#83: Titanic (1997)

Oscar Winner:

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Effects, Best Visual Effects, Best Music (Original Dramatic Score), Best Music (Original Song), Best Sound

One of the great things about seeing films multiple times is that it can evoke an entirely different sentiment the second time around. People will always have films that they will revisit time after time, but I'm talking about a response that is the complete opposite of what you originally felt. How many times have you revisited a film from your youth and it wasn't quite as good as you remember? I had the exact opposite reaction to Titanic on second viewing. Like everybody else in 1997, I saw Titanic, but as a teenager, the romantic air of the film made me want to gag. Although I thought it was a good film, I didn't quite understand why it broke so many Oscar records. I wasn't necessarily looking forward to seeing it again, but much to my surprise, I couldn't believe how much I was swept into…. yes, I'm going to say it… a movie masterpiece.

Yes, even a young child probably knows that the Titanic was the ship that was said to be unsinkable, but the director James Cameron uses a forbidden romance between two social classes to guide us through the disaster. Torn between being her own person and high expectations of a fortune-bound marriage, spoiled Rose (Kate Winslet) reluctantly comes across an artsy, yet poor star-crossed lover in Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio). Jack slowly, but surely, starts to crumble the walls of society that Rose is so bound in, but just as the two decide to take the giant leap into forbidden devotion, an iceberg comes along and ruins their party.

Even though every movie pretty much has a three-act structure, people don't mind dividing this movie into two-halves; the romantic story and the disaster story. Although I think that the sinking of the ship is a far better part and as close to perfect filmmaking that there is, I was surprised by how much I got caught up in Jack and Rose's story. This film had to have a strong foundation for you to invest in a journey where you already know the outcome. Cameron does a brilliant job of flipping the tables and makes the unknown into what happens to this young couple. Although this romance can't help but reek of cheesiness (and is the reason for not quite making it a five-star movie), I emotionally bought into these characters as my teenager soul mocked me in the back of my mind. I'm sure Winslet and DiCaprio have to shudder a bit when they watch this film because their performances aren't necessarily the best ever, but you can for sure see the talent budding that has now made them the top tier of the acting world.

Now that I got that sappy stuff out of the way, I have to expound on how gripping the visuals of the Titanic going down were. Cameron uses special effects mixed with live action to perfection. You can definitely see the budget of this film on screen, but I was shocked at how well everything holds up here. It's been a long time since my eyes were literally glued to the screen and I was totally swept up by the impact of the impending doom. The editing of the disaster scenes are near perfect and I think what really draws you in is the secondary characters that bring a realness to the screen that is very much needed.

Titanic is a film that contains humor, romance, action, big-screen effects, drama, sadness, and most importantly, entertainment. I'm not quite sure why all those elements weren't so clear to me when I was sixteen, but thank goodness for this list to help me see the way.

I give Titanic, 4.5 out of 5 scandalous portraits.

#86: Platoon (1986)

Oscar Winner:

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Sound

As long as there have been movies, the war genre has existed. Many of the early ones, especially the ones that were focused on WWII, were very much American propaganda. As the 70's came along, so did a new whole style of filmmaking. It was never more apparent than the approach to the Vietnam war in the films Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter. Several years after those revolutionary films, Platoon came about with what I believe as a more inviting style, yet still maintaing its artistic integrity.

Based on Oliver Stone's actual experience as a volunteer (yep, a volunteer!) in Vietnam, Charlie Sheen plays Chris, a naive college student who quickly learns what a war experience actually is. As the atrocities and violence of the war wage on, Chris begins to discover himself. A battle of good and evil in the form of Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) and Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger) force the men within Chris' platoon to choose sides. A war within a war emerges as Stone explores the animalistic nature that comes both from physical and internal battles within man.

If a modern war film can be described as approachable, I think this is it. There are still some very violent and hard-to-watch scenes, but it's the strength of its characters that I believe made it win Best Picture. Especially with Dafoe and Berenger's characters. Dafoe is so hippie-like in his loving spirit and Berenger's is so menacing with his scarred grin, that I was totally shocked not to see them on AFI's list of Heroes and Villains. Their rivalry matches that of Ali and Frazier, and although the material is very dramatic, it's a lot of fun to watch. It's also really entertaining to see all the now famous actors that got their start in this film. There's the great character actor Keith David, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon (Entourage), John C. McGinley (Scrubs), Johnny Depp and many more.

The downfall of Platoon is the use of voiceover. Too many times Stone uses Chris to literally tell us what he is feeling instead of showing us. It's a very gripping film that holds your attention the whole time, but it's not one for me that draws me to come back. That said, I think it's a must see, especially if you like the war genre at all. It's a little bit easier to swallow than other war films and definitely holds up today.

I give Platoon 4 out of 5 night watches.