You Sunk My Passenger Liner!

I generally like to think that I have a decent knowledge of films in general. I've seen many titles that are considered must-sees or classics by prestigious organizations like the American Film Institute. Typically I'll give anything a shot if it comes recommended by someone I trust. And of course, in recent years I've seen most of the major wide releases that were available, as well as a small number of lesser-known indies. However, I'm still a little behind on major films released in the past couple of decades. Here is a sample of some relatively recent films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture that I have YET to see: Toy Story 3, An Education, Milk, Frost/Nixon, Michael Clayton, Atonement, Babel, Munich, Brokeback Mountain, The Pianist, The Hours, Gangs of New York, Erin Brockovich, American Beauty, The Cider House Rules, Life is Beautiful, Good Will Hunting, the list goes on. There's barely a year you could find in which I actually saw all the nominees, and even a few in which I've never seen the Best Picture winner. One of those I've missed (or at ;east not seen all the way through) is James Cameron's Titanic. Released in 1997, Titanic was odd for Cameron in that the film was a serious drama, in stark contrast to his earlier excellent genre works Terminator, Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Tackling one of the world's most famous tragedies, Cameron's efforts were rewarded with not just a Best Picture win, but also a Best Director statuette for Cameron himself. And I never saw it.

Until now.

"I'm the king of the... no, you know what? It's been done."

Just about everybody by now knows the story of the RMS Titanic, the "unsinkable" passenger liner which struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and disappeared beneath the waters of the Atlantic within two and a half hours, taking all but 710 of its passengers with her. Cameron's story focuses on two young people; Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a young, poor artist who won his ticket in a card game; and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), a young woman from a rich family engaged to the stuffy Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). Against all odds and social standings the two meet and fall in love, and begin a relationship that would probably go on forever were it not for the events of that fateful day, 100 years ago...

Yeah, water perhaps adds a bit too MUCH atmosphere to the place...

I was excited to finally see this film for a few reasons. First, while I had certainly heard some grumblings about how Titanic did not perhaps deserve to win the Best Picture award, the fact is that it did; SOMEBODY not only liked this title but loved it. Secondly, watching the Titanic sink on the big screen has been described as one of the most amazing things recaptured in cinema. I've seen parts of the sinking on TV, but I'm sure we can all agree that the small scale likely wouldn't have done the sequence justice; I NEEDED to see this on the big screen. Finally, the 100'th anniversary of the ship's demise was the perfect opportunity for Cameron to re-release his Oscar winner; on top of that, Cameron's film was the perfect opportunity for those who wanted to honor the ship on the centennial of its death to do so in a fitting manner. Never mind that the film has been reformatted into 3D, even though Cameron was the man who made the technology so fashionable; post-production 3D has finally gotten to the point where it doesn't automatically suck, and I had been told by friends that Titanic's fate is all the more exciting when it's popping out of the screen. With these reasons in mind, I simply HAD to see for myself whether it would be worth the time..

Naked women... in 3D!

And in fact, it is that slow, deliberate sequence of the ship sinking that really makes Titanic worth watching. The exterior shots of the ship itself are striking enough; watching the whole thing sink into the inky darkness of the ocean on the big screen is a treat for the senses. Adding to the talents of the film's SFX crew, the 3D is also well done, though perhaps not to the degree it would have had 3D cameras been around at the time of filming. Still, even in post-production the 3D improves the visual feel of the movie to a high degree, and the sinking especially feels more immersive, drawing you into what was already your favorite part of the film.

"Listen to your friend Billy Zane. He's a cool dude." Name that movie!

The acting however, yikes. In all fairness, we have proven since this film's release that Leonardo DiCaprio can indeed act, as can many of the people who don't look like talented performers when up on this particular screen. You wouldn't know any of this from Cameron's screenplay however, and while Titanic set Cameron's places as a true mainstream director, it also seems to be the beginning of Cameron's ham-fisted screenwriting techniques, which we all saw later with Avatar. It's shocking when you consider how well-written Aliens and Terminator 2 were, but in Titanic the actors had to use every ounce of talent they have to overcome poorly-written and overly-hyperbolic dialogue and foreshadowing. DiCaprio, who was only 22 at the time, still hadn't developed as an performer, and it shows in his complete lack of commitment to the words he's given to speak. Winslet isn't much better but she at least throws herself fully into her role, and while her lines aren't any better written than anybody else's, she at least avoids becoming the train wreck in a shipwreck. Other failures are the overly smarmy Billy Zane, whose character is so obviously evil that one wonders why he wasn't given an eye patch or an ugly scar to complete the point, and Gloria Stuart as Winslet's modern-day counterpart, who painfully narrates the whole thing as if she's reading it off a teleprompter in front of her. How she was nominated for an Academy Award for this work confounds me.

