Review: Titanic…Would’ve Ended in a Titanic Breakup (Spoilers)

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that pun, though?

*Breathes deeply, sighs happily*

Okay. That’s enough of that. On to today’s review.

Titanic came out in 1997 staring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and was the most expensive film ever made at the time, with – get ready for this – a whopping $200 million budget (which translates to $400,579,439.25 in 2025 due to inflation) and earned over a billion dollars at the box office, making it the highest-grossing movie ever made until Avatar came out. Since then, it has managed to retain its status as a classic movie close to 30 years later and you can see why. Though it’s a pretty simple story revolving around two young people on a boat headed for disaster, the script and set design does a lot to make it as immersive an experience as possible. Everything on the set’s version of the Titanic was made to match the original ship as closely as possible, which not only made the entire thing feel real, but also made it a character in the movie, which metaphorically speaks through characters such as the captain and Thomas Andrews, the architect who built the Titanic and perished with it, adding another level of tragedy to the film.

Another thing that makes this movie great is the fact that James Cameron, in his quest for historical accuracy, included a lot of notable people who existed in real life to the movie, including Molly Brown, Thomas Andrews, J. Bruce Ismay, Edward Smith, and John Jacob Astor. This made it feel almost like a historical fiction novel as we see the fictional characters interacting with the real people. The fact that the actors were also made to look as close to the real people as possible really helped with this.

Now, to get to the romance. While Jack and Rose are a cute couple, I felt that the romance was a bit generic and if Jack had survived, the romance would’ve gone done faster than the Titanic did. Of course, I’ve heard differing perspectives and opinions on this, but while there are certainly aspects of Jack and Rose’s relationship that are certainly healthy (like him letting her decide if she wants to date him or not), the whole thing feels very impulsive. Rose is looking for something different outside of her elite, upper-echelon lifestyle. She feels trapped and wants adventure. Jack, being lower class, lively, and very charming, represents that escape for her, making her fall for him very quickly. On Jack’s part, he’s with her because she’s pretty and he feels bad for her. It also doesn’t help that they’re on vacation, where there’s less accountability, more relaxation, and increased confidence (it’s actually been proven that being on vacation makes you fall in love faster because of those factors, hence those cheesy dating shows on Hulu). While it’s fun and games now, I suspect had these characters stayed together, they wouldn’t have lasted long once reality hit.

Also, the door would’ve supported both of them just fine. Mythbusters did an episode proving that. Just saying.

Until next time,

M.J.