James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet
as Rose DeWitt Bukater, two members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated maiden voyage
of the ship. The main characters and the central love story are fictional, but some characters (such as members of
the ship's passengers and crew) are based on historical figures. Gloria Stuart plays the elderly Rose, who narrates
the film in a modern day framing device.
Production of the film began in 1995, when Cameron shot footage of the real wreck of the RMS Titanic. He
envisioned the love story as a means to engage the audience with the real-life tragedy. Shooting took place on
board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh – which aided Cameron in filming the real wreck – for the modern scenes,
and a reconstruction of the ship was built at Playas de Rosarito, Baja California. Cameron also used scale models
and computer-generated imagery to recreate the sinking. Titanic, at the time, became the most expensive film ever
made, costing approximately US$200 million with funding from Paramount Pictures and 20th Century
Fox.[3][4][5][6]
The film was originally to be released on July 2, 1997, but post-production delays pushed back the film's release to
December 19, 1997.[7] The film turned out to be an enormous critical and commercial success, winning eleven
Academy Awards, including Best Picture.[8] It became the highest-grossing film of all time, with a worldwide total of
over $1.8 billion (it is the sixth highest-grossing in North America once adjusted for inflation).[9][10]
Contents
• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
o 2.1 Fictional characters
o 2.2 Historical characters
o 2.3 Cameos
• 3 Production
o 3.1 Filming
o 3.2 Effects
o 3.3 Editing
o 3.4 Music and soundtrack
• 4 Release
o 4.1 Box office
o 4.2 Critical reception
o 4.3 Awards and honors
o 4.4 Home video
o 4.5 3D conversion
• 5 References
• 6 Further reading
PlotIn 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and his team explore the wreck of the RMS Titanic, searching
for a necklace set with a valuable blue diamond called the Heart of the Ocean. They believe the diamond is in
Caledon "Cal" Hockley's safe, which they recover. They do not find the diamond, but a sketch of a nude woman
wearing the diamond. The drawing is dated April 14, 1912, the night the Titanic hit the iceberg.
One-hundred-year-old Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stuart) learns of the drawing and contacts Lovett, informing
him that she is the woman in the drawing. She and her granddaughter Elizabeth "Lizzy" Calvert (Suzy Amis) visit
Lovett and his team on his salvage ship. When asked if she knew the whereabouts of the necklace, Rose recalls
her memories aboard the Titanic, revealing that she is Rose DeWitt Bukater, a passenger believed to have died in
the sinking.
In 1912, the upper class 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) boards the ship in Southampton, England
with her fiancé Caledon "Cal" Hockley (Billy Zane), the son of a Pittsburgh steel tycoon, and her mother, Ruth
DeWitt Bukater (Frances Fisher). Both Cal and Ruth stress the importance of Rose's engagement to Cal, since the
marriage will mean the eradication of the Dewitt-Bukater debts; while they appear upper-class, Rose and her mother
are experiencing severe financial troubles. Distraught and frustrated by her engagement to the controlling Cal and the
pressure her mother is putting on her, Rose attempts suicide by jumping from the stern. Before she leaps, a drifter
and artist named Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) intervenes. Cal, his friends and the sailors, overhearing Rose's
screams, believe Jack attempted to rape her. She explains that Jack saved her life, hiding her suicide attempt by
claiming she slipped while trying to see the propellers. Jack supports Rose's story, though Hockley's manservant,
former Pinkerton agent Spicer Lovejoy (David Warner), is unconvinced. Jack and Rose develop a tentative
friendship. Their bond deepens when they leave a stuffy first-class formal dinner of the rapport-building wealthy for
a much livelier gathering in third-class.
Lovejoy informs Cal of Rose's partying, and during breakfast the following morning Cal forbids her to see Jackagain. After witnessing a woman encouraging her seven-year-old daughter to behave like a "proper lady" at tea,
Rose defies him and meets Jack at the bow of the ship. Rose opens herself up to Jack, sharing a passionate kiss.
They go to Rose's stateroom where she asks Jack to sketch her wearing the Heart of the Ocean, an engagement
present from Cal. Afterwards, the two run from Lovejoy, going into the ship's cargo hold. They enter William Carter's
Renault and have sex in the backseat before moving to the ship's forward well deck. Rose decides she will leave
the ship with Jack. After witnessing the ship's collision with an iceberg and overhearing the ship's lookouts discussing
how serious it is, Rose tells Jack they should warn her mother and Cal. Cal has discovered Rose's drawing and
her taunting note in his safe, so he frames Jack for stealing the Heart of the Ocean by having Lovejoy plant it in
Jack's pocket. Jack is arrested, taken down to the Master-at-arms's office and handcuffed to a pipe. Rose runs
away from Cal and her mother (who has boarded a lifeboat) to rescue Jack from imprisonment. Rose frees Jack
with an axe.
