第1个回答 2013-10-17
Titanic (1997)
United States, 1997
U.S. Release Date: 12/19/97 (wide)
Running Length: 3:14
MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Mayhem, nudity, sex, profanity, mild violence)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill
Paxton, Bernard Hill, David Warner
Director: James Cameron
Producers: James Cameron, Jon Landau
Screenplay: James Cameron
Cinematography: Russell Carpenter
Music: James Horner
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Short of climbing aboard a time capsule and peeling
back eight and one-half decades, James Cameron's
magnificent Titanic is the closest any of us will
get to walking the decks of
the doomed ocean liner. Meticulous in detail, yet
vast in scope and intent, Titanic is the kind of
epic motion picture event that has become a rarity.
You don't just watch
Titanic, you experience it -- from the launch to the
sinking, then on a journey
two and one-half miles below the surface, into the
cold, watery grave where Cameron
has shot never-before seen documentary footage
specifically for this movie.
In each of his previous outings, Cameron has pushed
the special effects envelope. In Aliens, he cloned H.R.
Giger's creation dozens of times, fashioning an army of
nightmarish monsters. In The Abyss, he took us deep
under the sea to greet a band of benevolent space
travelers. In T2, he introduced the morphing terminator
(perfecting an effects process that was pioneered in
The Abyss). And in True Lies, he used digital technology
to choreograph an in-air battle. Now, in Titanic,
Cameron's flawless re-creation of the legendary ship
has blurred the line between reality and illusion to
such a degree that we can't be sure what's real and
what isn't. To make this movie, it's as if Cameron
built an all-new Titanic, let it sail, then sunk it.
Of course, special effects alone don't make for a
successful film, and Titanic would have been nothing
more than an expensive piece of eye candy without a
gripping story featuring interesting characters. In his
previous outings, Cameron has always placed people above
the technological marvels that surround them. Unlike
film makers such as Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin,
Cameron has used visual effects to serve his plot, not
the other way around. That hasn't changed with Titanic.
The picture's spectacle is the ship's sinking, but
its core is the affair between a pair of mismatched,
star-crossed lovers.
Titanic is a romance, an adventure, and a thriller all
rolled into one. It contains moments of exuberance,
humor, pathos, and tragedy. In their own way, the
characters are all larger-than- life, but they're human
enough (with all of the attendant frailties) to capture
our sympathy. Perhaps the most amazing thing about
Titanic is that, even though Cameron carefully recreates
the death of the ship in all of its terrible grandeur,
the event never eclipses the protagonists. To the end,
we never cease caring about Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack
(Leonardo DiCaprio).
Titanic sank during the early morning hours of April 15,
1912 in the North Atlantic, killing 1500 of the 2200 on
board. The movie does not begin in 1912, however --
instead, it opens in modern times, with a salvage
expedition intent on recovering some of the ship's
long-buried treasure. The expedition is led by Brock
Lovett (Bill Paxton), a fortune hunter who is searching
for the mythical "Heart of the Ocean", a majestic 56
karat diamond which reputedly went down with the ship.
After seeing a TV report about the salvage mission,
a 101-year old woman (Gloria Stuart) contacts Brock
with information regarding the jewel. She identifies
herself as Rose DeWitt Bukater, a survivor of the
tragedy. Brock has her flown out to his ship. Once
there, she tells him her version of the story of
Titanic's ill-fated voyage.
The bulk of the film -- well over 80% of its running
time -- is spent in flashbacks. We pick up the story
on the day that Titanic leaves Southampton, with jubilant
crowds cheering as it glides away from land. On board
are the movie's three main characters: Rose, a young
American debutante trapped in a loveless engagement
because her mother is facing financial ruin; Cal
Hockley (Billy Zane), her rich-but-cold-hearted fianc?
and Jack Dawson, a penniless artist who won his
third-class ticket in a poker game. When Jack first
sees Rose, it's from afar, but circumstances offer
him the opportunity to become much closer to her.
As the voyage continues, Jack and Rose grow more
intimate, and she tries to summon up the courage
to defy her mother (Frances Fisher) and break off
her engagement. But, even with the aid of an outspoken
rich women named Molly Brown (Kathy Bates), the barrier
of class looms as a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle.
Then, when circumstances in the Rose/Cal/Jack triangle
are coming to a head, Titanic strikes an iceberg and
the "unsinkable" ship (that term is a testament to
man's hubris) begins to go down.
By keeping the focus firmly on Rose and Jack, Cameron
avoids one frequent failing of epic disaster movies: too
many characters in too many stories. When a film tries
to chronicle the lives and struggles of a dozen or more
individuals, it reduces them all to cardboard cut-outs.
In Titanic, Rose and Jack are at the fore from beginning
to end, and the supporting characters are just that --
supporting. The two protagonists (as well as Cal) are
accorded enough screen time for Cameron to develop
multifaceted personalities.
As important as the characters are, however, it's
impossible to deny the power of the visual effects.
Especially during the final hour, as Titanic undergoes
its death throes, the film functions not only as a
rousing adventure with harrowing escapes, but as a
testimony to the power of computers to simulate
reality in the modern motion picture. The scenes
of Titanic going under are some of the most
awe-inspiring in any recent film. This is the
kind of movie that it's necessary to see more
than once just to appreciate the level of detail.
One of the most unique aspects of Titanic is its
use of genuine documentary images to set the stage
for the flashback story. Not satisfied with the
reels of currently-existing footage of the sunken
ship, Cameron took a crew to the site of the wreck
to do his own filming. As a result, some of the
underwater shots in the framing sequences are of
the actual liner lying on the ocean floor. Their
importance and impact should not be underestimated,
since they further heighten the production's sense
of verisimilitude.
For the leading romantic roles of Jack and Rose,
Cameron has chosen two of today's finest young
actors. Leonardo DiCaprio (Romeo + Juliet), who
has rarely done better work, has shed his cocky
image. Instead, he's likable and energetic in this
part -- two characteristics vital to establishing
Jack as a hero. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet, whose
impressive resume includes Sense and Sensibility,
Hamlet, and Jude, dons a flawless American accent
along with her 1912 garb, and essays an appealing,
vulnerable Rose. Billy Zane comes across as the perfect
villain -- callous, arrogant, yet displaying true
affection for his prized fianc? The supporting cast,
which includes Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Frances
Fisher, Bernard Hill (as Titanic's captain), and
David Warner (as Cal's no-nonsense manservant), is
flawless.
While Titanic is easily the most subdued and dramatic
of Cameron's films, fans of more frantic pictures
like Aliens and The Abyss will not be disappointed.
Titanic has all of the thrills and intensity that
movie-goers have come to expect from the director.
A dazzling mix of style and substance, of the
sublime and the spectacular, Titanic represents
Cameron's most accomplished work to date. It's
important not to let the running time hold you
back -- these three-plus hour pass very quickly.
Although this telling of the Titanic story is far
from the first, it is the most memorable, and is
deserving of Oscar nominations not only in the
technical categories, but in the more substantive
ones of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor,
and Best Actress.