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More than 1500 souls perished that night of April 14 1912.
Many drowned, many more died of exposure. There were not enough
lifeboats to save more than a third of the passengers and
most of those small boats left the ship with room to take
more people on board.
Some of the richest men in America - owners or heirs to fortunes
totalling more than $340million - died, as did hundreds upon
hundreds of immigrants who history will never trouble itself
with.
But James Cameron's Titanic does.
It puts faces, nationalities and fashions to those steerage-class
unknowns and embodies them in the youthful, anti-authority
Jack (Leonardo di Caprio). His dealings with his fellows in
the lead-up to the tragedy - the games, dancing and drinking
- add much more human drama to the sinking, than a focus on
the top hats would have done.
Of course there is one top hat that young Jack, an artist
by trade, is very happy to focus on and that is Rose (Kate
Winslet) who is engaged to an arch-card (Billy Zane).
Neither di Caprio's nor Zane's characters are anything other
than 2D - the former so charmingly rebellious and carefree,
the latter a snobbish prig who has no good points.
Winslet's Rose, however, is a well-rounded spirit trapped
between a socially ambitious mother and arranged marriage,
and the love she feels for Jack.
Without giving too much of the plot away - the ship sinks
- and the main characters have to sink or swim with their
problems either resolved or not.
Titanic is a great spectacle. The lead-up to the fateful
night is filled with sumptuous, colour-perfect images of luxury,
while the movie's second half is a tense adventure amid some
of the most stunning imagery put on to film.
It really is a movie to savour on the big screen, where the
scale is about right, but the DVD - despite a pretty average
transfer that only has acceptable sound and a pretty up and
down picture quality - is still better than a video.
Mind you, given the lack of extras, it could almost be a
VHS.
Conclusion: Movie 85%, Extras 20%
Continued:
DVD details at a glance >
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