Jack and Rose return to the boat deck. Cal and Jack both want Rose safe, so they persuade her to board a
lifeboat, Cal claiming that he has an arrangement that will allow him and Jack to get off safely. After Rose is out
of earshot, Cal admits that there is an arrangement, but he will not use it to help Jack. Realizing that she cannot
leave Jack, Rose jumps back on the ship and reunites with him at the ship's first-class staircase. Infuriated, Cal
takes Lovejoy's pistol and chases Jack and Rose into the flooding first-class dining saloon. When Cal runs out of
ammunition, he sarcastically wishes them well, then realizes he left the Heart of the Ocean in Rose's overcoat. Cal
abandons Lovejoy and returns to the boat deck, where he boards a lifeboat by pretending to look after an
abandoned child. When Jack and Rose return to the top deck, the lifeboats have gone and they take refuge on the
now-vertical stern, which washes them into the Atlantic Ocean. Jack and Rose grab hold of a door that only
supports one person. Jack remains in the water, clinging to the door. As Rose accepts their fate, Jack assures her
that she will live to have a long, happy life. As they await rescue, Jack freezes to death.
When a lifeboat finally returns to the site of the sinking, Rose, inspired by Jack's words and determined to live,blows a whistle taken from a nearby frozen crew member. Rose is taken by the RMS Carpathia to New York,
where she gives her name as Rose Dawson. She sees Cal for the last time on Carpathia's deck, looking for her.
Having completed her story, the elderly Rose goes alone to the stern of Lovett's ship and drops the Heart of the
Ocean into the water. As she sleeps, around her are pictures of her doing everything she said she would do with
Jack throughout her life. The final shot of the film is of young Rose being reunited with Jack at the Grand
Staircase of the Titanic, surrounded and applauded by those who perished on the ship; it is deliberately unclear if
this is a conscious dream, or if Rose has died in her sleep.[11]
[edit] Cast
This article's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing
unnecessary details and making it more concise. (December 2009)
[edit] Fictional characters
• Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson: Jack is a penniless Wisconsin man who has toured parts of the world,
primarily Paris. He wins two tickets onto the RMS Titanic in a poker game and travels as a third-class passenger
with his friend Fabrizio. He is attracted to Rose at first sight and meets her when Rose attempts to throw herself
off the back of the ship. This enables him to mix with the first-class passengers for a night. Billy Crudup and
Stephen Dorff were considered for the role of Jack.[12][13]
• Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater: Rose is a seventeen-year-old girl, originally from Philadelphia, who
is forced into an engagement to Caledon Hockley so she and her mother, Ruth, can maintain their high-class status
following her father's death, whose debts left them a "reputated" empty shell. Along with Cal and Ruth, Rose
boards the RMS Titanic as a first-class passenger, where she meets Jack.
Billy Zane as Caledon Nathan "Cal" Hockley: Cal is Rose's fiancé. Arrogant and snobbish, Cal is the heirto a steel fortune in Pittsburgh. He becomes increasingly embarrassed, jealous, and cruel over Rose's relationship
with Jack.
• Frances Fisher as Ruth DeWitt Bukater: Rose's widowed mother, who arranges her daughter's engagement
to Cal to maintain her family's high-class status. She loves her daughter but believes that social position is more
important. She scorns Jack, even though he saved her daughter's life.
• Danny Nucci as Fabrizio De Rossi: Jack's Italian best friend, who boards the RMS Titanic with him after
Jack wins two tickets in a poker game.
• Jason Barry as Thomas "Tommy" Ryan: An Irish third-class passenger who befriends Jack and Fabrizio.
• David Warner as Spicer Lovejoy: An ex-Pinkerton constable, Lovejoy is Cal's English valet and bodyguard,
who keeps an eye on Rose and is suspicious regarding the circumstances surrounding Jack's rescue of her.
• Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett: A treasure hunter looking for the "Heart of the Ocean" in the wreck of the
Titanic in the present. Time and funding for his expedition are running out.
• Gloria Stuart as Rose Dawson Calvert: The 100-year-old Rose gives Lovett information regarding the
"Heart of the Ocean" after he discovers a nude drawing of her in the wreck. She tells the story of her time
aboard the ship, mentioning Jack for the first time since the sinking. Stuart believes her character died at the end
of the film,[14] while Cameron states in his DVD commentary that he prefers to leave the viewer to interpret the
shot.[11]
• Suzy Amis as Lizzy Calvert: Rose's granddaughter, who accompanies her when she visits Lovett on the
ship.
Lewis Abernathy as Lewis Bodine: Lovett's friend, who expresses doubt about whether the elderly Rose istelling the truth. He demonstrates to Rose, with little regard for sensitivity, how the Titanic sank with a computer
simulation. When Rose finishes telling her story, he appears more sympathetic.
