《泰坦尼克號》上演不到二十天，票房就超過了兩億美元，到1998年4月已近十壹億美元（國內票房為3億元人民幣）。它是美國電影史上迄今為止制作時間最長（五年），制作費用最高（二億五千萬美元），獲奧斯卡獎提名最多，獲奧斯卡獎項最多，票房最高的影片。在7O年的奧斯卡獎歷史上，只有1959年的影片《賓虛》獲得過11項奧斯卡獎。盡管如此，它卻與四項表演獎無緣。
美國第70屆電影藝術與科學學院獎(奧斯卡金像獎)於1998年3月23日晚頒發。故事影片《泰坦尼克號》***獲11項奧斯卡金像獎：最佳影片獎、最佳導演獎、最佳編輯獎、最佳插曲獎、最佳音樂獎、最佳藝術指導獎、最佳攝影獎、最佳視覺效果獎、最佳音響獎、最佳音響編輯獎和最佳服裝獎。該片拍攝歷時五年，耗資二億五千萬美元。《泰坦尼克》1997年底公映以來，獲得巨大的成功，曾獲得金球獎的四個獎項。
若要評選該片最風光的人物那無疑是集導演、編劇、制片人和剪輯於壹身的詹姆斯.卡梅隆了。提及此君，我國觀眾長不陌生他的《終結者》、《第壹滴血》、《異形》等作品早已是家喻戶曉，而在1994年，由他編劇導演、制片的《真實的謊言》更是在全球大獲成功，在我國的票房居然超過壹億元大關。他執導的《泰坦尼克號》，是壹部根據人類歷史上曾經建造的最大客輪－－"泰坦尼克"號那悲劇性的沈沒為背景拍攝的史詩性災難愛情片。
1997年，融合卡梅隆五年多心血的《泰坦尼克號》終於駛進全球各大影院。卡梅隆說："泰坦尼克號這艘夢之船的首航在噩夢中悲慘地結束了。正是人類獨有的弱點：傲慢、自負和貪婪將人類征服自然的雄心碾轉粉碎。我拍攝這部影片既想再現這艘巨輪既有濃重悲劇色彩的死亡之旅。又想展示它短暫而又壯觀的生命歷程。在劇中重現泰坦尼克號的美侖美奐，表現出的乘客和船員們的少激情、樂觀和希望的同時，在揭示這場災難中人類表現出的可歌可泣的犧牲精神。《泰坦尼克號》是警世箴言是壹面人類時時審視自已劣根性的明鏡。它還是壹則包融信念、勇氣、犧牲，當然還有愛的不朽傳奇。"在接受最佳導演獎時，卡梅隆還提議為"泰坦尼克號"沈船事件中的死難者默哀。
《泰坦尼克號》使全球的觀眾爭睹了詹姆斯.卡麥隆制造的這壹災難神話。不少女觀眾是淚眼汪汪地看完的，紛紛稱贊這是壹部弘揚偉大的人間真情的巨片，而且片子的視覺效果極佳，觀眾仿佛自己置身? 坦尼克號輪船上，與片中人物***同經歷了葬身大海的驚險歷程。然而，影評人士卻紛紛對該片提出批評，認為該片後半部分驚險、特技效果應貫穿全片，以突出災難片的份量；前半部分的愛情戲顯然畫蛇添足、無足輕重，完全可以壓縮；片長達三小時，使觀眾難以坐得住，也限制了該片單位放映次數等等。
《泰坦尼克號》的兩位主角萊昂納.多迪卡普裏奧（關於他最新的消息是勾引他人的老婆並威脅使用武力）和凱特.溫斯萊特也因該片而大紅大紫。
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Short of climbing aboard a time capsule and peeling back eight and one-half decades, James Cameron's magnificent Titanic is the closest any of us will get to walking the decks of the doomed ocean liner. Meticulous in detail, yet vast in scope and intent, Titanic is the kind of epic motion picture event that has become a rarity. You don't just watch Titanic, you experience it -- from the launch to the sinking, then on a journey two and one-half miles below the surface, into the cold, watery grave where Cameron has shot never-before seen documentary footage specifically for this movie.
In each of his previous outings, Cameron has pushed the special effects envelope. In Aliens, he cloned H.R. Giger's creation dozens of times, fashioning an army of nightmarish monsters. In The Abyss, he took us deep under the sea to greet a band of benevolent space travelers. In T2, he introduced the morphing terminator (perfecting an effects process that was pioneered in The Abyss). And in True Lies, he used digital technology to choreograph an in-air battle. Now, in Titanic, Cameron's flawless re-creation of the legendary ship has blurred the line between reality and illusion to such a degree that we can't be sure what's real and what isn't. To make this movie, it's as if Cameron built an all-new Titanic, let it sail, then sunk it.
