Titanic (1997)

Let me say this upfront: Titanic is an extraordinary piece of engineering. It is not, however, a great film. And I think there's an important difference worth unpacking.

James Cameron throws everything at the screen here, and I mean everything. The recreation of the ship alone is staggering. The painstaking detail in its architecture, the way the production design captures the divide between first class opulence and the cramped, lively quarters below deck, and then the final descent itself, the tilting, the flooding, the lights flickering as the orchestra plays on regardless. When the disaster kicks in, you feel the full weight of it. As a technical exercise, it's almost impossible to fault. Cameron clearly has an obsessive eye and the kind of stubbornness required to realise a vision on this scale, as anyone who's seen Avatar (2009) or his work on Aliens will know. The man does not do things by halves.

But here's the thing. Strip away the spectacle, strip away the Celine Dion, the Oscars, and the very particular kind of cultural hysteria that gripped the late nineties, and what you're left with is a romance that simply doesn't work.

Jack and Rose are supposed to be the heart of the film. A love that transcends class, time, and death itself. In practice, they feel like a screenplay's idea of people in love rather than actual human beings. The dialogue leans so heavily into melodrama that it buckles under the weight. Sweeping glances, breathless declarations, a sketch scene that has been parodied to death for a reason. I'll be honest, and this might be a controversial take, but I think this is arguably DiCaprio's worst performance. He's doing what the script asks of him, but the script asks very little beyond charm and yearning. Winslet brings more to the table, she usually does, but even she can't fully rescue lines that feel written for a greeting card rather than a living, breathing story.

The film is also simply too long. Over three hours, and it spends a significant chunk of that runtime setting the table before the iceberg appears. Subplots pile up. The villain is cartoonishly drawn. Every possible dramatic note is telegraphed well in advance. By the time the ship starts to go down and the film finally finds its footing, you've already been sitting there for the best part of two hours, and the emotional investment Cameron is counting on has worn thin.

When the disaster sequence does arrive, it earns genuine respect. There are images here that stick with you: the bodies in the freezing water, the lifeboat turning back too late, the orchestra. That stuff lands. The history underneath the fiction is harrowing enough that even a weaker script can't completely blunt it.

And yes, the score is unforgettable. Whether that's a compliment or simply a reflection of how relentlessly it was played in every shopping centre throughout 1998, I'm genuinely not sure anymore.

Two and a half stars. Titanic is a grand, ambitious spectacle made by a director at the height of his technical powers. But ambition and craft alone don't make a great film. The romance at its centre needed to be genuinely moving, and it isn't. What we're left with is something impressive to watch and surprisingly easy to feel nothing about. A phenomenon, certainly. A masterwork, no.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 1997  | Watched: 2025-07-31

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
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Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Paramount Plus Premium · Paramount Plus Essential · Paramount+ Amazon Channel · YouTube TV
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Physical: Amazon US

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from James Cameron: Avatar (2009) · Aliens (1986) · Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) · The Terminator (1984)
More with Leonardo DiCaprio: Blood Diamond (2006) · The Beach (2000) · One Battle After Another (2025) · Gangs of New York (2002)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More romance: The Eagle (1925) · The Last Picture Show (1971) · The General (1926) · The Docks of New York (1928)