[edit] Historical characters
• Kathy Bates as Margaret "Molly" Brown: Brown is depicted as being frowned upon by other first-class
women, including Ruth, as "vulgar" and "new money" due to her sudden wealth. She is friendly to Jack and lends
him a tuxedo (bought for her son) when he is invited to dinner in the first-class dining saloon. Although Brown
was a real person, Cameron chose to not portray her real-life actions. Molly Brown was dubbed "The Unsinkable
Molly Brown" by historians because she took over the life boat and went to pick up survivors.[15] In Cameron's
film, she attempts to round the women up to go back but does not succeed.
• Victor Garber as Thomas Andrews: The ship's builder, Andrews is portrayed as a very kind and pleasant
man who is modest about his grand achievement. After the collision, he tries to convince the others, particularly
Ismay, that it is a "mathematical certainty" that the ship will sink. He is depicted during the sinking of the ship as
standing next to the clock in the first-class smoking room, lamenting his failure to build a strong and safe ship. It
is unknown how the real Andrews died.
• Bernard Hill as Captain Edward John Smith: Smith planned to make the Titanic voyage his final one before
retiring. This influences his decision to increase the ship's speed to make headlines (whether this increase in speed
actually happened is strongly contested; see RMS Titanic). He retreats into the bridge as the ship sinks, dying
when water bursts through the windows whilst clinging to the ship's wheel. It is often disputed whether he died this
way or later froze to death, as he was reported seen near the overturned Collapsible B.[16]
• Jonathan Hyde as Joseph Bruce Ismay: Ismay is portrayed as an ignorant first-class rich man who does
not even know who Sigmund Freud is. He uses his position as White Star Line managing director to influence
Captain Smith to go faster with the prospect of an earlier arrival in New York and favorable press attention. After
the collision, he struggles to comprehend that his "unsinkable" ship is doomed.
• Eric Braeden as Colonel John Jacob Astor IV: A first-class passenger whom Rose calls the richest man on
the ship. The film depicts Astor and his 18-year-old wife Madeleine as being introduced to Jack by Rose in the
first-class dining saloon. He is last seen as the Grand Staircase glass dome implodes and water surges in. In
reality, Astor died after being crushed when one of the ship's funnels collapsed.[17] Madeleine Astor survived in one
of the last boats to leave the Titanic, but her survival is not shown.
• Bernard Fox as Colonel Archibald Gracie IV: The film depicts Gracie making a comment to Cal that
"women and machinery don't mix", and congratulating Jack for saving Rose from falling off the ship (he is unaware
it was a suicide attempt). Archibald Gracie survived the sinking on the overturned Collapsible B. Fox also portrayed
Frederick Fleet in the 1958 film "A Night to Remember".
Michael Ensign as Benjamin Guggenheim: A mining magnate traveling in first-class. He shows off hisFrench mistress Madame Aubart to his fellow passengers while his family waits for him at home. When Jack joins
the other first-class passengers for dinner after his rescue of Rose, Guggenheim refers to him as a "bohemian".
• Jonathan Evans-Jones as Wallace Hartley: The ship's bandmaster, who plays uplifting music with his
colleagues on the boat deck as the ship sinks, culminating in a final performance of Nearer, My God, to Thee. It
has been disputed for many years whether it was this or a waltz tune named "Autumn" that was played last.
• Ewan Stewart as First Officer William Murdoch: During a rush for the lifeboats, Murdoch shoots Tommy
Ryan as well as another passenger, then commits suicide out of guilt. When Murdoch's nephew Scott saw the film,
he objected to his uncle's portrayal as damaging to Murdoch's heroic reputation.[18] A few months later, Fox
vice-president Scott Neeson went to Dalbeattie, Scotland, where Murdoch lived, to deliver a personal apology, and
also presented a £5000 donation to Dalbeattie High School to boost the school's William Murdoch Memorial
Prize.[19] Cameron apologized on the DVD commentary, but noted that there were officers who fired gunshots to
follow the "women and children first" policy.[20]
• Jonathan Phillips as Second Officer Charles Lightoller: The ship's most senior surviving officer. The film
depicts Lightoller telling Captain Smith that it will be difficult to see icebergs with no breaking water. He is seen
brandishing a gun and threatening to use it to keep order. He can be seen on top of Collapsible B when the first
funnel collapses.
• Mark Lindsay Chapman as Chief Officer Henry Wilde: The ship's chief officer, who lets Cal on board a
lifeboat because he has a child in his arms. Before he dies, he tries to get the boats to return to the sinking site
to rescue passengers by blowing his whistle. After he freezes to death, Rose uses his whistle to attract the attention
of Fifth Officer Lowe, which leads to her rescue. It is unknown how the real Henry Wilde died.
• Ioan Gruffudd as Fifth Officer Harold Lowe: The only ship's officer who led a lifeboat to retrieve survivors
of the sinking on the icy waters. The film depicts Lowe rescuing Rose.
