The night of April 14, 1912 was a dark evening for thousands of passengers above the new White Star Liner, Titanic. That night, the biggest ship ever built to that date struck an iceberg and plunged to the bottom of the sea, taking with it around 1,500 souls, sparing only several hundred. The result? Director James Cameron’s new $400 million dollar production entitled Titanic. The movie begins in present day where Brock Lovett (played by Bill Paxton) and crew are underwater, in a submarine, viewing the ship’s wreckage. Lovett had been searching for 3 years for a 56 karat diamond that Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Kate Winslet) had been given by her fiancé, Cal Hockley (played by Billy Zane) on the ship. When Lovett does come across a safe in her stateroom on the wreckage, they take it back to the surface, and open it, only to find a drawing, mud and decayed ruins. That day, Lovett goes on TV to announce his findings. The 101-year-old Rose (played by Gloria Stuart) happens to see "herself" in the drawing on the news and calls Lovett. She and her granddaughter are flown to a ship in the middle of the Atlantic to meet with Brock. Rose then begins to recall her experience on the Titanic. Back in April of 1912, a young traveling artist, Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), wins a ticket for Titanic in a poker game and sets sail with an immigrant friend of his on the tremendous ocean liner’s maiden voyage. On the ship, he sees Rose and immediately falls in love with her, without even meeting her. One night, troubled by her engagement to Cal and feeling hopelessly trapped in her rich family’s lifestyle, Rose runs to the stern (end) of the ship and climbs over the railing, contemplating suicide. Fortunately, Jack had seen her run by and assists her to safety. The next hour of the movie consists of their interaction with each other and how they fall in love, etc. And half-way through this 3 and a half hour movie, fiction collides with fact, and the Titanic strikes the gigantic iceberg. The rest is history—mixed in with this fictitious love story, of course.

The movie, in itself, is fantastic, but like all current movies, is tattered with unnecessary flaws. The PG-13 rating was obviously bought, due to a nudity scene where Jack draws Rose in her room and her breats are seen multiple times. The drawing is shown with her bare chest as well as a scene where Rose looks through a book of Jack’s drawings where some contained full-frontal nudity. Also, unnecessary language was used, including nearly 30 uses of blasphemy, and approximately 32 curse words, including the "f" word.

The film also includes disaster-related violence and deaths. In one scene, a crew member, holding off panicking passengers with a gun, shoots two of them. Seeing what he's done, he shoots himself in the head. Although they show him pulling the trigger, the scene immediately cuts away to him falling into the sea. Other scenes show people falling into the water, or hitting things, as they fall into the water. Another shows Cal shooting at Jack and Rose as they flee from him. And near the end of the film, ghostly frozen bodies are shown floating dead in the ocean water.

But you're probably wondering, and with reason, how the movie could possibly be good with all these flaws. The acting is excellent. Not a bad actor in the bunch. The portrayal of the Titanic sailing and sinking is breathtaking & mesmerizing. The sinking is very intense & very suspenseful. The scenes of the underwater wreckage is phenomenal and the special effects are amazing! The storyline is good, and is quite humorous at times, in the midst of its seriousness and tragedy. This film is very depressing and sad.

I won't spoil the details of the film any further, but the realization of the tragedy of this event is quite evident. Personally, I was left rather depressed for a day after the movie and I constantly pondered its content, but my friends and I couldn't help thinking about how wonderful this film is. Don't get me wrong, I was very disappointed in much of its content and I don't condone it at all. So Please use discretion before viewing this film. If you have any questions or comments about the film before you see it (if you decide to), feel free to contact me.