennings
• #25 Thrill
  and
• the #37 Passion

Though I'm not sure which of the other Best Picture nominees I would say should've won - Good Will Hunting, As Good as it Gets, or one of the other two I haven't seen - I'm just not a huge fan of Titanic. Of course, if there's nothing else on, I'd probably watch it.