• Edward Fletcher as Sixth Officer James Moody: The ship's only junior officer who died in the sinking. The
film depicts Moody admitting Jack and Fabrizio onto the ship only moments before it departs from Southampton,
follows Mr. Murdoch's orders putting the ship to full speed ahead, and informs First Officer Murdoch about the
iceberg.
James Lancaster as Father Thomas Byles: Father Byles, a Catholic priest from England, is portrayedpraying and consoling passengers during the ship's final moments. He did not survive the sinking. He is credited for
helping Molly Brown get others into the lifeboats.
• Lew Palter and Elsa Raven as Isidor Straus and Ida Straus: Isidor is a former owner of R.H. Macy and
Company, a former congressman from New York, and a member of the New York and New Jersey Bridge
Commission. During the sinking, his wife Ida is offered a place in a lifeboat, but refuses, saying that she will honor
her wedding pledge by staying with Isidor. They are last seen lying on their bed embracing each other as water fills
their stateroom.
• Martin Jarvis as Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon: A Scottish baronet who is rescued in Lifeboat 1. He and his wife
were among only 12 people in Lifeboat #1, whose capacity was 40. He was accused of bribing the boat's crewmen
not to row back and rescue those struggling in the water, but the British Board of Trade's Inquiry into the disaster
cleared them of any wrongdoing and a letter written by the secretary further clears their name.[21]
• Rosalind Ayres as Lady Lucile Duff-Gordon: A world-famous fashion designer and Sir Cosmo's wife. She is
rescued in Lifeboat 1 with her husband. She and her husband never lived down rumors that they had forbidden the
lifeboat's crew to return to the wreck site in case they would be swamped.[22][23][24][25]
• Rochelle Rose as Noel Leslie, Countess of Rothes: The Countess is shown to be friendly with Cal and the
DeWitt Bukaters. Even though she is of a higher status in society than Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon she is
kind and helps row the boats and even looks after the steerage passengers.
• Scott G. Anderson as Frederick Fleet: The lookout who saw the iceberg. Fleet escapes the sinking ship
aboard Lifeboat 6.
• Martin East as Reginald Lee: The other lookout in the crow's nest. He survives the sinking.
• Simon Crane as Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall: The officer in charge of firing flares and manning Lifeboat 2
during the sinking. He is shown on the bridge wings helping the seamen firing the flares.
• Gregory Cooke as Jack Phillips: Senior wireless operator on board the Titanic whom Captain Smith ordered
to send the distress signal.
• Liam Tuohy as Chief Baker Charles Joughin: The baker appears in the film on top of the railing with Jack
and Rose as the ship sinks, drinking brandy from a flask. According to the real Joughin's testimony he rode the
ship down and stepped into the water without getting his hair wet. He also admitted to hardly feeling the cold, most
likely thanks to alcohol.[26]
• Terry Forrestal as Chief Engineer Joseph G. Bell: Bell and his men worked until the last minute to keep
the lights on and power for distress signals to get out. Bell and all of the engineers died in the bowels of the
Titanic.
CameosSeveral crew members of the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh appear in the film, including Anatoly Sagalevich, creator and
pilot of the Mir submersibles.[27] Anders Falk, who filmed a documentary about the film's sets for the Titanic
Historical Society, cameoed in the film as a Swedish immigrant who Jack Dawson meets when he enters his cabin,
and Ed and Karen Kamuda, then President and Vice President of the Society, were extras on the film.[28]
[edit] Production
"The story could not have been written better...The juxtaposition of rich and poor, the gender roles played out unto
death (women first), the stoicism and nobility of a bygone age, the magnificence of the great ship matched in
scale only by the folly of the men who drove her hell-bent through the darkness. And above all the lesson: that
life is uncertain, the future unknowable . . . the unthinkable possible."
