Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Titanic (1997)
Friday, July 1, 2022 at 3:33AM by Nathaniel R and other Best Shot participants
As our season finale (series finale, too, at least in this format) we thought 'Why not go down with the ship!!!' The RMS Titanic to be specific. Twenty-five years on James Cameron's Oscar-winning prestige disaster film Titanic (1997) is still giant with audiences and one of those rare movies that "plays" for everyone.
After the jump the choices from the Best Shot club...
BEST SHOT. Chills. Everytime. No one does grace notes in action sequences more impactfully than James Cameron.
Nathaniel's Choice
Titanic is the last film I remember seeing with most of my family intact (during a Christmas break). All-family movies that aren't specifically for children are rare nowadays making James Cameron's Titanic a kind of avatar (sorry) for the last days of adult-aimed mainstream cinema. Almost everyone loved his Oscar winning spectacle at the time and though all true phenomenons have their detractors, in the moment and afterwards, this Movie Movie is still widely loved today. For my own shot, I chose a quiet beat in the middle of action, but one that gives me chills each time. Nobody does grace notes in massive setpieces as expertly as James Cameron. His breath-catching moments let you feel multiple things at once, but never take you out of the action but just further inside of it. It's as if you were there (his spatial awareness -- an extremely rare skill in contemporary cinema -- helps, too with hthe latter)
But I wanted to choose a second shot as well and one that reminded me of my father since it's the last movie I remember seeing with him. My father wasn't very into movies but the family would go on occassion (almost always when I was cajoling them). On this occassion it was Christmas break so a rare chance for most of the family to be together. We went to Titanic. My dad predicted the whole way to the theater that the film would get everything wrong and seemed to fancy himself as an expert on the history of what happened with the ship (he was an engineer so this reveal made a kind of sense). But even he was bowled over by the experience. Most of us were all "Jack and Rose *sniffle*" walking out but my dad marvelled over and over at the accurate details within the action, specifically between the ship and the iceberg, the flooding, the strange way the ship fell apart and why.
Credit here to Titanic's sneaky prophetic structure. James Cameron actually tells us twice, both visually and in dialogue exactly what will happen with the ship; It's first mapped out for us with computer generated visualization in the prologue with Old Rose (Gloria Stuart); Later, there's a more frantic partial explanation, Victor Garber's hands bouncing along a blueprint of the ship, pronouncing with absolute certainty that the ship will sink. And then we see it all a third time, visually only, as it plays out exactly as told. Each time we're closer to the dread moment in history until we're inside of it. That so much suspense is generated despite all the warnings (and the common knowledge true story) is a true mastery of cinema. I think the secret for the emotional involvement is that James Cameron continually juxtaposes the macro and the micro, and not just by alternating between character-focused shots and epic wideshots but often juxtaposing the two. Consider...
the four leads all in the same shot: the iceberg, the Titanic, Jack and Rose.
the macro and the micro at once.
Ryan's choice (see directly below) is actually the shot I immediately thought of when dreamily remembering that first screening of Titanic with my family. It's what I like to imagine my dad's choice would have been. It's a strangely chilling pause, like you're perched at the tippity top of a rollercoaster, waiting for the inevitable fall and bloodcurdling screams.
Ryan's Choice - read his full thread on twitter
The incredible birds-eye view of Titanic completely vertical before plunging into the water. It's a terrifying climax & a masterpiece in effects. I'll never let go.
Juan Carlos chose dozens of shots including this one in his perceptive passionate thread (it's his favourite movie.
Just when the final shot of the dome explosion scene is over, it cuts to black. Then succeeded by this menacing long take that sees the destruction of a hallway. At this point, Cameron has already embraced the ship as another character so this shot is a big gut punch...
Cláudio Alves' choice - read his fine thread on Twitter for many other observations
James Cameron’s 1997 magnum opus represents cinematic spectacle in its highest caliber. You can’t get much grander than this, from the epic-sized sets to the cornucopia of inventive special effects, the majority of which still hold up. And yet, despite its immensity, some of Titanic’s most potent images find small beauty amid the grandeur, instances of human respite within the action set pieces. Re-watching the Best Picture winner, I was again reduced to a puddle of tears. I was overwhelmed by the tale’s sorrow, the romantic melodrama that shines brightest when Cameron’s camera comes closer to the players, right into the land of memory and subjectivity, loss and romantic ardor. Sure, the disaster picture filmmaking is impeccable, but so is the old-fashioned love story – both equally visceral, though playing at different scales.
And that, in the end, is why the film works so well, why it’s aged marvelously despite an ocean of naysayers ready to point their fingers at the project’s perceived corniness. Rather than sustaining the high emotion through the flimsy characters, the camera’s the one in charge of guiding our hearts through the tragedy of Jack and Rose. The sentimentality blossoms from the frame’s construction, how it plays with class dynamics translated through space, closeness and distance, longing and bliss, the fairytale perfection of sunset skies, and the carnality of a lover’s gaze. My favorite shot showcases such marvels at their most operatic high-point, when romance has been trapped in a watery apocalypse, separation looming like an inevitability.
