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From Amazon.com essential video
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 Paramount Pictures as quickly as the ill-fated luxury liner had sunk on that fateful night of April 14, 1912. Titanic would surpass the $1-billion mark in global box-office receipts, win 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Director, launch 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 fate 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 a moving emotional experience. Although some of the computer-generated visual effects look artificial, others--such as the climactic splitting of the ship's sinking hull--are state-of-the-art marvels of cinematic ingenuity. It's 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. --Jeff Shannon
DVD features
Perhaps James Cameron wasn't ready to dish in 1999 when his mega-hit debuted on DVD with nary an extra (no, we don't count the trailer). Now in 2005, Cameron and his magicians dish on the cutting-edge effects and the craft of the movie. The heart of the extras are over 45 minutes of deleted scenes fans will fawn over, including some dealing with historical backstory (including a scene on the nearby ship California), a great kiss between Jack and Rose, and an extended suspense scene (listen to Cameron's commentary on that one). Happily, the alternate ending was not used (no, Jack doesn't live). The sound has been upgraded (including a DTS 6.1 ES track), the color palate is richer (the interiors glow more), and the picture is anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, although the film is now split onto two discs.
The three-disc set has an abundance of materials; the galleries, for example, contain 628 on-set photos, 447 personal photos from the cinematographer, 532 storyboard sketches, 148 technical drawings, and even a 72-page bibliography. The features on the sets and effects offer some great tidbits, many dealing how everything had to be made versus rented since most items were going to be destroyed on camera.
Cameron is pictured on the box art and his stamp is all over the DVD set. He narrates the deep dive footage, you can read his original "scriptment" (if you want to read though 492 page clicks; some of these extras would have been better on a CD-ROM), and his commentary track is so complete, he covers most of the items the historical experts offer on their own track (they get too caught up in the film to muster more interesting facts). He offers only one apology for a factual "guess" and clears up that "king of the world" riff at the Oscars. The third commentary with most of the key members of the cast and crew is worth a listen but, alas, Leonardo DiCaprio does not contribute to this or any other new feature. Other must-sees: a time-lapse short on the creation of the boat set, and the first-half of a salute to the staff that works as a blooper reel. One caveat: there's a four-disc Region 2 version available in Europe with parodies and other extras, but no one is offering an official reason why it's not offered in the States. --Doug Thomas
DVD Features
Perhaps James Cameron wasn't ready to dish in 1999 when his mega-hit debuted on DVD with nary an extra (no, we don't count the trailer). Now in 2005, Cameron and his magicians dish on the cutting-edge effects and the craft of the movie. The heart of the extras are over 45 minutes of deleted scenes fans will fawn over, including some dealing with historical backstory (including a scene on the nearby ship California), a great kiss between Jack and Rose, and an extended suspense scene (listen to Cameron's commentary on that one). Happily, the alternate ending was not used (no, Jack doesn't live). The sound has been upgraded (including a DTS 6.1 ES track), the color palate is richer (the interiors glow more), and the picture is anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, although the film is now split onto two discs.
The three-disc set has an abundance of materials; the galleries, for example, contain 628 on-set photos, 447 personal photos from the cinematographer, 532 storyboard sketches, 148 technical drawings, and even a 72-page bibliography. The features on the sets and effects offer some great tidbits, many dealing how everything had to be made versus rented since most items were going to be destroyed on camera.
Cameron is pictured on the box art and his stamp is all over the DVD set. He narrates the deep dive footage, you can read his original "scriptment" (if you want to read though 492 page clicks; some of these extras would have been better on a CD-ROM), and his commentary track is so complete, he covers most of the items the historical experts offer on their own track (they get too caught up in the film to muster more interesting facts). He offers only one apology for a factual "guess" and clears up that "king of the world" riff at the Oscars. The third commentary with most of the key members of the cast and crew is worth a listen but, alas, Leonardo DiCaprio does not contribute to this or any other new feature. Other must-sees: a time-lapse short on the creation of the boat set, and the first-half of a salute to the staff that works as a blooper reel. One caveat: there's a four-disc Region 2 version available in Europe with parodies and other extras, but no one is offering an official reason why it's not offered in the States. --Doug Thomas
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Sublime and the Ridiculous,
By
This review is from: Titanic (Widescreen) (DVD)
Three stars is the average of 1 star and 5 stars: 1 for the love story, 5 for the ship and its fate.Like many reviewers I found the romance between Jack and Rose extremely unconvincing. DiCaprio is simply too young, too wimpy, and too uneducated for me to accept him as someone whom Rose would fall for so completely. I could see him as being a shipboard fling for the sophisticated Rose--and it would have been a good plot device if Hockley had complacently let his fiancee have a few days to toy with Jack and get him out of her system--but had the Titanic docked, my impression is that Rose would have tired of Jack pretty fast. The whole thing was cloying and silly. But the Titanic was a good actor. The re-creation of the tragedy was very well done, and stuck very close to history as far as I can tell. Many of the secondary characters were interesting, especially poor Mr. Andrews, the ship designer. I think that a viewer would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the scene where the musicians return and accompany their leader in "Nearer My God to Thee" while Captain Smith walks forlornly onto his flooded bridge to await the end. (And isn't it interesting how the music provided by I Salonisti, such as the Offenbach piece, is far superior to the sound-track music written for the film?) This was a moving and dramatic account of a great tragedy (interspersed by nonsense like Hockley's attempt to assassinate Jack with Lovejoy's pistol.) So 3 stars for Titanic, a movie whose story shows that Truth is not only stranger than fiction, but often more interesting, too.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Shoot me!,
By
This review is from: Titanic (Widescreen) (DVD)
I know a lot of you out there will hate me for saying this, but I am entitled to my opinion, not yours. I thought this movie sucked!Three hours for Lord of the Rings? No problem, I can understand the need. The pacing was good enough to keep those hours from becoming tedious. Three hours for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones? Kind of a stretch, but it's a guitly pleasure of mine. Granted, I had some problems with it, but that's another story. But three hours for Titanic? No! It didn't work for me. Now I'm not going to diss Mr. DiCaprio as many others have. He really can act, but the problem here wasn't him, it was his character. All the characters in this movie were hackneyed and trite. I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of them. I just sat there waiting for the cockamamey boat to sink! And the love story was painfully trite. A lower-class boy with an upper-class girl, real original. You can take old concepts like that and make them work, but this movie wasn't able to in my eyes. I much preferred the love story of The Princess Bride, but I'm not here to make comparisons. The visual effects with the sinking of the boat were decent, but that was the only good part of the entire movie. Frankly, there was nothing else worth considering in this movie aside from the sinking of the eponymous boat. On the whole, I found Titanic to be boring, trite, and painfully uninteresting. But like I said, that's my opinion. None of you have to agree with me, and you certainly don't have to like what I say, but I'm certainly free to say that this movie is one of the worst I've ever seen, and as a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, that is saying something.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Titanic,
By
This review is from: Titanic 97 (VHS Tape)
Every one knows this is such a great movie. A++
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