Of course, special effects alone don't make for a successful film, and Titanic would have been nothing more than an expensive piece of eye candy without a gripping story featuring interesting characters. In his previous outings, Cameron has always placed people above the technological marvels that surround them. Unlike film makers such as Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, Cameron has used visual effects to serve his plot, not the other way around. That hasn't changed with Titanic. The picture's spectacle is the ship's sinking, but its core is the affair between a pair of mismatched, star-crossed lovers.
Titanic is a romance, an adventure, and a thriller all rolled into one. It contains moments of exuberance, humor, pathos, and tragedy. In their own way, the characters are all larger-than- life, but they're human enough (with all of the attendant frailties) to capture our sympathy. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Titanic is that, even though Cameron carefully recreates the death of the ship in all of its terrible grandeur, the event never eclipses the protagonists. To the end, we never cease caring about Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio).
Titanic sank during the early morning hours of April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic, killing 1500 of the 2200 on board. The movie does not begin in 1912, however -- instead, it opens in modern times, with a salvage expedition intent on recovering some of the ship's long-buried treasure. The expedition is led by Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton), a fortune hunter who is searching for the mythical "Heart of the Ocean", a majestic 56 karat diamond which reputedly went down with the ship. After seeing a TV report about the salvage mission, a 101-year old woman (Gloria Stuart) contacts Brock with information regarding the jewel. She identifies herself as Rose DeWitt Bukater, a survivor of the tragedy. Brock has her flown out to his ship. Once there, she tells him her version of the story of Titanic's ill-fated voyage.
The bulk of the film -- well over 80% of its running time -- is spent in flashbacks. We pick up the story on the day that Titanic leaves Southampton, with jubilant crowds cheering as it glides away from land. On board are the movie's three main characters: Rose, a young American debutante trapped in a loveless engagement because her mother is facing financial ruin; Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), her rich-but-cold-hearted fianc? and Jack Dawson, a penniless artist who won his third-class ticket in a poker game. When Jack first sees Rose, it's from afar, but circumstances offer him the opportunity to become much closer to her. As the voyage continues, Jack and Rose grow more intimate, and she tries to summon up the courage to defy her mother (Frances Fisher) and break off her engagement. But, even with the aid of an outspoken rich women named Molly Brown (Kathy Bates), the barrier of class looms as a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle. Then, when circumstances in the Rose/Cal/Jack triangle are coming to a head, Titanic strikes an iceberg and the "unsinkable" ship (that term is a testament to man's hubris) begins to go down.
By keeping the focus firmly on Rose and Jack, Cameron avoids one frequent failing of epic disaster movies: too many characters in too many stories. When a film tries to chronicle the lives and struggles of a dozen or more individuals, it reduces them all to cardboard cut-outs. In Titanic, Rose and Jack are at the fore from beginning to end, and the supporting characters are just that -- supporting. The two protagonists (as well as Cal) are accorded enough screen time for Cameron to develop multifaceted personalities.
As important as the characters are, however, it's impossible to deny the power of the visual effects. Especially during the final hour, as Titanic undergoes its death throes, the film functions not only as a rousing adventure with harrowing escapes, but as a testimony to the power of computers to simulate reality in the modern motion picture. The scenes of Titanic going under are some of the most awe-inspiring in any recent film. This is the kind of movie that it's necessary to see more than once just to appreciate the level of detail.
One of the most unique aspects of Titanic is its use of genuine documentary images to set the stage for the flashback story. Not satisfied with the reels of currently-existing footage of the sunken ship, Cameron took a crew to the site of the wreck to do his own filming. As a result, some of the underwater shots in the framing sequences are of the actual liner lying on the ocean floor. Their importance and impact should not be underestimated, since they further heighten the production's sense of verisimilitude.
For the leading romantic roles of Jack and Rose, Cameron has chosen two of today's finest young actors. Leonardo DiCaprio (Romeo + Juliet), who has rarely done better work, has shed his cocky image. Instead, he's likable and energetic in this part -- two characteristics vital to establishing Jack as a hero. Meanwhile, Kate Winslet, whose impressive resume includes Sense and Sensibility, Hamlet, and Jude, dons a flawless American accent along with her 1912 garb, and essays an appealing, vulnerable Rose. Billy Zane comes across as the perfect villain -- callous, arrogant, yet displaying true affection for his prized fianc? The supporting cast, which includes Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill (as Titanic's captain), and David Warner (as Cal's no-nonsense manservant), is flawless.
While Titanic is easily the most subdued and dramatic of Cameron's films, fans of more frantic pictures like Aliens and The Abyss will not be disappointed. Titanic has all of the thrills and intensity that movie-goers have come to expect from the director. A dazzling mix of style and substance, of the sublime and the spectacular, Titanic represents Cameron's most accomplished work to date. It's important not to let the running time hold you back -- these three-plus hour pass very quickly. Although this telling of the Titanic story is far from the first, it is the most memorable, and is deserving of Oscar nominations not only in the technical categories, but in the more substantive ones of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress.
(c) 1997 James Berardinelli