— James Cameron[29]James Cameron was fascinated by shipwrecks, especially the RMS Titanic, and wrote a
treatment for the film.[30] In an interview, he stated that he made Titanic "because [he] wanted to dive to the
shipwreck, not because [he] particularly wanted to make the movie". He said that the Titanic was "the Mount
Everest of shipwrecks" and he, as a diver, wanted to tell the story right. "When I learned some other guys had
dived to the Titanic to make an IMAX movie, I said, 'I’ll make a Hollywood movie to pay for an expedition and do
the same thing.' I loved that first taste, and I wanted more," stated Cameron. " It came along at a point in my
life when I said, 'I can make movies until I’m 80, but I can’t do expedition stuff when I’m 80.'" Cameron's father
had been an engineer. "I had studied to be an engineer and had a mental restlessness to live the life I had
turned my back on when I switched from the sciences to the arts in college," said Cameron.[31]
He described the sinking of the Titanic as "like a great novel that really happened". Yet, over time he felt that the
event had become a mere morality tale, and described making the film as putting the audience in an experience of
living history. Cameron described a love story as the most engaging part of a story. As the likable Jack and Rose
had their love blossom and eventually destroyed, the audience would mourn the loss. Lastly, Cameron created a
modern framing of the romance with an elderly Rose, making the history palpable and poignant.[29] The treasure
hunter Brock Lovett is meant to represent those who never connected with the human element of the tragedy.[27]
Cameron wanted to honor the people who died during the sinking, and he spent six months fully researching what
happened, creating a timeline of all the Titanic's crew and passengers.[29]
He met with 20th Century Fox, and convinced them to make a film based on the publicity afforded by shooting thewreck itself[30] and organized a dive to the wreck of the Titanic over two years.[29] The crew shot in the Atlantic
Ocean twelve times in 1995, shooting during eleven of those occasions, and actually spent more time with the ship
than its passengers. Afterwards, Cameron began writing a screenplay.[30] Harland and Wolff, the RMS Titanic's
builders, opened their private archives to the crew, sharing blueprints that were thought lost. For the ship's interiors,
production designer Peter Lamont's team looked for artifacts from the era, though the newness of the ship meant
every prop had to be made from scratch.[32] Fox acquired 40 acres (16 ha) of waterfront south of Playas de
Rosarito in Mexico, and began building a new studio on May 31, 1996. A seventeen-million-gallon tank was built
for the exterior of the reconstructed ship, providing 270 degrees of ocean view. The ship was built to full scale, but
Lamont removed redundant sections on the superstructure and forward well deck for the ship to fit in the tank, with
the remaining sections filled with digital models. The lifeboats and funnels were shrunk by ten percent. The boat
deck and A-deck were working sets, but the rest of the ship was just steel plating. Within was a fifty-foot lifting
platform for the ship to tilt during the sinking sequences. Towering above was a 162 feet (49 m) tall tower crane
on 600 feet (180 m) of railtrack, acting as a combined construction, lighting, and camera platform.[27] After
shooting the sinking scenes, the ship was then dismantled and sold for scrap metal to cover budgetary costs.[33]
FilmingThe modern day scenes were shot on the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in July 1996.[27] It was during this shoot
that someone sprinkled phencyclidine (PCP) into the crew's dinner, affecting many including Cameron, and sending
several dozen of them to the hospital. The person behind the prank was never caught.[34][35] Principal
photography for Titanic began in September 1996 at the newly-built Fox Baja Studios.[27] The scenes on the poop
deck were built on a hinge which could rise from zero to ninety degrees in a few seconds as the ship's stern rose
during sinking.[36] For the safety of the stuntmen, many props were made of foam rubber.[37] By November 15,
they were shooting the boarding scenes.[36] Cameron chose to build his RMS Titanic on the starboard side as a
study of weather data showed prevailing north-to-south wind that blew the funnel smoke aft. This posed a problem
for shooting the ship's departure from Southampton, as it was docked on its port side. Writing on props and
costumes had to be reversed, and if someone walked to their right in the script, they had to walk left. In
post-production, the film was flipped to the correct direction.[38]
Filming Titanic was an arduous experience for all involved. The schedule was intended to last 138 days but grew to
160. Many cast members came down with colds, flu, or kidney infections after spending hours in cold water,
including Kate Winslet. Several left and three stuntmen broke their bones, but the Screen Actors Guild decided,
following an investigation, that nothing was inherently unsafe about the set. Cameron never apologized for the way
he ran his sets, although he admitted:
I'm demanding, and I'm demanding on my crew. In terms of being kind of militaresque, I think there's an element
of that in dealing with thousands of extras and big logistics and keeping people safe. I think you have to have a
fairly strict methodology in dealing with a large number of people.[34]
After almost drowning, chipping an elbow bone, and getting the flu, Winslet decided she would not work with
Cameron again unless she earned "a lot of money".[34]
EffectsThe reconstruction of the RMS Titanic
An enclosed 5,000,000 US gallons (19,000,000 l) tank was used for sinking interiors, in which the entire set
could be tilted into the water. To sink the Grand Staircase, 90,000 US gallons (340,000 l) of water were
dumped into the set as it was lowered into the tank. Unexpectedly, the waterfall ripped the staircase from its
steel-reinforced foundations, though no one was hurt. The 744-foot (227 m) long exterior of the RMS Titanic had
its first half lowered into the tank, but being the heaviest part of the ship meant it acted as a shock absorber
against the water. To get the set into the water, Cameron had much of the set emptied and even smashed some
of the promenade windows himself. After submerging the Dining Saloon, three days were spent shooting Lovett's
ROV traversing the wreck in the present.[27] The post-sinking scenes in the freezing Atlantic were shot in a
350,000 US gallons (1,300,000 l) tank,[39] where the frozen corpses were created by applying a powder on
actors that crystallized when exposed to water, and wax was coated on hair and clothes.[32]
Cameron wanted to push the boundary of special effects with his film, and enlisted Digital Domain to continue the
breakthroughs on digital technology the director pioneered on The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Previous
films about the RMS Titanic shot water in slow motion, which did not look wholly convincing.[40] He encouraged
them to shoot their 45-foot (14 m) long miniature of the ship as if "we're making a commercial for the White
Star Line".[41] Afterward, digital water and smoke were added, as were extras captured on a motion capture stage.
