The Titanic Movie

The Titanic Movie

James Cameron's Titanic movie (released in December 1997) took the world by storm, much as the originalship earned the world's awe before her untimely demise.

How many oscars did the Titanic movie win? The Titanic earned its place as the most nominated movie in film history. In total, the film was nominated for a whopping 14 Oscars and managed to bring home 11 of the coveted awards. No other film in history had won that many awards.

Movie goers around the world were so taken by the movie's main characters, Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, that the Titanic earned Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Picture. Surprisingly, there was no Oscar nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the role of the ill fated Jack Dawson. While the movie went on to snag the Oscar for Best Picture, along with a host of others, Kate Winslet failed to take home the Oscar for her portrayal of Rose.

The Titanic's sound effects contributed to much of the film's success and were responsible for two of the Oscar nominations and wins: Sound and Sound Effects Editing. The Titanic movie also won awards for Original dramatic score and Original song.

The Story of The Titanic Movie

For the most part, the production team, script writers and actors of the movie strived very hard to make sure that the film portrayed the tragedy of the original ship's story as accurately as possible.

"Were Rose and Jack Dawson real passengers on the Titanic?" is a question I get a lot from readers. I hate to disappoint you, but there was no one aboard the ship with the same names as the movie's leading characters. However, a number of real characters were portrayed in the movie, including:

• Thomas Andrews: the builder of the Titanic.
• Molly Brown: 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown", in real life she took control of her lifeboat and rescued several survivors out of the water.
• Edward Smith: the captain of the Titanic.
• John Jacob Astor: a first-class passenger.
• Wallace Hartley: the Titanic's band leader who's band kept on playing music during the sinking. The last song played is called "Nearer, My God, to Thee". Here's an excerpt of the movie "A Night to Remember", where you can listen to the song:
  
• Many others...

The main (fictional) story is of course the love story between Jack and Rose, two passengers from entirely different social classes.

Jack Dawson

• Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio): Jack is a poor man from Wisconsin who has been traveling in Europe (mainly Paris). He wins 2 third class tickets for the Titanic in a poker game and boards the ship with his friend Fabrizio.
• Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Kate Winslet): Rose is a 17-year old woman from Philadelphia. Rose boards the ship with her fiance Cal (played by Billy Zane) and her mother Ruth.

Rose Dawson

Rose is pushed into a marriage by her mother for financial reasons. Rose is not happy with that and attempts to commit suicide. Jack saves her and there the romance and stories begin...

Of course Cal forbids Rose to see Jack, but of course she doesn't listen and falls in love. The romance goes on until the Titanic collides with the iceberg. They want to warn Cal and Rose's mother, but Jack gets framed by Cal and is imprisoned. While the Titanic is sinking, Rose helps Jack to escape and they return to the top deck.

Cal manages to persuade Rose to get in a lifeboat for a short while until she realizes she can't leave Jack. She leaves the lifeboat and meets Jack in the first-class stairway. Jack and Rose are being chased by Cal, who has a gun. Cal runs out of ammunition and manages to board a lifeboat.

Jack and Rose take refuge on the vertical stern, but eventually they are washed into the freezing Atlantic Ocean. They manage to grab a floating door, which unfortunately has only space for one person. Jack dies from the cold in Rose's arms. Rose is picked up by the RMS Carpathia, where she names herself Rose Dawson. There she sees Cal for the last time, looking for her.

Rose wearing the Heart of the Ocean

One of the major conflicts in the film centers around the location of an expensive diamond necklace, referred to as the 'Heart of the Ocean'. In the Titanic movie, the gorgeous jewel was presented to Rose by her fiance. The necklace had never been recovered and one of the last scenes in the movie reveals a much older Rose (the older Rose is played by Gloria Stuart), returning the necklace of the depths of the ocean.

In reality, while such a necklace did actually once exist, its location has remained a mystery since the one time owner of the necklace, King Louis XVI, died. There are no reports to indicate that the original Heart of the Ocean necklace wound up on board the Titanic.

The Making of The Titanic Movie

James Cameron started the production of the movie in 1995. He began by making footage of the wreck of the real RMS Titanic. A reconstruction of the Titanic ship was made in Baja California. Computers and scale models were used to create the images of the sinking. All this made that the Titanic was the most expensive movie of its time (about $200 million). Luckily the film was a commercial success and grossed almost $2 billion worldwide in box office sales.

The 1997 box office smash hit, while extremely popular, was not the only movie to have been made about the tragic sinking of the ship that had been labeled 'unsinkable.' In 1959, 'A Night to Remember' was released. The rights to this film were purchased by James Cameron, director of the Titanic movie, in order that he could use details of the older movie without fear of copyright problems.

The Titanic Soundtrack

The Titanic soundtrack was a gigantic success, the best selling US album of 1998. The soundtrack, composed by James Horner, is mainly orchestral with some singing done byCeline Dion and Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø.

The Titanic theme song, called "My Heart Will Go On" is written in secret because James Cameron didn't want vocals in the music. James Horner persuaded Celine Dion to sing and presented the song to James Cameron when he was in a good mood. After hearing it a couple of times, James gave his approval. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Titanic 2

There's a fake trailer of Titanic 2 going round on the internet, called 'Titanic 2: Jack's Back' or 'Titanic 2: The Surface'. It's an excellent made mashup with different clips from different movies. The story goes that Leonardo DiCaprio comes back from his watery grave with the help of modern science. It's hilarious, here's the Titanic 2 trailer:

A lot of Titanic fan fiction has been made, mostly stories about Jack and Rose, but alsoLego Titanic movies, just like this one: