NEXT TOP 10 + 2

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TOP 10 + 2

I have previously posted my Top 10 + 2 films, based on “watchability”, those films which you (meaning me) like to watch more than once and enjoy thoroughly for whatever reasons. Hence Groundhog Day was on the list, Citizen Kane is not, at least in my case never having had the urge to watch Citizen Kane more than once.

My friend Steve cringes at my choices.

The reason my first list was called Top 10 + 2 was that I had difficulty whittling the list down to 10. That list, with comments, was:

Zulu

Groundhog Day

12 Angry Men

Godfather

Rat Race

Sin City

Chicago

Pleasantville

Runaway Train

Blues Brothers

Blade Runner

Full Metal Jacket

Sometime later I posted my Second Top 10 + 2:

42nd Street

Soldier

The Castle

Captains Courageous

Goodbye Mr Chips

Love Actually

Rollerball

Life of Brian

Judgment at Nuremberg

Down Periscope

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Jeremiah Johnson

This was followed by my third Top 10 + 2:

Breakfast Club

The Enemy Below

The Searchers

The Quiet Man

Forrest Gump

Midnight Sting

Once Upon a Time in the West

Shawshank Redemption

Kill Bill

A Night at the Opera

Casablanca

Titanic

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Of those, the only one I hadn’t gotten around to writing about was Titanic, so I’m correcting that and will then start on my fourth Top 10 * 2 next week

TITANIC:

What a film. One forgets one is watching a movie, it feels as though we are observers on the actual events and persons involved. Titanic is a 1997 Directed, written, produced, and co-edited by James Cameron, this 1997 film is based on accounts of the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. It sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship up to that time. It remains the deadliest peacetime sinking of an ocean liner or cruise ship.

Cameron has long had a fascination with shipwrecks, and for him Titanic was "the Mount Everest of shipwrecks", his inspiration for the film. This came to the fore again by his public critical comments about the OceanGate disaster when, on June 18 2023, the submersible Titan imploded during a voyage to the Titanic wreck site, killing all five occupants on board, including company founder Stockton Rush. The Titan wreckage was found on the seabed about 500 meters (1,600 ft) from the Titanic wreck site.

According to Dalin Rowell of /Film, "With complaints about its lengthy runtime, observations that certain characters could have easily fit onto pieces of floating furniture, and jokes about its melodramatic nature, Titanic is no stranger to modern-day criticism." In 2002, filmmaker Robert Altman called it "the most dreadful piece of work I've ever seen in my entire life". Criticism has also been directed at the length of the film, the writing and script and the acting performances.

Nonetheless, I like it.

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Facts and Trivia:

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Cameron made the sketch of Rose which Jack purports to create. Above: the sketch of Rose wearing the Heart of the Ocean. The scene was one of the first shot, as the main set was not ready.

The hands seen sketching Rose are James Cameron's. In post-production, Cameron, who is left-handed, mirror-imaged the sketching shots so the artist would appear to be right-handed, like DiCaprio.

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Unlike previous Titanic films, Cameron's retelling of the disaster showed the ship breaking into two pieces before sinking entirely. The scenes were an account of the moment's most likely outcome.

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The elderly couple seen hugging on the bed while water floods their room were the owners of Macy's department store in New York, Rosalie Ida Straus and Isidor Straus, both of whom died on the Titanic. Ida was offered a seat on a lifeboat but refused so that she could stay with her husband, saying, "As we have lived together, so we shall die together."

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James Cameron went on 12 dives to the real Titanic himself, and found it an overwhelming emotional experience to actually see the sunken ship. During his first trip, he was so goal-oriented that he managed to film the shots he wanted, but as soon as he was back on the surface, he broke down in tears after finally realizing the magnitude of the historic tragedy that he had just witnessed. He ended up spending more time with the ship than its living passengers did.

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In the scene where the water comes crashing into the Grand Staircase room, the film makers had only one shot at it because the entire set and furnishings were going to be destroyed.

“Ready when you are, CB.”

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At $200 million, the movie cost more than the Titanic itself. The cost to construct the ship in 1910-1912 was £1.5 million, equivalent to $7.5 million at the time and about $120 to $150 million in 1997 dollars.

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Due to the long theatrical run of the movie, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox had to send out replacement reels to theatres that had literally worn out their copies.

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In a recently-completed investigation by Tim Maltin, he reveals that the reason the iceberg was not seen was due to a "cold water mirage." This is the opposite of a desert mirage. The multiple layers of cold and warm air cloaked the iceberg. Normally the iceberg could have been seen as far as 12 miles, giving Titanic 30 minutes to avoid.

This is revealed in his e-book "Titanic: A Deceiving Night" and his Smithsonian documentary Titanic: Case Closed (2012). This also explains why the Californian failed to receive the distress message "Come at once; we are sinking" that crew on Titanic signalled with Morse lamps.

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Initially, Céline Dion didn't want to record "My Heart Will Go On" because she didn't want to sing another film song and she didn't like it when James Horner first played it to her. After she was convinced by her husband René Angélil, she stepped in and recorded the song in just one take, so the song that was used over the end credits and later released is actually a demo.

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The last remaining Titanic survivor, Millvina Dean, was asked if she would like to attend the premiere but she refused, stating that watching A Night to Remember (1958) was painful enough. She was born 2 Feb 1912 and died 31 May 2009 at the age of 97. She never married or had children.