Visual effects supervisor Rob Legato scanned the faces of many actors, including himself and his children, for the
digital extras and stuntmen. There was also a 65-foot (20 m) long model of the ship's stern that could break in
two repeatedly, the only miniature to be used in water.[40] For scenes set in the ship's engines, footage of the SS
Jeremiah O'Brien's engines were composited with miniature support frames and actors shot against greenscreen.[42]
To save money, the First Class Lounge was a miniature set incorporated into a greenscreen backdrop.[43]
[edit] Editing
During the first assembly cut, Cameron altered the planned ending, which had given resolution to Brock Lovett's
story. In the original version of the ending, Brock and Lizzy see Old Rose at the stern of the boat, and fear she
is going to jump. Rose then reveals that she had the Heart of the Ocean diamond all along, but never sold it, as
it reminded her of Cal too much. She tells Brock that life is priceless and throws the diamond into the ocean, after
allowing him to hold it. Accepting that treasure is worthless, Brock laughs at his stupidity. Rose goes back to sleep,
whereupon the film ends in the same way as the final version. In the editing room, Cameron decided that by this
point the audience would no longer be interested in Brock Lovett and cut the resolution to his story, so that Rose
is alone when she drops the diamond. He also did not want to disrupt the audience's melancholy after the Titanic's
sinking.[44]
The version used for the first test screening featured a fight between Jack and Lovejoy which took place after Jack
and Rose escape into the flooded dining saloon, but the test audiences disliked it. The scene was written to give
the film more suspense, and featured Cal (falsely) offering to give Lovejoy, his valet, the Heart of the Ocean if he
can get it from Jack and Rose. Lovejoy goes after the pair in the sinking First Class dining room. Just as they are
about to escape him, Lovejoy notices Rose's hand slap the water as it slips off the table behind which she is
hiding. In revenge for framing him for the "theft" of the necklace, Jack attacks him and smashes his head against
a glass window (this explains the gash on Lovejoy's head that can be seen when he dies in the completed version
of the film). The test audiences disliked this scene, saying it would be unrealistic to risk one's life for wealth, and
Cameron cut it for this reason, as well as for timing and pacing reasons. Many other scenes were cut for similar
reasons.[45]
Music and soundtrack
Main articles: Titanic (soundtrack) and Back to Titanic
evocative vocals heard throughout the film, he chose Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø (better known as "Sissel").
Horner knew Sissel from her album Innerst I Sjelen, and he particularly liked how she sang Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei
Borg (I Know in Heaven There Is a Castle). He had tried 25 or 30 singers before he finally chose Sissel as the
voice to create specific moods within the film.[46]
Horner additionally wrote the song "My Heart Will Go On" in secret with Will Jennings because Cameron did not
want any songs with singing in the film. Celine Dion agreed to record a demo with the persuasion of her husband
René Angélil. Horner waited until Cameron was in an appropriate mood before presenting him with the song. After
playing it several times, Cameron declared its approval, although worried that he would have been criticized for
"going commercial at the end of the movie".[47] It won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well
as three Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Song Written Specifically for a
Motion Picture or Television.[48]
The soundtrack became the best-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack of all time. It includes performances from
Sissel Kyrkjebø, Celine Dion, and became a worldwide success, spending 16 weeks at #1 in the United States and
was certified diamond for over 11 million copies sold in the United States alone.[49] The soundtrack also became
the best-selling album of 1998 in the U.S.[50] It also led to the release of a second volume (Back to Titanic)
that contained a mixture of previously unreleased soundtrack recordings with newly-recorded performances of some of
the songs in the film, including one track recorded by Enya's sister, Máire Brennan of the Irish band Clannad.
"Hymn to the Sea" features Bad Haggis's Eric Rigler on the uilleann pipes and whistles. Back to Titanic was also a
sizeable hit, reaching #2 in the U.S. and selling over a million copies.
