It's been a quarter century, and we still haven't let go.
With entertainment.ie turning 25 this year, we're rolling back the clock to 1997 and revisiting movies on release during our site's early days. Each week, we'll take a trip down memory lane and come back with a movie you may remember, may have forgotten, or in this case, you've never let go of.
If you weren't around to see it, there's little chance you'd believe it. In 1997, 'Titanic' was everywhere. Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On' played on an hourly basis on every radio station in the land. In fact, so popular was the song that there were two distinct versions on regular radio play. One was the version we all know, but another version had lines and quotes from the movie interspersed with the soaring choruses and that inexplicable guitar solo in the middle of it all.
When we think back on 'Titanic', it's much the same idea. We can remember specific scenes, minute oddities like that man who lost his grip and then hit the chimney in a really weird way and fell into the chaos in an equally weird way. There's the old couple who grip each other tightly in a bed in full evening attire as the water comes in around them. Naturally, there's the steamed-up hand on the window. Even 'That '70s Show' had a gag about it. You'll recall Leonardo DiCaprio's flawless skin, unmarked by his schmiggy beard and you'll be able to hear the very deliberate "ICEBERG, RIGHT AHEAD!" every time before it happens.
Watching in 2022, 'Titanic' has a lot of different things going on. There is such a deliberate, intentional air of doomed romance to it that just would never fly in today's world. It's even in Celine Dion's singing, hearts going on, never letting go, a woman's heart holding all kinds of secrets, so on and so on. Audiences today could not abide that level of schmaltz, no matter how much we might like to convince ourselves otherwise. Our interaction with 'Titanic' feels equally nostalgic. It's not the kind of movie that lends itself immediately to reappraisal easily, because it was in itself an old-school tearjerker. More than that, everything that's been said about 'Titanic' has already been said.
There's been endless discussion about the impact 'Titanic' has had on everything from female empowerment and sexuality to how 'Titanic' spawned internet hater culture. People have relentlessly questioned why Rose didn't fit Jack on the door and worked out the buoyancy in order to prove it possible. It's not even enough that there's all this, but 'Titanic' still holds sway over box office records. For twelve years after its release, it was the highest-grossing movie of all time. The only movie that toppled it was James Cameron's 'Avatar'. It currently sits third, behind 'Avengers: Endgame' and 'Avatar'. Adjusted for inflation, it's still in third place.
None of this matters. It is still a landmark, formative piece of work. It's endlessly turned over in people's minds as either being utter tripe or the greatest movie of all time. There is no middle-ground whatsoever with it. Certified cool-guy director Robert Altman famously called it "the most dreadful piece of work I've ever seen in my entire life." He also poo-pooed 'American Beauty' in the same breath.
Ultimately, whether it's good or bad is irrelevant because 'Titanic' still stands the test of time as something that - if it takes you - never lets you go. It is nothing less than a compelling, formative piece of work that is on a scale with the likes of 'Casablanca' or 'Gone With The Wind', complete with a torch song that people still regularly belt out at weddings or funerals. Like the size of the ship itself, 'Titanic' is dealing with big emotions and is subtle with them like the ship's airhorn. When we first meet Rose, she's an elderly woman who immediately recalls her youth and meeting Jack like it was yesterday. That's exactly the kind of framing device that nails you to the seat from the very first beat. Even if you know how it's all going to end, that story is enough to get you on board. It just heightens everything that comes after because 'Titanic' is about how unknowable life is, and how it all changes so easily and forms on events like this. 'Titanic' was an event, and was formative for audiences.
Like it or not, it has that power and will continue to have that power for another 25 years.