May I have this last dance? You know, before we all die...

My father once described the movie Titanic in this way: the boat has so many unique and fascinating characters aboard, but the film itself focuses on the TWO LEAST INTERESTING. That this happens is obviously a mistake, as Titanic from the start carries the feel of an ensemble film, but relegates all the secondary characters to the side once the star-crossed lovers meet. What about historical character "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", played wonderfully by Kathy Bates, but a role that is so swiftly neutered that it's scary? Another good but little-visited role is Victor Garber as the ship's builder, Thomas Andrews. And Frances Fisher, who has one great line about what it means to be a woman in 1912, before being thrown out? Those are just the parts among the nobles though. How about Danny Nucci, Jason Barry and Jenette Goldstein as immigrants who are seen in the beginning but do next to nothing until the ship starts sinking? While Cameron does do a good job of examining the British class system, it matters little on the whole, and he leaves a lot of potentially interesting characters on the cutting room floor while he focuses so obscenely on his gag-inducing love story.

Seriously, I couldn't find any good images not featuring one of these two? Fail.

Still, in what was a major leap forward for his career, Cameron manages to do a great job of drawing you into the tale of this doomed voyage, despite his missteps. While some moments were far more awe-worthy than others, I couldn't help but be swept up in the story of one of history's greatest tragedies, even if this wasn't the way I would have made it. More than just a ship sinking (though not by much), Cameron's Titanic stands out in today's crowded market, even after fifteen years past. Maybe it's not the best film about the RMS Titanic, maybe it could have done more to illustrate all that went wrong on that bleak night in 1912. Still, you could do a lot worse to honor the memories of those who lived through that wretched night, and those who did not. If you were a fan of this film when it first came out, do yourselves a favor and check it out again. There are just some movies whose best attributes can only be appreciated on the big screen.

Alien Nation

Since I'm known as a movie guy in my circles (not THE movie guy, mind you; I'm still working on that), I often get asked my opinion as to what I think of certain films and genres. Some questions, for instance what I thought was the worst film EVER, are difficult. There are so many bad films released every year, you have to present the question to exclude the low-budget hack jobs that never should have been made in the first place. Even THAT doesn't necessarily pare down the list too much, as true scatological pieces like Waterworld and Red Riding Hood multiply in quantity each year. In short, some questions are so difficult that I may never have a true answer. Naming my favorite film is nowhere near as tricky. Long my movie of choice, Aliens has held a foremost place in my heart since just about forever. While I had been somewhat familiar with the series as a child, what really brought me into the franchise was the batch of Aliens toys that were released several years after that film's theatrical release, sometime in the early nineties. The toy series was loosely based on the characters and creatures from the film, and I had action figures of Ripley, Bishop, Apone and a few Aliens growing up. Later, my cousin showed me his VHS (no DVD back then) of Aliens, and it was love at first sight. It has ever since been my favorite title, and I will herald it as the greatest science fiction film of all time to any who will listen. With some free time on my hands and no compulsion to trudge out to the theater, I decided that I had gone long enough between viewings of My Precious, and enjoyed a perfect evening on the couch.

Campfires on LV-427 traditionally ended in bloodbaths

For those unfortunates not in the know, Aliens is the sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 space horror film Alien. Directed by sci-fi prodigy James Cameron, Aliens was a vast departure from the film that preceded it. Unlike the horror archetype that dominated the story of the original, the new film introduced action and adventure to the mix, with the liberal addition of guns, soldiers and explosions. Fifty-seven years after surviving the events of Alien, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) finally makes her way back to Earth frozen in a tiny escape capsule. After being thawed out, her warnings of an alien menace are ignored by "The Company", mostly because the planet where she and her crew dredged up the titular monster had become home to a colony in her absence, and none of them had encountered any problems. Not long after her warning, however, contact with the planet LV-246 is lost, and Ripley is asked/cajoled by her employers to return in the company of rough and tough Space Marines, assured that the mission is to go in and wipe the alien species out, once and for all.

