It’s been twenty-five years and I can still smell the fresh paint of the movie theater.
Just kidding. But if you get the joke, you already know that the movie I’m most thankful for is James Cameron’s Oscar-winning blockbuster Titanic.
What I miss most from today’s cinema is old-fashioned, big budget romantic melodrama.
And my favorite melodrama plot goes something like this: beautiful woman chooses a penniless dreamer over a black-hearted aristocrat who will provide her with a secure but stiflingly boring life.
Without intentionally meaning to, I’ve populated this month’s list with several such films—Moulin Rouge!, Far and Away, and Shakespeare In Love. And a few more just missed the cut.
What can I say? In a world of cynics, I’m a sentimental fool.
But without a doubt, the best of these is Titanic.
I don’t need to tell you the plot of Titanic, do I? I mean, I already did—beautiful woman, penniless dreamer, etc. Braid that love story through the well-known historical sinking of the Titanic and you have my absolute favorite movie—and that includes everything from the golden age of Hollywood as well.
Titanic is the standard by which I judge all other films.
I don’t remember exactly how many times I saw Titanic in the theater back in 1997, but it was well into the double-digits. I saw it in 2017 when it returned to the big screen for its 20th anniversary.
And if the rumors are true that they’re bringing it back to the big screen next summer for its 25th anniversary, well, I’ll be there too.
We were all so enamored with the plight of Jack and Rose that my friends and family and I would make quizzes for one another to determine who knew the movie best. By this time it was out on VHS, and we’d all watched it dozens of times, so we all kept getting all the questions correct.
The questions escalated in difficulty until we were asking each other insane things like “how many goldfish were in Old Rose’s fishbowl?”
And if you’re thinking “what fishbowl?” then you, my friend, are not a Titanic superfan.
Author’s Note: If anyone cracks a joke in the comments about Rose not letting Jack onto the piece of driftwood at the end of the film, I’ll permanently ban you from my site.
Don’t test me. Examples of the kind of thing I’d better not see:
This is the final entry of my Movies I’m Grateful For series, running daily through the month of November.
The Full List: Splash | New Moon | The Lucky One | Thelma and Louise | Katy Perry: Part of Me | Crazy Rich Asians | Under the Tuscan Sun | Terminator 2 | Moulin Rouge! | How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days | Practical Magic | Schindler’s List | Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol | Stardust | The Man in the Moon | The Others | Little Women | Cruella | Sliding Doors | Far and Away | The Magdalene Sisters | The Heat | The Last Five Years | Shakespeare In Love | Erin Brockovich | The Bear | Braveheart | Interview with the Vampire | Legends of the Fall |
Plenty of room on that driftwood, I’m not sure what Rose’s problem was.
I wrote my anti-trolling disclaimer specifically for you. FACT!
She could have just budged up a bit. Given the multiple impossible obstacles that he overcame for her, surely the least she could do? She didn’t even try…
Have to agree with Ol’DIx here because the first time I watched it, (bawling my eyes out when he was in the sea looking up at her), I was shouting out for him to get on the bliddy door!!
Rose should have been charged with murder it at least manslaughter. She could have laid out two camp beds on top of that thing. Absolutely no reason at all for Jack to be in the water. Questions should be asked.
I think they have been, to no avail, he’s still dead in the water.
Not if she’d pulled him up from the get go.
I know! But she was weak and freezing, he could have hauled himself up really I think.
Their lives depended on it, they could have made some effort. You wouldn’t get James Bond just standing around and calmly accepting death would you? Oh, hang on…
Hah!
I do think Congress needs to open up an investigation and have James Cameron testify to clear this up once and for all – there was no room for Jack!
#JusticeForRose
There was plenty of room for Jack. I have seen the evidence with my own eyes. That bit of wood was massive. A no brainer. Budge up, Rose!
Massive?! Are you out of your mind?
They would’ve both ended up half in and and half out and frozen to death for sure.
Nonsense. It was the size of a double bed. Plenty of room for two. No reason for Jack to die.
A double bed? You’re mad.
A snooker table. Huge. Big enough for two. They could have taken that old couple as well rather than leaving them to die in their room. Criminal negligence.
….speechless…
So was he.
You can be blase about some things, but not about Titanic!
I think he could have fit, but his weight would’ve pushed them both down into the water and they both would’ve frozen to death.
Put away your tape measure and accept it for the grand romantic gesture it was !
Maybe his weight could have pushed them down, but then he could just have got off. They didn’t even try and find out. After all that trouble they went through with hanging in and people falling off the ship. I bet Jack was sorry he ever won these tickets in a card game!
Winning that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to him!
Really? Is that the point of the movie Titanic? It was the best thing that ever happened to them? Really? Would that be a good ad line for the film? ‘ they’ll never forget their trip on the Titanic; it was the best thing that ever happened to them’?
Better to have loved and lost than never loved at all!
I’m pretty sure Jack was loved wherever he went. What makes you think he’s never been loved? By the French ladies he used to paint? Better if Jack and Rose had never got on the boat. I’m sure they must have had some regrets as the trip went on…
It’s all too sad. I think a remake is due where Jack survives because Atlantis!! Amber and Jason rescue him and he lives a wonderful life bobbing about on the bottom of the briny sea and falls in love with a beautiful mermaid and lives happily ever after.
That sounds lovely, but I’m sure Jack would rather he’d just lost the card game and the point of all this would be moot.
True.
I distinctly remember saying I DID NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS!!!!!!!!!!
The Titanic Exhibition is going on in NYC right now — you should consider it.
I just googled it and it looks fascinating. I might have a take a weekend trip up to the Big Apple and check it out!
Please reach out to me in email to further discuss.
Just read this in my newspaper today, made me smile
Kate Winslet has said she was body-shamed about one of the most famous, and hotly debated, scenes from James Cameron’s 1997 hit Titanic. Even as the film approaches its 25th anniversary, people have continued to question why Rose (Winslet) couldn’t make room for Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) on the floating door during the climax scene.
During Friday’s episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Mare of Easttown actor said some of the press coverage and comments about that final scene were “so mean”. She added: “Apparently I was too fat. Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn’t even fucking fat.”
With reference to these derogatory comments made about her by the tabloids, Winslet said she would have responded to the coverage differently today “if I could turn back the clock”.
Poor Kate!
Wow! Can you imagine?! Kate Winslet too fat!?
I wouldn’t want the life of a mega star.
It’s crazy that can still make the newspaper 25 years later!
I thought the same when I saw it!