After 25 years, what made "Titanic" the most popular movie in the 1990s?

25 years ago, in the winter of 1997, international cinemas showed the movie "Titanic", which became an icon from day one.

It is a movie that captivated young men and women around the world, and reminded the older generation of the legendary movie "Love Story", which achieved similar success upon its release in 1970.

And here we are today celebrating the quarter-century of director James Cameron's film, which immortalized the giant ship through a very simple love story.

“Titanic” is classified as the third in the list of the highest-grossing films in history, after James Cameron’s “Avatar” in 2009, and “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019, by achieving $ 202 billion at the global box office, In addition to winning 11 "Oscars" to tie with "Ben-Hur" in 1959, and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" in 2003.

successful adventure

The permanent attraction of the story of the giant ship had already been exploited through books, plays, documentaries and other films long before the production of "Titanic", which made re-presentation again a great risk, especially since the global interest in it was limited to the United States and Europe only, but the film that It was born on December 19, 1997. It managed to captivate the audience even in countries where the story was not popular before.

The film's visual splendor and great attention to every detail cannot be denied, even for those who don't prefer romantic films, and make fun of the film's fast-paced love story and melodramatic escalation of events, as it is one of those Hollywood films whose makers had to build almost everything from scratch, instead of Simply rely on visual effects.

In the film, we see the moments before the disaster, the panic that the ship's passengers felt when they noticed their approaching death, the courage of some in exchange for the collapse of others through Cameron's camera, who presented, through sensitive and intelligent choices, that rare behavior of people who had reached the brink of despair and nearly drowned in the waters of an ocean without The end and the coldness of the atmosphere exceeded zero.

He presented that tragedy from the same angle of view that he adopted in the story of Jack and Rose.

Perhaps one of the most beautiful features of the film is the romanticism with which he presented the dying.

The film depicted a steadfast band playing despite the impending end, and presented those final feelings that are completely pure from the impurities of daily life, such as motherhood in its greatest form, love in its most delicate form, self-esteem, dignity and sincerity from the ship's designer who united with it in its sinking.

The Titanic may be just a giant ship whose owners imagined it not to sink, but the "Titanic Cameron" was the embodiment of a huge shipment of human feelings, manifested in the midst of a cold ocean and complete darkness, so that the ship itself becomes closer to a picture of human life itself in its diversity.

The huge budget of the film amounted to 200 million dollars, so it appeared luxurious at the time of its presentation until today, and the audience will not forget the opening scenes that show the giant ship from the top on the luxurious, shiny deck to the bottom in the engine rooms.

The tender romantic story is also one of the main attractions of the movie "Titanic".

Some would argue that a movie about a real shipwreck that killed more than 1,500 people didn't really need a fictional romance to make viewers care.

But the characters of Jack and Rose gave the film a different aspect from the usual disaster films, in addition to the inability of the plot to present a movie without characters related to it and wishing for its survival, and the love story that stands against all obstacles until death certainly has its own attractiveness.

The film has many small moments that spark tears and make viewers feel sympathy, such as the old couple in bed awaiting death, the mother putting her children to bed as the ship sinks, and the violinists who decide to play a last song .. scenes that were not completely fleeting, as evidenced by many people remembering them yet. A quarter of a century has passed since it was first viewed and presented.

Where are the stars of "Titanic" now?

Titanic was a great launch for its two stars, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Both of them were before this role at the beginning of their career, feeling their footsteps to find bigger roles for themselves, and they transformed overnight alongside stars whose pictures occupied the bedrooms of young men and women, and on clothes and all possible tools.

The two up-and-coming actors became icons, with their images taken from the film.

But many actors who achieved fame early on, and with a very successful movie, could not pass this stage and remained captive to one role, so what happened to Winslet and DiCaprio in the post-Titanic stage?

DiCaprio played the self-made Jack Dawson, a third-class passenger who wins a last-minute ticket to board the steamer, and upon which he falls in love with Rose, a first-class passenger.

Although many actors auditioned for the role, DiCaprio got it easily.

After the film, DiCaprio continued to play starring roles in many successful films such as "The Aviator" and "Inception", and he met again with Winslet in the sad drama "Revolutionary Road".

And after receiving 5 Oscar nominations, he won it for the first time in 2015 with the movie “The Revenant”.

Prior to the film, Winslet performed some of the distinguished roles in British films of limited fame, such as "Hamlet" and "Sense and Sensibility".

Without Rose's role, she would probably continue to do independent films until she reached stardom after at least 10 years.

The 21-year-old, at the time, beat out Hollywood actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow and Claire Danes, and Cameron cast her as Rose.

In 2009, Winslet won an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in The Reader and won an Emmy in 2021 for her role in Mare of Easttown.

She met up again with director Cameron for his now-out-of-screen movie Avatar: The Way of the Water.

And it was written for "Titanic" to enter the history books as the largest movie that presented the story of the famous shipwreck, and launched two stars who were able to make their way in Hollywood, to become one of its most important stars and win the highest awards, but most importantly, it is still in the memory of the public as one of the most prominent modern classic films.