[edit] Release
Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox financed Titanic, and expected James Cameron to complete the film for a
release on July 2, 1997. With production delays, Paramount pushed back the release date to December 19,
1997.[51] The film premiered on November 1, 1997, at the Tokyo International Film Festival,[52] where reaction
was described as "tepid" by the New York Times.[53]
[edit] Box office
The film received steady attendance after opening in North America on Friday, December 19, 1997. By the end of
that same weekend, theaters were beginning to sell out. The film debuted with $8,658,814 on its opening day and
$28,638,131 over the opening weekend from 2,674 theaters, averaging to about $10,710 per venue, and ranking
#1 at the box office, ahead of the 18th James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. By New Year's Day, Titanic had
made over $120 million, had increased in popularity and theaters continued selling out. Its biggest single day took
place on Saturday February 14 (Valentine's Day) 1998, making $13,048,711, more than six weeks after it debuted
in North America. After it was released, it stayed at #1 for 15 consecutive weeks in the U.S. and Canada box
office, which remains the record for any film.[54] By March 1998, it was the first film to earn more than $1 billion
worldwide.[55] The film stayed in theaters in North America for almost ten months before finally closing on Thursday
October 1, 1998 with a final domestic gross of $600,788,188, and making double that amount overseas with an
international gross of $1,248,025,607. The film accumulated a grand total of $1,848,813,795 worldwide, and to this
day retains the record as the highest-grossing film in history.[9]
Before the film's release, various film critics predicted it would be a significant disappointment at the box office,
especially due to it being the most expensive film ever made at the time.[56][57] When it was shown to the press
in autumn 1997, "it was with massive forebodings" since the "people in charge of the screenings believed they
were on the verge of losing their jobs – because of this great albatross of a picture on which, finally, two studios
had had to combine to share the great load of its making".[57]
When the film became a success, with an unprecedented box office performance, it was credited as "[t]he love
story [that] stole the world's hearts".[56] It was playing on 3,200 screens a full 10 weeks after it opened,[57]
and out of its 15 straight weeks on top of the charts, jumped 43 percent in total sales in its ninth week of
release. It earned over $20 million a week for 10 weeks,[58] and after 14 weeks into its run, it was still bringing
in more than $1m in a week.[57] Though teenage girls, who would see the film several times and subsequently
caused to "Leo-Mania", were often credited with having primarily propelled the film to its all-time box office
record,[59] other reports have simply attributed "[p]ositive word of mouth and repeat viewership" due to the love
story combined with ground-breaking special effects as having driven the film's success.[58][60] Its impact on men
has also been credited. Considered one of the films that "make men cry", MSNBC's Ian Hodder stated that men
admire Jack's sense of adventure, stowing away on a steamship bound for America. "We cheer as he courts a girl
who was out of his league. We admire how he suggests nude modeling as an excuse to get naked. So when Jack
plunges to his death, an uncontrollable flood of tears sinks our composure," he said.[61]
Since its release, various films in recent years have been cited as contenders for surpassing Titanic's box office
gross, but all have failed to do so.[62] Cameron's most recent film, Avatar, is considered the first genuine film with
a chance at surpassing its worldwide gross.[63]
[edit] Critical reception
The film garnered mostly positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports the film as
holding an overall 82% approval rating based on 98 reviews, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10. The site's
general consensus is that the film is "[a] mostly unqualified triumph for Cameron, who offers a dizzying blend of
spectacular visuals and old-fashioned melodrama".[60] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to
reviews from film critics, the film has a rating score of 74 based on 34 reviews, classified as a generally favorable
reviewed film.[64]
Roger Ebert wrote, "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding...Movies like this
are not merely difficult to make at all, but almost impossible to make well. The technical difficulties are so daunting
that it's a wonder when the filmmakers are also able to bring the drama and history into proportion. I found myself
convinced by both the story and the sad saga."[65] It was his ninth best film of 1997.[66] On the television
program Siskel & Ebert, the film received "two thumbs up"; Ebert describing it as "a glorious Hollywood epic,
well-crafted and well worth the wait" and Gene Siskel found Leonardo DiCaprio "captivating".[67] James Berardinelli
explains, "Meticulous in detail, yet vast in scope and intent, Titanic is the kind of epic motion picture event that has
become a rarity. You don't just watch Titanic, you experience it."[68] It was his second best movie of 1997.[69]
Almar Haflidason of the BBC wrote "The sinking of the great ship is no secret, yet for many exceeded expectations
in sheer scale and tragedy. And when you consider that it tops a bum-numbing three-hour running time, then you
have a truly impressive feat of entertainment achieved by Cameron."[70]
Some reviewers felt that the story and dialogue were weak, while the visuals were spectacular. Richard Corliss of
Time magazine wrote a mostly negative review, criticizing the lack of interesting emotional elements.[71] Kenneth
Turan's review in the Los Angeles Times was particularly scathing. Dismissing the emotive elements, he says, "What
really brings on the tears is Cameron's insistence that writing this kind of movie is within his abilities. Not only is it
not, it is not even close."[72] Barbara Shulgasser of San Francisco Examiner gave Titanic one star out of four,
citing a friend as saying, "The number of times in this unbelievably badly-written script that the two [lead
characters] refer to each other by name was an indication of just how dramatically the script lacked anything more
interesting for the actors to say."[73] Filmmaker Robert Altman called it "the most dreadful piece of work I've ever
seen in my entire life".[74]
Titanic suffered backlash in addition to its success. In 2003, the film topped a poll of "Best Film Endings",[75] and
yet it also topped a poll by The Film programme as "the worst movie of all time".[76] The British film magazine
Empire reduced their rating of the film from the maximum five stars and an enthusiastic review, to four stars with a
less positive review in a later edition, to accommodate its readers’ tastes, who wanted to disassociate themselves
from the hype surrounding the film, and the reported activities of its fans (such as those attending multiple
screenings).[77] Parodies and spoofs abounded and were circulated around the Internet, often inspiring passionate
responses from fans of various opinions of the film.[78]
[edit] Awards and honors
Titanic began its awards sweep starting with the Golden Globes, winning four, namely Best Motion Picture (Drama),
Best Director, Best Original Score, and Best Song.[79] Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart were also nominees but
lost.[80] It won the ACE "Eddie" Award, ASC Award, Art Directors Guild Award, Cinema Audio Society Award,
Screen Actors Guild Awards, (Best Supporting Actress Gloria Stuart), The Directors Guild of America Award, and
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award (Best Director James Cameron), and The Producer Guild of America
Awards. It was also nominated for ten BAFTA awards, including Best Film and Director.
