So, Uh ... Titanic's 10th Anniversary? - Page 2

SD_Brian · 12-19-2007, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck Mayer

They might not have seen it ten years ago today, but I did.

And it was really something to see then.

I saw it opening day in 1997--curiously, it was raining that day too (in Tucson), just like it is today (in San Diego) and I think you are absolutely correct on this point. Whenever I run across someone who despises Titanic, I ask them when they saw it and they almost always say it was after the movie exploded or it was 8 months after the movie opened or when the media saturation was at it's most ridiculous, etc. It's never "cool" to like something that's popular so the backlash was inevitable.

Seeing Titanic after that much build-up could only lead to a disappointing viewing experience. It's like watching Citizen Kane for the first time after hearing for years from every conceivable source that it's the greatest movie ever made: the actual experience becomes diluted by the hype.

Jonathan Burk · 12-19-2007, 06:07 PM

Wow. Has it really been 10 years since "The Postman" came out? It seems like only yesterday...

Nicholas Martin · 12-19-2007, 06:37 PM

Forget Postman, this year nobody bothered to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this:

How could anyone forget?

SD_Brian · 12-19-2007, 06:51 PM

Speed 2: Cruise Control's 10th Anniversary also managed to pass under the radar. Wow, 1997 was a good year for box office disasters, wasn't it? Ironic that the highest grossing movie of the year was about a sinking ship.

Nicholas Martin · 12-19-2007, 08:12 PM

A sinking ship destined to sink Cameron's career...who's laughing now?

Tomorrow Never Dies also opened 10 years ago today too.
Beat Titanic for number 1 at the box office opening weekend if I recall.
I quite like that one, despite not being a 007 fan.

ZacharyTait · 12-19-2007, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck Mayer

Early 2008, the post-release hype built to a fever pitch.

Who wins the Super Bowl, Pats or Packers?

I saw the movie after the Academy Awards when I finally told myself that I better get it over with. To my surprise, it was a masterpiece, one of only 2 that I saw in 1997 (the other being L.A. Confidential(where's the thread on that?

)).

I got totally swept up in the story and the romance and the final third was tense as hell despite knowing what was going to happen to the ship and the majority of the people.

Weird trivia: This movie and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King both won 11 Oscars and both contain Benard Hill who was Captain Smith in Titanic and King Theoden in LOTR!

Chuck Mayer · 12-19-2007, 10:18 PM

Whoops. Maybe the hype will be crazy again in 2008

And the Cowboys win the Super Bowl, silly. Against the Steelers.

TravisR · 12-19-2007, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicholas Martin

Tomorrow Never Dies also opened 10 years ago today too.
Beat Titanic for number 1 at the box office opening weekend if I recall.
I quite like that one, despite not being a 007 fan.

If I remember correctly, Titanic actually squeaked by it.

EDIT: I just checked Box Office Mojo and Titanic did beat out Tomorrow Never Dies by about $3 million in its first weekend.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zachary Tait

Weird trivia: This movie and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King both won 11 Oscars and both contain Benard Hill who was Captain Smith in Titanic and King Theoden in LOTR!

More weird trivia: David Warner holds the record for most #1 box office weekends in a row since he was in Scream 2 (which opened at #1 the week before Titanic came out) and then Titanic was #1 for a dozen or more weeks in a row.

BrianShort · 12-20-2007, 02:16 AM

Has it been 10 years already? I saw this 4 times in the theater, and once on a plane in 1998, but not once since then. I suppose now I'd better just hold out for the inevitable Blu-ray release! I really haven't had a desire to see it, which is strange considering I really liked it when it was in the theater. I actually remember the first time I saw it, it was slightly disappointed, but I chalk that up to reading too much pre-release hype. I found later I kept thinking about it after it was over, so I went again, and again, and one final time.

The backlash too for this movie is like nothing I've ever seen... even years later it still seems "uncool" to like it... maybe why I haven't seen it in almost 10 years. I know I have a different taste in movies now, so I'm curious to see how I'll react when I do finally see it again.

Brian

Nicholas Martin · 12-20-2007, 03:04 AM

The backlash against this film is entirely pathetic, and I can't for the life of me understand why any rational person would fall prey to it - sort of believing the anti-hype so to speak.

AbbyNormal · 12-20-2007, 04:15 AM

I remember when it was announced that the film had been pushed back from Summer to Christmas. The buzz around town was deafening: the film's a bomb, it's too long, Cameron can't let go of the film, etc. My feeling was: well, we're talking two laserdisc releases here (like the T2 releases, but then, how many DVD releases have there been of that film?).

I was anxiously awaiting this film for a number of reasons: I had been a Titanic buff ever since A) the premiere episode of "The Time Tunnel" which took place there, which led to B) reading Walter Lord's book about the disaster; reading other books on the ship; I was a huge fan of Cameron's films, with my favorite still being THE ABYSS-the longer version, which I was lucky to see in an actual theater in L.A. in 1993; I had also purchased the score-a review copy and my wife and I listened to it to get a sense of what Horner was going to do (best track on that disc: "Hymn to the Sea"-so hauntiing); and I wanted to see if they could make the experience real enough so that you actually felt like you were there.

I wasn't disappointed-no way.

I knew that the film would have a 70mm release, and since it was a Paramount film here in the US, there was only one place in L.A. to see it in that format-Grauman's Chinese. At the time, online advance ticket sales were just getting going, and I was lucky to get two tickets to the opening night right when they went on sale. My wife and I got there about an hour before showtime, and you could feel a sense of something really special going through the crowd. It was an eclectic mix of ages and more men than women, as I recall. We finally got in and got great seats and when the lights dimmed for the film, this whoosh of a roar went up from the crowd that gave me goosebumps.

A second roar happened when the title came up and from that point on, the film owned that audience. It had me in its grip, as well, and when that wonderful segue from the wreck to the docks at Southampton occurred, my wife turned to me and said, "We're getting this on video first day!" I barely heard her over the applause.

By the end, the vast majority of the people in that theater had been put through the wringer (you could hear many a sob, sniffle and opening and closing of purses to get kleenex), and even I felt a pang when Rose let go of Jack's hand and he faded away

. Even through the lengthy credits, not many left, with many discussing the film-and I saw a lot of animated discussions going on.

Is there some clunky dialogue? Yes, and unfortunately Leo has most of it, but I still think his performance has never gotten the respect it deserves, and compared to Billy Zane (Cameron's only misstep on the entire film, IMHO-imagine that role with Ralph Fiennes or Colin Farrell and what they could have done with it), he is Olivier. Winslet's performance is still outstanding, with overdue kudos to Bernard Hill and Victor Garber, as well. The visual effects work is still jawdropping, the attention to period detail a marvel, and Horner's score very listenable (even though I feel that his ZORRO score from the next year vastly superior).

I would love for the Arclight to show this film in 70mm (the last major release in that format) and since I haven't seen the film on a big screen since 1998, it just might be as much fun as that Friday night back in December 1997. I'm proud to say that I have Cameron's signature on two books, and I look forward to his next project-even if he is still cutting it two hours before the premiere!