"Got Milk?"

So what is it that makes Aliens so compelling? While the original is a classic, where it lacked was in the character development and plot aspects, two items that usually determine how much I appreciate a film. While Alien successfully introduced a brand new creature that still scares today, it did so in such a way that was somewhat derivative of similar horror fare, and the characters who died for our entertainment did so not as epic personalities, but big name actors (Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm) playing shallow roles. Now, don't get me wrong; I LIKED Alien. I really did. But Cameron just did such a good job improving on the original that it feels like a whole other storyline, not the part of a whole that it is in reality. It helps that at the time Cameron was at the top of his game, having just finished Terminator and soon to be going on to make the spectacular sequel T2: Judgment Day. I know I may have my detractors, but I believe Aliens to be his best work, and it's a shame that these days the vision he once had seems to be rather limited in scope to what he can do with technology instead of story. After all, The Abyss was tons better than both Titanic and Avatar, two films for which he has received far too much dubious credit. Back in the eighties Cameron not only made great movie but managed to create two of the most memorable characters in film history, and both just happened to be women: Ripley, and Terminator's Sarah Connor.

Now you're his SPECIAL friend!

Strong character is a staple of any good film, and back in the day Cameron was among the best at building a wealth of personality into his films. And it's not just the leads that get a steady stream of development. Watch the first scenes of Aliens aboard the Marine starship Sulaco: those sequences where we are introduced to the diverse and dangerous marines practically weep character. After just a few moments of dialogue and interaction, we can map their entire biography and everything important needed to care about them as people, not just future cannon fodder. Sure, Ripley runs the show, and why not? Sigourney Weaver is an amazing performer (and as a side note has gotten so much more beautiful with age), able to convey her lines not only through practical dialogue, but subtle shifts in her facial expression and body language. It's easy to understand how she became the face of the franchise, and any film based on the Alien trademark that doesn't have her in a starring role just feels wrong, which of course is why the horrid Alien: Resurrection brought Ripley back from the dead (and of course she was the best part). Still, the strengths of the bit players makes the film feel just right. As I mentioned, it only takes a moment to understand the habits and motivations of the characters: from Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews)'s guttural growl and tendency to follow orders to the letter, to Drake (Mark Rolston) and Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein)'s tight friendship and bulldog attitudes, to the smart-mouthed nervousness of Private Hudson (Bill Paxton), Aliens was populated by smart roles that never felt stuck in first gear. When Bishop (Lance Henriksen) did the knife trick and Hicks (Michael Biehn) fell asleep in his dropship harness, those were moments when you really felt CONNECTED to the film and its occupants, and it's something you rarely get to feel when watching action movies nowadays.

My sister would approve Ripley's liberal use of duct tape to face the Alien horde

Another amazing aspect introduced by Cameron (and consequently ditched by the succeeding sequels) was the role of Ripley as a maternal figure. This was a motivation he sought also in his Terminator franchise with Sarah Connor and her son John, and the question of what a mother will do for her child makes itself known here with Ripley caring for the orphaned Newt (Carrie Henn). It escalates to to such a point that even the final showdown between Ripley and the Alien Queen is practically mom against intergalactic mom. While there is some inherent danger perhaps in overtly defining a woman by her maternal instincts, that aspect is done so well here that it takes the film to a whole other level. Scenes between Ripley and Newt are so compelling that they could easily be made part of a completely dissimilar film and still make perfect sense. Once again it's that attention to getting characters right that makes the film move forward, not the tension of waiting for monsters to strike - although that is still quite good, now that you mention it.

"Get away from her, you BITCH!" The best line in ANY movie

So why is it I love Aliens? Sure, the special effects are amazing for their time and Ellen Ripley is the most kick-ass character I can think of in film. Aliens spouts tons of memorable lines (including the near-famous "Game over, man!") and characters of such strength and motivation they would be leads in lesser titles. It also features one of the scariest movie monsters of all time, a creature that commits atrocities not out of malevolence but out of survival and procreation. The alien even enjoys its best day in the sun as Cameron's interpretation of the alien "hive" is one of the most enduring myths of the franchise. Finish off with a story that tells smoothly and with no wasted bits, and you could say that the ENTIRE FILM is in fact the best part. As complete a film as I have ever seen, and easily the first example you should point out to people who insist that science fiction brings nothing good to the table. My all-time favorite.