How does one capture love so great it transcends reason, the survival instinct? Well, you don’t do it with text, acting, psychology, or intellect. Instead, you appeal to primordial forces that exist in an ineffable state within us all, the love for splendor, the propensity for sensual euphoria. You do it through form, by framing Leonardo DiCaprio like the most devastatingly beautiful thing on Earth, a fuzzy POV that looks like what one might see when tears cloud one’s eyes. Behind him, a cascade of flares lights up the night sky, like stars falling into oblivion or fragments of a shattered halo. So why does Rose abandon the lifeboat and jumps back into the sinking ship? Because when she looks at her beloved, she sees this shot.
Thank you for reading along and gawking at beautiful movies with us this season. Here's everything else we covered.
- Klute (1971) an astounding Jane Fonda star turn in this paranoid hriller
- Yentl (1983) Streisand did everything and did it well in this "film with music"
- Ex Machina (2014) spellbinding sci-fi
- Fire Island (2022) a sexy funny meaningful Jane Austen adaptation
- Happy Together (1997) Wong Kar-Wai's impressionistic romantic drama
- Spider-Man 2 (2004) Sam Raimi's classic. They don't make em like this anymore
- Alexander Skarsgård Special (2008-2009) True Blood and "Paparazzi"
- The Last Picture Show (1971) dying small town bursting with sensational actors
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothersayers (1954) the problematic merry musical
- The Godfather (1972) Coppola's Best Picture winning mob classic
- Romancing the Stone (1984) the deliriously enjoyable romcom adventure
- West Side Story (2021) Spielberg's musical remake
- The Conversation (1974) Coppola's paranoid thriller and abstract wonder
- All That Heaven Allows (1955) Douglas Sirk's influential melodrama
- Nightmare Alley (2021) Guillermo del Toro's psychic-grifter noir remake
Reader Comments (8)
I always looked forward to this series—I didn’t usually have any idea what my pick would have been, but the essays you wrote were always so interesting and so insightful. This series was like a primer in film—I was introduced to a lot of movies here, and I like to think I even learned to start appreciating the craft of making movies a little more through the series. (For the record, I don’t think I ever actually participated—maybe once or twice—but that’s all down to my own lack of technological abilities to get just the right screenshot, combined with my total lack of social media presence. Anyway, point is, I just wanted to make sure I dropped a note of appreciation for the best shot celebration.)
My parents rarely see movies especially when I was younger. I've been better as an adult, like you, cajoling them to see one movie a year (around Thanksgiving or Christmas almost always). But they DID take me and my younger brother to see TITANIC in theaters because the hype for it was THAT huge and inescapable. They sat behind us and I was CRINGING the whole time during the drawing scene because of course I was.
All that to say, yeah it was and is still a great movie. I love that you mentioned my shot reminded you of a roller-coaster because that was my EXACT thought as well when I first saw the film. That FEELING of this exciting, but terrifying roller-coaster ride is what that moment is for me even after multiple re-watches.
Excellent shots from you and Claudio as per usual. Your shot feels spiritually linked with mine and your "four leads together" snapshot made me gasp. How have I never noticed that? Anyways, it's been an immense pleasure participating in HMWYBS series with you guys this season.
My personal best shot would be one of Kate Winslet going down the hallway with the axe in her on hand and holding onto the ceiling with the other while being submerged in water up to her waist. That scene always gives me a chill when I see it.
Claudio hit the nail right on the head with his top choice, but also with his entire thread of honourable mentions.
I remember being a kid and snatching the double VHS (!) out of the entertainment center for a long evening in front of the TV lolll.
The way you all wrote about this movie is brilliant - makes me wanna watch it again. It brought me back to exactly how I felt watching it back then. Epic.
It was, and still is, a great movie. It's great that you said that my shot reminded of a rollercoaster, as that is exactly what I thought when I first watched the movie. Even after many re-watches, that feeling of excitement and terror on the roller-coaster ride is what this moment means to me.
Claudio and you both took excellent shots as usual. I feel spiritually connected to your shot and my "four leads together" photo made me gasp. It's amazing that I didn't notice this before. It's been a great pleasure to be a part of the HMWYBS series this season.
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This series was like an introduction to filmmaking. I was exposed to many movies and I think that I learned to appreciate the art of making movies through this series. (For the record, I don’t believe I ever participated in the series--maybe once or twice. But that’s due to my lack of technology and my lack of social media presence.
Tech Insight Today is a tech-accredited platform that accedes readers to read and writers to write about finance and technology stuff, business ideas, and what’s happening in the crypto and security realm. The platform indulges a multitude of visitors from different industries.
This series was like an introduction to filmmaking. I was exposed to many movies and I think that I learned to appreciate the art of making movies through this series. (For the record, I don’t believe I ever participated in the series--maybe once or twice. But that’s due to my lack of technology and my lack of social media presence.
Tech Insight Today is a tech-accredited platform that accedes readers to read and writers to write about finance and technology stuff, business ideas, and what’s happening in the crypto and security realm. The platform indulges a multitude of visitors from different industries.