419. Titanic (1997)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane

Director: James Cameron

Running Time: 194 mins

Titanic is an American film about a woman named Rose who tells the story of her experiences on the infamous vessel Titanic, and her deep romance with a poor, but charming young man while on board this trip that would change her life.

Well, there are two incredibly distinct parts to this film. The first part follows the characters of Jack and Rose, and establishes their relationship, giving you an emotional connection with the pair. Although it may seem quite long and dull (as it drags on for over 90 minutes), this part of the film is in fact vital to getting the full effect once the ship starts to sink.

Once the more romantic and setting bit is done with, this film moves into a fantastic stage: when the ship starts sinking. The remaining hour and a half of this film is a part filled with tension, excitement and immense thrills again and again.

I really enjoyed this part of the film, because it was much faster-paced than the opening, and it was consistently absolutely thrilling; I’m sure I ended up sitting on the edge of seat, biting my nails for the best part of an hour, as this horror of the sinking developed.

Not only is this sequence incredibly exciting, it’s also very emotional to watch. Minute after minute, people realise that life’s not worth living anymore, which is extremely sad to watch, but the willpower of Jack and Rose to stay alive is hugely inspiring, making you adore the two characters even more than you ever had done before. And then, when you think you’ve been through all the emotion possible, the ending arrives, and it is surely one of the saddest and close to tears scenarios I’ve ever seen.

Away from the story, this film also delivers highly. The characters were fantastically developed throughout, and the screenplay was consistently brilliant as the film went on, but what dazzled me the most was the visual effects.

This really managed to capture the scale and the horror of the disaster through its very realistic CGI and effects, convincing you more as you watch, and showing you that this horrific disaster was on such a scale that it was, well, titanic.

Anyway, overall, I’ll give this an 8.5, because although it started extremely slowly, it became an incredibly thrilling, emotional, horrific and enthralling story to watch unfold.