It was nominated for a record-tying 14 Academy Awards and won 11, including the Best Picture and Best
Director.[81] It also picked up Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing,
Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song, and Best Art Direction awards. Kate
Winslet, Gloria Stuart and the make-up artists were the three nominees that did not win. James Cameron's original
screenplay and Leonardo DiCaprio were not nominees.[82] It was the second film to win eleven Academy Awards,
after Ben-Hur. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King would also match this record in 2004, with its 11
wins from 11 nominations.
"My Heart Will Go On" won the Grammy Awards for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for
Television. The film also won Best Male Performance for Leonardo DiCaprio and Best Movie at the MTV Movie
Awards, Best Film at the People's Choice Awards, and Favorite Movie at the 1998 Kids' Choice Awards. It won
various awards outside the United States, including the Awards of the Japanese Academy as the Best Foreign Film
of the Year. Titanic eventually won nearly 90 awards and had an additional 47 nominations from various
award-giving bodies around the world.[83]
Since its release, Titanic has appeared on the AFI's award-winning 100 Years.... So far, it has ranked on the
following six lists:
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Rank Notes
Thrills
25 A list of the top 100 thrilling movies in American cinema compiled in 2001.
Passions
37 A list of the top 100 love stories in American cinema, compiled in 2002.
Songs
14 A list of the top 100 songs in American cinema, compiled in 2004. Titanic ranked 14th for Celine Dion's
"My Heart Will Go On".Movie quotes
100 A list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema, compiled in 2005. Titanic ranked 100th for
Jack Dawson's (Leonardo DiCaprio) yell of "I'm the king of the world!"
Movies
83 A 2007 (10th anniversary) edition of 1997's list of the 100 best movies of the past century. Titanic was
not eligible when the original list was released.
AFI's 10 Top 10
6 The 2008 poll consisted of the top ten films in ten different genres. Titanic ranked as the sixth best epic
film.[edit] Home video
The inside contents of the 5-Disc collector's set
Titanic was released worldwide in widescreen and pan and scan formats on VHS and laserdisc on September 1,
1998.[84] The VHS was also made available in a deluxe boxed gift set with a mounted filmstrip and a color
booklet. A DVD version was released on July 31, 1999 in a widescreen-only (non-anamorphic) single-disc edition
with no special features other than a theatrical trailer. Cameron stated at the time that he intended to release a
special edition with extra features later. This release became the best-selling DVD of 1999 and early 2000,
becoming the first DVD ever to sell 1 million copies.
An international two- and four-disc set followed on November 7, 2005.[85] The two-disc edition was marketed as
the Special Edition, and featured the first two discs of the three-disc set, only PAL-enabled. A four-disc edition,
marketed as the Deluxe Collector's Edition, was also released on November 7, 2005.[86]
Available only in the UK, a limited 5-disc set of the film, under the title Deluxe Limited Edition, was released with
only 10,000 copies manufactured. The fifth disc contains James Cameron's documentary Ghosts of the Abyss, which
was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Unlike the individual release of Ghosts of the Abyss, which contained two
discs, only the first disc was included in the set.
[edit] 3D conversion
During the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, Cameron announced that Titanic is in the process of being converted into
3-D and re-released at some point in 2011.[87][88][89] Speaking at the convention, Cameron said:
We can't call it dimensionalisation, we have to call it conversion. That's the same thing, we're going to turn it into
high quality 3D. It takes about a year to 18 months to do it depending on the complexity. We've been told
somewhere around a year, maybe 14 months. We've tested it, seen a couple of minutes converted. It looks
spectacular. But it really requires the filmmaker to be involved to make sure that the Stereo Space decisions are
made correctly.
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