Comments on: Of Titanic and screenwriting

By: GayPatriotWest

GayPatriotWest — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:06:45 +0000

Good point Leah, I wonder if Titanic will enjoy the shelf life of the great flicks of yesteryear.

By: GayPatriot » What Titanic Teaches Us About Movies

GayPatriot » What Titanic Teaches Us About Movies — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:02:47 +0000

[...] Of Titanic and screenwriting [...]

By: Leah

Leah — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:43:21 +0000

I think the only thing that sustains a movie is the dialog.

In the long run you are right, who nowadays watches Titanic? (aside from Dan who is a major movie buff). The classics are always the movies that have good dialog and characters.

By: heliotrope

heliotrope — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:33:15 +0000

“Titanic” did the job in presenting the luxury and the sinking. Besides doing that, it is all fuss and feathers. When you take a well known event and gin it up with a subplot, hardly anyone is going to the movie to see the old crone toss the jewels into the deep. As Daffy Duck famously said: “It is to laugh.”

Hasn’t this been proven with the tiresome regeneration of poor old King Kong? Who cares who the chick is? Bring on the ape.

By: American Elephant

American Elephant — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:33:19 +0000

Oh, I agree so much! Titanic was ALLLLLLL about the sinking! The popularity, the awards — it was ALL for the sinking scene (well, and a little bit for the period costumes, and sets.) That is such a well-known and romanticized moment in history, and they really were able to draw you into it and make you feel like you now know what it was like to have been there. The fact that the rest of the movie wasn’t SO bad that it overwhelmed this scene makes all the difference between a “Titanic” and a “Pearl Harbor”.

By: ThatGayConservative

ThatGayConservative — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:26:02 +0000

Maybe if it had been a documentary instead. If only we could dub Morgan Freeman or Sam Waterston narration over the dialog.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:24:02 +0000

I agree with all the above comments.
The SFX were excellent, the dialog marginal. But for all the money spent on the film, it was on the screen.
At a friend’s Oscar watching party, I voted for LA Confidential over Titanic, just for the story and dialog. Had I voted for Titanic, I woulda won the pool. Oh well…

By: Vince P

Vince P — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:26:50 +0000

I think the only thing that sustains a movie is the dialog. There will always be good eye candy, and every year the eye candy will be better than the year before.

In 10 years the only way your movie is still going to be cherished is if the characters are actually interesting.

By: Leah

Leah — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:23:28 +0000

Movies are a visual experience. There are those of us out there who love a good dialog, but I think we are in the minority.

So if the action, the sound, the scenery grab the audience – that means a lot more than good dialog and character development. We’re left with foreign and arthouse movies.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:20:11 +0000

You know, you’d think that with the millions of dollars spent on special effects, they could throw the screenwriters an extra $50k for plot coherency and good dialog.

Titanic was good for SFX, but you’re right – the screenplay sucked.

By: ThatGayConservative

ThatGayConservative — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:24:12 +0000

I like Titanic for its depiction of the horror during the disaster. It may not be that realistic, but you sorta get a sense of what it must have been like and what the people were doing/trying to do to survive. I could have done without the romantic plot and what not.

By: LesbianNeoCon

LesbianNeoCon — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:02:38 +0000

I have always thought the writing was for crap, and that LA Confidential SHOULD’VE won the Oscar that year, for best picture, over Titanic. That, and some years earlier, the refusal to award best picture to Pulp Fiction, and, instead, give it to Forest Gump, cemented my boycotting of the award show. Not the FG was a bad movie, but Pulp Fiction was superb, and because it wasn’t some mainstream pile of tripe, it didn’t win.