Titanic

No, it's not 1997. Remember when The Titanic was the biggest movie EVER? Everyone was talking about it, there was all the controversy about the nudity, and Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't on Growing Pains anymore?!?! I remember everyone carrying on about that movie forever!!!! Well, I never watched it. It's not like I sat down and refused to watch it. I just never did. It was two VHS tapes and freaking LONG!!! I was sure that it was good, but I also knew that it was about a huge tragedy and chances are, even with a new movie to highlight the event, people would still die in this version. I also have a really hard time with ship sinking, people drowning movies.

For example, it's New Years Eve, 1989 (probably) I'm in 4th grade. My father decided to rent Poseidon Adventure to accompany our supply of soda and peanut butter M&M's. I could hardly stand this movie. I STILL have nightmares which involve a HUGE wall of water moving towards me, wiping out everything. Where did I see that? Poseidon Adventure. At one point I remember I was sitting on the top of the back of the couch and my brothers teasing me, "Linda, are you trying to get out of the water?!?!" I was freaked out!! I don't like watching people drown and die. This experience may have contributed to my not rushing out to see the Titanic.

I graduated high school in '97 and went away to college and this movie was such a big deal. I think after a while it became kind of fun for me to tell people when they were talking about it, that I hadn't seen the film and couldn't really participate in their discussion. A few months ago I noticed that the movie was on TV. I was working and had nothing else to do and I watched like 20 minutes of it. All I saw was Leo handcuffed to a beam and water rising, then Kate Winslet finds an axe and miraculously hacks perfectly to cut him free and then they try to get up on deck. I still didn't think I was missing anything.

Last Saturday I was working again. One of the new girls wasn't able to go on a visit with her family and Titanic was her favorite movie. At 6:00 we started watching Titanic. I warned her and the others in the room that I hadn't seen this--scoffs and bafflement followed for a few minutes--then I told them I was excited to see it, AND that I'd try to control myself and not freak out. I told them before hand that I have severe issues with drowning, blatant disregard for human life, and cocky wealthy people who think they rule the world at the expense of others.

At 9:30ish we finished, I think. I had to flee the room once, when they were shutting the emergency doors and people were still stuck in the boiler room to drown. I have a hard time with that. There were a few times when I had to apologize because I was pointing out some things that didn't make sense (can't remember what that was now), and when I was yelling about people making stupid decisions when their education and intuition know better. That whole Titanic sinking thing could've been avoided. And I LOVED when they showed the frozen baby and kid screaming in the hallway, and the mom singing her kids to sleep with the water rising. That stuff was awesome!

Overall though, I actually really liked it. I realize it's a cheesy love story and I could've done without the old lady throwing the diamond in the ocean-the batty old hag. But seriously, I liked it. I really liked the characters and the filming itself was pretty cool. AND I liked that somehow I made it out without having that Celine Dion song stuck in my head!!! (I've had that Air song stuck in my head all weekend-Celine couldn't even trump that) I doubt I'll ever sit through it again, but I'm glad I've seen it. I thought it was good.

Now I'm wondering what other movie can replace Titanic for being an epic film that everyone loves, everyone should see, everyone knows it, but I don't? hmm, Schindler's List?