Why Titanic Is a Terrible Movie
The blockbuster to end all blockbusters, 1997’s Titanic, directed by James Cameron was for many years the highest grossing movie in box office history. Setting off a chain reaction that would infect everything from pop culture to the antique market, Titanic is considered by many to be one of the best and most romantic movies of all time. I on the other hand loath Titanic for its sappy, sentimental story which left me rolling my eyes at the end of the movie.
Why People Absolutely Adore Titanic…
Titanic was released in cinemas a few days before Christmas in 1997 and would go onto make $2.187 billion dollars at the box office. Yes, I just wrote billion. I know I still can’t believe it either. Titanic was made for $200 million and for many years would be included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest grossing movie of all time. Today, that record is held by another mediocre movie with a weak story, Avatar, which made Cameron a billionaire two times over. He’s why I don’t believe in karma.
Titanic has an 88% critic’s score on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score of 69%, which means audiences obviously don’t care about Titanic as much as the critics did. While I think the audience score is also too high, I will say that it’s a better reflection on the longevity of this movie. Other than its box office success, not many people I’ve spoken to feel that Titanic holds up over time and I personally never thought it was any good to begin with.
Why I Hate Titanic…
I was 14 years old at the time Titanic came out and wasn’t able to see Titanic in the cinemas until a few weeks after it’s released. Why not? Every theatre was sold out for several days in advance. This was back before the internet, when people actually went out to see movies and selling out multiple showings of one movie wasn’t as uncommon like it is today.
When I finally saw Titanic, I was beyond disappointed. In fact, I’ve been forced to see this movie many times in recent years and every single time I feel nothing but disappointment. A big complain about Titanic has to do with the “history” in the movie. Since everyone knows that the ship goes down… Oh sorry, spoiler alerts for those who don’t know this historical fact… Cameron wrote in one of the most forced love stories I’ve ever seen on film. Yes, the ship hits an iceberg but the crew actually saw the iceberg minutes before the Titanic went down. However, for some reason the ship didn’t change course and therefore, the most devastating part of the film wasn’t even accurate. Up time that point, Cameron spent over 2 hours, and did I mention this film is 195 minutes long, setting up a sappy love story. Then in the end, Jack didn’t even have to die because there was plenty of room for him to lie next to Rose on that board.
Titanic is basically about forbidden love and one we’ve seen that done better about a hundreds times before. I mean, really? You have a movie about one of those most tragic and horrifying ship wrecks in modern history and we have to spend most of the run time with two teenagers from different worlds who are trapped in a forbidden love story? Come on, Cameron! You gave us Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, remember?
In the end, Titanic is not only THE MOST OVERRATED MOVIE EVER MADE, it’s also A TERRIBLE MOVIE.
Probably the only good thing to come out of this movie, other than making James Cameron unnecessarily rich, was that owners of titanic memorabilia/artifacts found their values skyrocket in price. That’s about it though…
Free the People publishes opinion-based articles from contributing writers. The opinions and ideas expressed do not always reflect the opinions and ideas that Free the People endorses. We believe in free speech, and in providing a platform for open dialogue. Feel free to leave a comment.
Tom Evans
The ship changed course, they simply didn’t have time to avoid the iceberg completely.
The problem with the film, was that it claimed they didn’t care about the lower-class passengers, treated them like scum, and locked them behind steel gates to drown like rats; and didn’t have enough lifeboats for them because they didn’t care, while they also ignored ice-warnings.
In reality, none of that happened: there were no steel gates, the lower-class passengers had more luxury than they were used to, and the ship had the standard number of lifeboats, and the ship did everything else according to standard procedure. They did NOTHING WRONG. The lower-class passengers simply didn’t get the lifeboats, because they were in lower decks for health-reasons; and naturally the top decks disembarked first. There was no “class conspiracy.”
Gina Mancuso
There was only 37 seconds from the time the iceberg was to react.
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Henry Franke
Sorry to be so late to the party, but after listening to coworkers gush about this movie, I had to find someone who agrees with me. I watched this in the theater, and had to leave and walk around twice because it was so bad. This movie sucks. It just sucks. You seem disappointed that James Cameron would make an overwrought not-great film, but I’m not. Alien was a masterpiece. Aliens was a horrible disservice to the original. I never finished Avatar, because it sucks. Thank you for agreeing with me, because that’s what the internet is for. 😉
danielle richter
Hi Mark! I enjoyed your review and thought that you brought up so good points (Balance) When talking about the technical and historical errors of the film though, I can totally see how there are some inaccuracies with the film, but it’s important to understand where the film is coming from. Cameron did not direct Titanic as a documentary, but rather, it is primarily for the purpose of entertainment, so I don’t think that historical accuracies were his main concern with the creation of the film. (Attitude awareness) While the movie was more of a sappy romance story, I believe that the audience that Cameron was appealing to was primarily younger women. You mentioned Aliens and Terminator 2 as being better than Titanic. Those movies were geared more towards men. I think that Cameron viewed this movie as a chance to change up the demographic of his viewership and create something beyond his usual genre of choice.
(Truth) While the movie was not entirely historically accurate, there are many elements of truth, and although what is shown in the movie did not all happen, the story was executed in a way that could still be considered highly realistic. (Dignity of the human person) Like you said, the love story can be a it sappy and dramatic at times, but it still highlights an incredibly important event in history in a way that is both impactful to the audience, and respectful to the lives that were lost that day. Some may argue that the story was too dramatic, however, I think that this element only amplified the emotional weight of the deaths. Without the love story between Jack and Rose, the audience would not have cared quite as much about his death. Jack’s death is incredibly crucial to the tone of the story because it helps the audience understand the weight of each individual life that was taken in the water that night.
(Inspire.) This movie talks about the sacrifices that people are willing to make for the ones that they love. Jack ended up dying for rose because the wooden door could not hold both of their weight, so he willingly froze in the water for her. Seeing this kind of heroic act truly can inspire the audience to love in greater ways. (Skill) Finally, there is no denying the true craftsmanship of the film. Between the cinematography, script writing, and acting, the movie is near flawless. Titanic provides engaging dialogue with an incredibly wide range of scenes. Whether you enjoy action, romance, or intellectually stimulating movies, Titanic can provide all of these. From a film perspective, Titanic truly hits every mark for what makes a movie truly good. I really did appreciate your insights though and I definitely agree with you on some points.