Product description
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Titanic is an event film and a monument to Cameron's risk-taking
audacity, blending the tragic irony of the Titanic disaster with
just enough narrative invention to give the historical event its
fullest and most timeless dramatic impact. Titanic is an epic
love story on par with Gone with the Wind, and like that earlier
box-office phenomenon, it's a film for the ages.
.com
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When the theatrical release of James Cameron's Titanic was
delayed from July to December of 1997, media pundits speculated
that Cameron's $200 million disaster epic would cause the
director's downfall, signal the end of the blockbuster era, and
sink Para Studios as quickly as the ill-ed luxury liner
had sunk on that eful night of April 14, 1912. Some studio
executives were confident, others horrified, but the clarity of
hind turned Cameron into an O-winning genius, a shrewd
businessman, and one of the most successful directors in the
history of motion pictures. Titanic would surpass the $1 billion
mark in global box-office receipts (largely due to multiple
viewings, the majority by teenage girls), win 11 Academy Awards
including best picture and director, produce the best-selling
movie soundtrack of all time, and make a global superstar of
Leonardo DiCaprio. A bona fide pop-cultural phenomenon, the film
has all the ingredients of a blockbuster (romance, passion,
luxury, grand scale, a snidely villain, and an epic,
life-threatening crisis), but Cameron's alchemy of these
ingredients proved more popular than anyone could have predicted.
His stroke of genius was to combine absolute authenticity with a
pair of fictional lovers whose tragic e would draw viewers
into the heart-wrenching reality of the Titanic disaster. As
starving artist Jack Dawson and soon-to-be-married socialite Rose
DeWitt Bukater, DiCaprio and Kate Winslet won the hearts of
viewers around the world, and their brief but never-forgotten
love affair provides the humanity that Cameron needed to turn
Titanic into an emotional experience. Present-day framing scenes
(featuring Gloria Stuart as the 101-year-old Rose) add additional
resonance to the story, and although some viewers proved
vehemently immune to Cameron's manipulations, few can deny the
production's impressive achievements. Although some of the
computer-generated visual effects look artificial, others--such
as the sunset silhouette of Titanic during its first evening at
sea, or the climactic splitting of the ship's sinking hull--are
state-of-the-art marvels. In terms of sets and costumes alone,
the film is never less than astounding. More than anything else,
however, the film's overwhelming popularity speaks for itself.
Titanic is an event film and a monument to Cameron's risk-taking
audacity, blending the tragic irony of the Titanic disaster with
just enough narrative invention to give the historical event its
fullest and most timeless dramatic impact. Titanic is an epic
love story on par with Gone with the Wind, and like that earlier
box-office phenomenon, it's a film for the ages. --Jeff Shannon