While the movie rides the line between action, romance, and tragedy, there are countless moments that tug at our collective heartstrings, no matter how many times we watch. As we approach the film's 25th anniversary, read on to remember all the "Titanic" scenes that still make us cry.
Despite the large-scale nature of the tragedy, many of the most heartbreaking scenes in "Titanic" focus on individual people and their attempts to survive. Due to the film's lengthy runtime, several moments are worthy of your tears. Here's my inventory of the 12 saddest moments in Cameron's "Titanic."
But the biggest highlight of this Titanic movie was the emotional narrative that kept the audience invested. Yes, the focus was on telling the story of the Titanic and what led to the sinking but there were other elements that were also showcased.
The romance in "Titanic" is inconsequential, but the sacrifice at the end is incredibly moving; by the time the two young lovers are clinging to the floating debris, we are completely and truly inside the film, sharing their experience and identifying with it.
Given what the movie is about, you can expect that there were a lot of these in Titanic. In fact, for a while, the film surpassed Bambi as a byword for "a film which makes you cry" (which was probably spurred on by having that reputation starting two days into wide release).
However, even with a ship the size of Titanic, the suction created will be so minimal that the only way it would affect you is if you were clinging to her as she sank, allowed her to pull you under for a while, and THEN started swimming for the surface. Cameron's film was accurate on this regard.
The Titanic is another famous story of forbidden love. The love of Jack and Rose is forbidden because Rose already has a fiancé. Their love is forbidden by Rose's mother who sees Jack as a threat to Rose's upcoming wealthy marriage.
The scale and accuracy of the titular ship were mind-blowing to audiences at the time, and its mix of practical and computer-animated effects was revolutionary in 1997. Titanic's accuracy was so widely praised that it set a new standard for period pieces, which became a popular genre in the subsequent years.
"The film Titanic depicts what we believed was an accurate portrayal of the ship's last hours. We showed it sinking bow-first, lifting the stern high in the air, before its massive weight broke the vessel in two," Cameron said.
Not surprisingly, Titanic has a PG-13 rating for disaster-related peril and violence, nudity, sensuality, and brief language. And yes, 13 years old feels about right for this movie.
In the final scene of the movie, Rose, who has lived a long and fulfilling life, returns to the site of the wreck and drops the diamond into the ocean, symbolically letting go of the materialistic values that had constrained her earlier in life and embracing the memories of the love and experiences that had shaped her.
Inevitably, he says, there were some injuries during filming. One man landed on his ribs in the water, breaking them in the process. “That was quite naughty,” he says.
Known for its comfort instead of speed, the Titanic and its sister ships the Olympic and the Britannic were filled with an ornate interior like a large first class dining room, four elevators, a swimming pool and a grand staircase.
Especially when you hear them have so much hope in the wireless messages that their loved ones were picked up by another ship. The sinking would be quite scary but the screams for help would be more horrifying. Even scarier, there was no light on the horizon, it was pitch black.
Did anyone cry after watching the movie Titanic (1997) for the first time? I cried so much my eyes started to hurt. Even if I think about how jack sacrificed himself for Rose , it bring tears in my eyes. Maybe because it was so pure and beautiful and it doesn't work that way in real life.
Gallup noted that while Titanic's fictionalized and tragic love story between Jack and Rose has often been viewed as a “chick flick,” the poll found that almost as many men (56%) wanted it to win Best Picture as women (60%).
Meanwhile, the closest ship, Californian, didn't receive Titanic's distress calls at all. Its wireless operator had switched off his receiver and gone to bed after Phillips told him to shut up. Amateur radio operators also interfered with messages, making it difficult for Titanic to communicate.
The conference drew up rules requiring that every ship have lifeboat space for each person embarked; that lifeboat drills be held for each voyage; and, because the Californian had not heard the distress signals of the Titanic, that ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch.
While Titanic director James Cameron, who celebrates the 20th anniversary of his Oscar-winning film on December 19, took some artistic license on the moment, the ill-fated lovers in the scene are based on two very real people: Isidor Straus, 67, and his wife Ida Straus, 63.
There are fears that during retrieval, the Titanic wreck would disintegrate into pieces, making it impossible to have something concrete by the time the remains reach the sea surface. There are documented reports that metal-eating bacteria has already consumed most of Titanic's wreckage.
This is because extreme pressure could lead to the ship disintegrating. An issue that has always been prevalent surrounding the lifting of the RMS Titanic is the volatility of the remaining vessel.
First class passengers had the highest survival rate at 62 percent, followed by second class at 41 percent, and third class at 25 percent. Women and children survived at rates of about 75 percent and 50 percent respectively, while only 20 percent of men survived (Takis, 1999).
