Too popular?

This movie was too popular for it's own good. There is such a thing as a movie being too successful. For some reason, many such movies get black balled by the film critic community.

I will start my review of Titanic by stating that I have always been fascinated by the story of the Titanic. The drama of her last hours, the decisions people made about who should live and who should die, is extremely compelling. The story of the Titanic always had "Movie material" written all over it.

I thought James Cameron did a fantastic job with this film. He was using relatively unknown actors for his lead roles. He was working with a story that has been done and redone and redone. I went into the theater expecting to see a rehash of "A night to remember". Man was I ever surprised by what I saw.

The central characters in this film are Jack and Rose. Two teens from totally different walks of life who meet for the first time on the deck of the Titanic and fall in love. Now I'm not a big fan of love stories but when they're well done, as this one is, there is nothing better. At the end of this film, when the ship sinks, we truly feel for these characters.

The inclusion of Rose as an old lady, who's played by Gloria Stuart, is a very touching detail. It helps connect the story, but there is so much more depth to Stuart's character. She truly brought that character to life. The scenes showing the Titanic as she sets sail are very well done. The special effects are virtually undetectable.

I thought the jealous fiance, played by Billy zane was a rather silly thing to throw into the mix. The movie could have easily survived without it. Billy does fill the role well though and he makes the Lovejoy character, played by David Warner (Who really is a terrific actor by the way) possible.

At the end of this movie, I didn't feel like I had sat there for three hours. I'm still not sure what the final scene of this movie (Which I won't reveal) was intended to mean, but I think it was intended to be left to be interpreted by the individual viewer. It was very touching to me though. I really enjoyed this movie.

The Molly Brown character was a little over the top. I don't imagine her as being quite the way the movie portrays her. The sad fact of the matter is that there was so much hype and so much praise heaped upon this film that it was actually detrimental to the film in the long run. I do think that in ten years or so, people will be able to look at it and see it for what it is. Which is one of the better movies of the second half of the century.