Titanic is one of the most successful movies in film history, and while it was critically acclaimed when it was released, revised critics and new reviews haven’t been as kind, and it has become quite a divisive movie. Thanks to movies like The Terminator and Avatar, James Cameron has become mostly associated with the fantasy and sci-fi genres, but one of his most ambitious projects is far from those worlds: Titanic, a disaster drama movie released in 1997 and based on the real-life tragedy of the title ship.
Titanic tells the story of Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), two passengers from opposite social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage. Over the course of just four days, Jack and Rose meet, fall in love, and defend their relationship against all those who oppose it, mostly Rose’s fiancé, Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), and her mother, Ruth (Frances Fisher). Jack and Rose are fictional characters, but through them, Titanic introduced others based on real-life passengers of the infamous ship, such as Molly Brown (Kathy Bates) and J. Bruce Ismay (Jonathan Hyde), but the focus was on Jack and Rose’s short-lived romance, the impact it had on Rose, and Brock Lovett’s (Bill Paxton) search for the Heart of the Ocean necklace.
Titanic was a major success and broke different records, won a number of awards, and was a critical and commercial hit – however, that doesn’t mean it has stood the test of time. While Cameron’s achievements with Titanic are undeniable, the story has drawn a lot of criticism since its release in the late 1990s, and some critics have even changed their original opinion and rating of the movie for a much lower one. So, why is Titanic so divisive now after its massive success when it was released?
How Titanic Became One Of The Biggest Movies Of All Time
James Cameron’s Titanic isn’t the only movie based on the sinking of the title ship, but it’s definitely the most famous one. Cameron’s inspiration for the movie came from his fascination with shipwrecks, which led him to shoot footage of the actual Titanic wreck for the movie. This real footage actually helped Cameron convince Fox to promote Titanic, and all those expeditions, along with a lot of research, helped the production crew reconstruct the Titanic and its smallest details to make it as real as possible, which is how Titanic became the most expensive movie ever made at the time (with a budget of $200 million).
Real footage of the Titanic, a meticulous recreation of the ship, and the biggest budget production at the time were already enough reasons to catch the attention of the audience, but there are two other factors that helped Titanic reach so much success: its main actors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. At the time Titanic entered production, DiCaprio was already one of the most critically-acclaimed young actors thanks to his performance in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and had just established himself as a teen idol thanks to Romeo + Juliet, so starring in one of the biggest productions of the 1990s made perfect sense for his career. Kate Winslet was also an acclaimed actress by the time she was cast in Titanic, thanks to her performances in Heavenly Creatures and Sense and Sensibility. The on-screen chemistry of DiCaprio and Winslet was evident, and it was key in making the story work.
Titanic was praised for its cultural, historical, and political impacts, its visuals, “emotive power”, and performances, and was mostly called a “spectacle” and a movie that had to be “experienced”. Titanic went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time until Cameron’s Avatar surpassed it in 2010, and broke other records such as the most Oscar nominations (14, tying All About Eve) and most Oscars won (11, tying Ben-Hur). It’s not surprising, then, that Titanic has been regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made, but as years have passed, the opinions on Titanic have drastically changed, and it has even been featured in “worst movies of all time” lists.
Titanic Is Surprisingly Divisive – Why?
Even during its release in the late 1990s, Titanic wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, with some critics finding the visuals spectacular but the story and dialogues “weak”, pointing out the “lack of interesting emotional elements” and even calling Cameron not skilled enough to write “this kind of movie”. Modern-day criticism hasn’t been good for Titanic either, and the complaints about it cover pretty much everything – from its lengthy runtime to the dialogues, the story, and the seemingly never-ending debate over whether Jack could have fitted on the floating door with Rose or not.
