What I love about James Cameron

[escher]

Dang, I just lost my scifi credentials for the rest of the week.

No worries. If you listen to Scott's audio commentary on Prometheus, you'll see that he's... not entirely coherent anymore either.

 

[Solopop]

Titanic is hands down one of my favorite film.

I'm like one of the few people who finds the Jack/Rose relationship really endearing and beautiful, like their subtle interactions and the way both want to escape from their own worlds and meet each other in the middle.

And then there's the entire ship and the sinking which is just amazing.

 

[mus]

No discernible reason?

Jack and Rose's story is a basic star-crossed lovers story, sort of echoing Romeo and Juliet. Like any of these rich/poor stories, you know that there are going to be hurdles for them to overcome and that if their love is to be accepted then they'll have to win over their friends and family. So all that seems like a pretty basic romantic storyline EXCEPT we're on the Titanic. So, from the first frame of the movie, we know how things are going to end. This brings a sense of inevitable tragedy (which in another story, at its best, would be a sense of foreboding) to their story, but also ramps the tension up. Not only are we focusing on their blossoming romance, but we're constantly on the look out for the point at which the ship is going to sink and their romance cauterised. And then, when the ship does sink, we have a massive third act that, ignoring the fact that it draws in an entirely new box office demographic, reenforces out commitment to the characters. We want them to survive! And we know that, in the case of the Titanic, there were hundreds of survivors and we already know that Rose has survived from the frame narrative. Whilst we know that her romance with Jack ends, we don't know how and we don't know what the significance of the ring is. We have invested an awful lot in the story of this woman who is standing above the wreckage of the sunken ship- and that final event is every bit as heart wrenching and evocative as it ought to be. This is a Shakespearean story where the audience knows that, at some point, an iceberg is going to come smashing into the plot and if that's not at least a little bit interesting, then I don't know what is.

if the only interesting part of a story is the subtext, then it isn't a good story. the story itself needs to be good, not just themes

 

[MileCreations]

I disliked Avatar because it was all about the special effects. Take away the special effects and 3D and it was an average movie at best. That, coupled with the fact that I felt like I was in some weird amalgamation world combining a Tarzan Playstation game with Pocahantas...

I also am not a big fan of Titanic, maybe I'm just not a Cameron fan.

I certainly respect him for the success he's had.

This is precisely what I said to my friends when it came out. I remember my Maths teacher telling me he watched it three times (at the cinema!) in the space of about 2 weeks; I couldn't believe it

Titanic is Romeo and Juliet on a sinking ship (apparently the pitch he used to the studio when selling the film) but it's still an incredible piece of work. As mentioned, Cameron is a geek and his love for the history around the ship is plainly visible through the film, if commercialised to meet a wider audience.

Kinda of funny then that Leo played Romeo only a few years earlier...

 

[insert_cliche_here]

True Lies. One of my favourite movies. That is what I like about James Cameron.