Titanic [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray]

Director: James Cameron James Cameron

Overview

This spectacular epic re-creates the ill-fated maiden voyage of the White Star Line's $7.5 million R.M.S Titanic and the tragic sea disaster of April 15, 1912. Running over three hours and made with the combined contributions of two major studios (20th Century-Fox, Paramount) at a cost of more than $200 million, Titanic ranked as the most expensive film in Hollywood history at the time of its release, and became the most successful. Writer-director James Cameron employed state-of-the-art digital special effects for this production, realized on a monumental scale and spanning eight decades. Inspired by the 1985 discovery of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, the contemporary storyline involves American treasure-seeker Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) retrieving artifacts from the submerged ship. Lovett looks for diamonds but finds a drawing of a young woman, nude except for a necklace. When 102-year-old Rose (Gloria Stuart) reveals she's the person in the portrait, she is summoned to the wreckage site to tell her story of the 56-carat diamond necklace and her experiences of 84 years earlier. The scene then shifts to 1912 Southampton where passengers boarding the Titanic include penniless Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), returning to Philadelphia with her wealthy fiance Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). After the April 10th launch, Rose develops a passionate interest in Jack, and Cal's reaction is vengeful. At midpoint in the film, the Titanic slides against the iceberg and water rushes into the front compartments. Even engulfed, Cal continues to pursue Jack and Rose as the massive liner begins its descent. Cameron launched the project after seeing Robert Ballard's 1987 National Geographic documentary on the wreckage. Blueprints of the real Titanic were followed during construction at Fox's custom-built Rosarito, Mexico studio, where a hydraulics system moved an immense model in a 17-million-gallon water tank. During three weeks aboard the Russian ship Academik Keldysh, underwater sequences were filmed with a 35mm camera in a titanium case mounted on the Russian submersible Mir 1. When the submersible neared the wreck, a video camera inside a remote-operated vehicle was sent into the Titanic's 400-foot bow, bringing back footage of staterooms, furniture and chandeliers. On November 1, 1997, the film had its world premiere at the 10th Tokyo International Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/16/2021
UPC:	0032429355102
Original Release:	1997
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Time:	3:14:00
Sales rank:	4,072

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Leonardo DiCaprio	Jack Dawson
Kate Winslet	Rose Dewitt Bukater
Billy Zane	Cal Hockley
Kathy Bates	Molly Brown
Frances Fisher	Ruth Dewitt Bukater
Gloria Stuart	Old Rose
Bill Paxton	Brock Lovett
Bernard Hill	Captain Smith
David Warner	Spicer Lovejoy
Victor Garber	Thomas Andrews
Jonathan Hyde	Bruce Ismay
Suzy Amis	Lizzy Calvert
Lewis Abernathy	Lewis Bodine
Nicholas Cascone	Bobby Buell
Anatoly M. Sagalevitch	Anatoly Milkailavich
Danny Nucci	Fabrizio
Jason Barry	Tommy Ryan
Ewan Stewart	1st Officer Murdoch
Ioan Gruffudd	Fifth Officer Lowe
Jonny Phillips	2nd Officer Lightoller,Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller
Mark Lindsay Chapman	Chief Officer Wilde
Richard Graham	Quartermaster Rowe
Paul Brightwell	Quartermaster Hichens
Ron Donachie	Master at Arms
Eric Braeden	John Jacob Astor
Charlotte Chatton	Madeleine Astor
Bernard Fox	Col. Archibald Gracie
Jenette Goldstein	Irish Mommy
Craig Kelly	Harold Bride, Junior Wireless Operator
James Horner	Composer

Technical Credits

James Cameron

James Cameron	Director,Producer,Screenwriter
Rae Sanchini	Executive Producer
Jon Landau	Producer
Mali Finn	Casting
VIFX	Special Effects
Digital Domain	Special Effects
Thomas Fisher	Special Effects
Mario Roberts	Stunts
Mark Ulano	Sound/Sound Designer
Christopher Boyes	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A near-disaster itself during its troubled production period, director James Cameron's hugely ambitious pet project ultimately broke box-office records around the world and earned a passel of awards -- Academy and otherwise -- by year's end. By inserting a love story between a society bride-to-be (Kate Winslet) and a working-class adventurer (Leonardo DiCaprio) into the most famous sea disaster in history -- and a modern story line about salvaging a lost diamond from the bottom of the sea -- Cameron gives viewers an unabashedly old-fashioned melodrama. But Cameron and his seasoned cast handle it with the utmost sincerity and commitment. While the film made Winslet a star and DiCaprio a superstar, both actors ultimately had to take a bit of a backseat to the superbly re-created title vessel and the harrowing reenactment of its final moments. Still, the heart of the film's drama is a timeless and unexpectedly resonant love story -- one so universal and moving that it crossed all cultural boundaries to woo audiences around the globe.

Barnes & Noble - Amy Robinson

Size of all sorts mattered for James Cameron's blockbuster Titanic, whose magnitude was in all ways unprecedented. Cameron and two studios spent $200 million on a 90% scale Titanic replica at a newly constructed Mexico studio; their efforts included duplicating furnishings from original Titanic designs, diving trips to shoot footage of the wreck with a specially designed underwater camera, and months of post-production on computer effects ranging from overhead "shots" of the Titanic at sea to characters' puffs of freezing breath. Delayed several months and beseiged by negative word-of-mouth, Titanic finally opened to rave reviews, especially for its bravura visuals. A few doubts were expressed over the Jack-Rose romance, but nothing could beat the spectacular recreation of the ship sinking or the powerful image of the floating corpse field. That love story, however, proved a potent draw, as Leonardo Di Caprio fans (many of them teenage girls) came back for repeat viewings, helping to power Titanic to a sojourn of more than 3 months at the top of the U.S. box office; the most expensive film ever made became a titanic moneymaker, grossing over $1.6 billion internationally. Cameron's coronation as blockbuster artist arrived when Titanic received a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations (like 1950's All About Eve) and won a record-tying 11 (like 1959's Ben-Hur). Cameron's screenplay, however, was ignored.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola