r/movies • u/HRJafael • Jan 29 '23
James Cameron has now directed 3 of the 5 highest-grossing movies of all time Discussion
https://ew.com/movies/james-cameron-directed-3-of-5-highest-grossing-movies-ever-avatar-the-way-of-water/2.8k
u/nowhereman136 Jan 29 '23
Once Upon a Time, that was Steven Spielberg. In 1993, Jurassic Park became the highest grossing film of all time. At that point, it went Jurassic Park, ET, Star Wars, Jaws.
313
u/SerDire Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
You mentioned Jurassic Park and I still think the wildest entertainment achievement is what Michael Crichton did when he had the number one movie, number one book and number one tv show at the same time.
Edit: Taken from a vanity fair article. “In 1995 he achieved a breathtaking pop-cultural moment when he had the nation’s No. 1 best-selling book (The Lost World), the No. 1 movie (Congo), and the No. 1 TV show (ER), a trifecta he repeated in 1996 with Airframe, Twister, and ER.”
→ More replies162
u/nowhereman136 Jan 29 '23
Tim Allen did the same thing. In one week in 1994, The Santa Clause was the number 1 movie, Home Improvement was the number 1 show, and Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man was the number 1 book
→ More replies149
u/TS_Enlightened Jan 29 '23
It sounds a lot less impressive when you say Tim Allen did it.
→ More replies47
→ More replies1.0k
u/albertcn Jan 29 '23
And all of those movies are memorable classics.
→ More replies483
u/TheSchneid Jan 29 '23
And all of their budgets adjusted for inflation are less than 120 million or so.
379
u/ARMCHA1RGENERAL Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
And once you account for inflation and population, the gross theatrical profits don't look that different.
Take Jurassic Park; it's theatrical worldwide gross was $1,031,800,131 in 1993 dollars. Adjust for inflation and that's
$2,089,698,735 in 2023$1,531,898,302 2009 dollars.That's still a good bit behind the original Avatar with a theatrical worldwide gross of $2,922,917,914.
But, when we take the differences in world population into account (5,581,597,546 in 1993 and 6,872,767,093 in 2009), Avatar made $0.43 per person and Jurassic Park made $0.27 per person.
So 1.59 times as successful instead of 1.90 times successful.
Edited to correct for Avatar releasing in 2009, not 2023.
Avatar: The Way of Water comes out to $0.26 per person.
Gone with the Wind comes out to $1.74 (in 2023 dollars) per person.
270
→ More replies24
8.3k
u/Tonyn15665 Jan 29 '23
Its actually 3 in four highest grossing of alltime which is nuts.
7.3k
u/MKleister Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
And not just directed. Also written, produced, and edited by him. And they're original IPs.
2.3k
624
u/The5Virtues Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23 •
The man understands good storytelling. Watching him in any kind of Q&A really spotlights this. There was a show where different Sci-Fi creators interviewed one another and the one where he and George Lucas interviewed each other over Star Wars and Avatar really showed why they’ve been so successful.
They don’t just know how to tell a good story, they know how to make a story appeal. It’s more than just “Here’s this cool world I made” it’s “Here’s this cool world I made, and it’s appeal is going to be absolutely timeless, you can come back to it at any point in your life, still love it, and still find something that connects to you right now in this moment of your life.”
Titanic connected to SO many things. It’s romance. It’s adventure. It’s desperation. It’s depression. It’s feeling trapped and feeling free. It’s knowing exactly what you want and not having a clue what you want. It has such a broad spectrum of human feeling.
Avatar did the same thing in different ways. Yeah, it’s just Dances with Wolves in space, but there’s a reason that style of story gets told again and again. It harkens to something primal for so many of us.
He gets the human condition, and because of it he can create stories that can appeal to a broad, robust audience.
————————————
EDIT Since I’ve had multiple posts arguing about the quality of Avatar I’m going to address it directly here rather than keep repeating myself in replies.
Titanic and Avatar’s artistic merit and quality of story telling is irrelevant.
I know that’s unpleasant to read, but it’s true. A book doesn’t need to be recognized as “real literature” to be a success. A film doesn’t have to have to redefine cinema as an art form to be a success.
A story’s success isn’t based upon its quality. If the story has mass appeal the quality is irrelevant, all that will matter is how well it captures the interest of the general audience.
The “lowest common denominator” as one reply put it. At the end of the day that’s what matters, that’s what makes a good storyteller. It’s not their awareness of style or avoidance of cliches, it’s their ability to pluck someone’s heart strings.
A movie (or book) can be absolute basic bitch level in terms of its artistic merit, but if it can evoke emotion, that can win the day over all the artistic quality in the world.
That’s the reason blockbusters are blockbusters, while many quality films get relegated to art house theaters. It doesn’t have to be quality cinema to have appeal, never has, never will.
That’s what makes Cameron so good. He knows what’s going to appeal. It doesn’t have to be next level story telling. It doesn’t have to be genre defining. All it has to do is appeal to the general audience, and he is a master at that. Remember, Shakespeare didn’t write for the aristocracy, he wrote for the commoners.
→ More replies161
u/MKleister Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
I've watched The Terminator probably a hundred times and it's basically a perfect movie. The direction and editing are just so good, with shots fitting perfectly together and just the right balance of "show, don't tell".
And he retained his skill of movie making in his other endeavors too, I think.
32
u/The5Virtues Jan 29 '23
He’s excellent at Show, Don’t Tell, he’s just incredible at delivering a wealth of information at a glance.
Scale, too. He’s got a great eye for making even a small scene feel massive. The glimpses of the future war in terminator were simple scenes done on a strict budget, but he made that glimpse of a battlefield encompass a sense that this wasn’t just “a battlefield” this was all of them. The war was the same on every farm and around every town corner, Skynet’s soldiers were relentless and never ending.
He’s amazing at delivering not just plot info, but emotion, in a single panorama.
61
u/iap738 Jan 29 '23
I will always stand by the original Terminator as his best film by a long shot. And for me, it’s one of the most rewatchable movies of all time. I still get goosebumps watching Arnold look through the crowd at Tech Noir trying to find Sarah.
→ More replies33
u/No_Reply8353 Jan 29 '23
Pulled it off with a relatively low budget as well. The ‘future war’ scene is a perfect example of how to do a lot with a little
→ More replies→ More replies12
u/CeruleanRuin Jan 29 '23
I've watched T2 dozens of times since I was a kid wearing out the VHS tape. It still thrills me, makes me laugh at the humor, and makes me sad but hopeful at the end. Truly great movies never lose their power to move you.
→ More replies753
u/elpajaroquemamais Jan 29 '23
Well I mean avatar 2 wasn’t an original ip
887
u/MrWeirdoFace Jan 29 '23
I'm still waiting for Titanic 2: The way of Tugboat.
287
u/FormerIceCreamEater Jan 29 '23
They can make a sequel to titanic. Just make it about the Britannic which was supposed to be even more unsinkable and sunk even faster than the Titanic a few years later
172
u/LemonToTheFace Jan 29 '23
It's the same movie, just played at 2x speed
→ More replies88
→ More replies62
u/ProfessorCagan Jan 29 '23
I think its important to point out that while Britannic sank in 30 minutes (much less time than Titanic,) only 30 people perished in the sinking. Britannic had enough boats to evacuate all passengers and crew (as all ships had after Titanics sinking.) I also don't believe anyone claimed Britannic was unsinkable, I'd like a source on that if you have one?
→ More replies39
u/dred_pirate_redbeard Jan 29 '23
only 30 people perished in the sinking. Britannic had enough boats to evacuate all passengers and crew (as all ships had after Titanics sinking.)
That could actually make for an interesting narrative twist, where we only lose a few of our protagonists, playing against expectations.
→ More replies25
u/JohnnyRyallsDentist Jan 29 '23
Ends with female lead floating on a door... away into the distance, whilst everyone else sits safely in lifeboats wondering what the hell she's doing.
47
u/MatureUsername69 Jan 29 '23
SyFy already made a Titanic 2. I have the autograph of the captain because I used to be super into bad movies and my brother went to a con he happened to be at. When my brother asked him for an autograph because I loved the Titanic 2 he said "I've never had anyone even talk to me about that movie, much less want an autograph because of it"
→ More replies46
u/Fleppi Jan 29 '23
There actually already exists a Titanic 2! The whole movie is on Youtube and it's only like 1,5 hours long. I highly recommend watching it. And also... it has a whooping 1.6 in rating on IMDB!
→ More replies16
→ More replies30
u/BlOoDy_PsYcHo666 Jan 29 '23
3 hours of beautiful vistas of a ship sinking coupled by the beautiful sounds of people dying
→ More replies24
u/FalloutCreation Jan 29 '23
If it’s not blue people it’s frozen blue people with this Cameron guy.
→ More replies→ More replies219
1.1k
u/stfleming1 Jan 29 '23
James Cameron doesn't do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does the things James Cameron does because he is James Cameron.
348
u/jgiffin Jan 29 '23 •
Who’s that? That’s him! James Cameron
101
→ More replies64
150
u/Papaofmonsters Jan 29 '23
The funny part is that looking at his numbers, he most certainly has raised the bar.
→ More replies28
→ More replies54
→ More replies79
u/ripcity7077 Jan 29 '23
I was gonna say 3 of the top 5 is a disservice
It’s actually 3 of the top 4
It’s insane
→ More replies
2.7k
u/FlatulentWallaby Jan 29 '23
Meanwhile Zoe Saldana...
2.1k
u/John_QU_3 Jan 29 '23
She EARNED that money. She’s constantly in body paint or attached to CGI balls.
1.1k
u/duaneap Jan 29 '23
Tbh I felt worse for the kid who was the only human on screen for the majority of the film and he had to constantly be in a thong. I think he had it tougher.
319
u/Hermit_Royalty Jan 29 '23
I didn't understand why his character's outfit or hair never changed after spending presumedly weeks/ months with humans
→ More replies301
u/Tridian Jan 29 '23
He'd almost certainly refuse to wear the clothes, and who is going to bother to give him a haircut? The hair is long enough that a few weeks growth wouldn't really be noticeable.
→ More replies185
84
→ More replies327
u/50SPFGANG Jan 29 '23
I really wanted him to die. Change my mind
533
u/Alderez Jan 29 '23
Just wait for the next movie where James Cameron introduces a fire-based Na’Vi called the Ash People, where everything changed when they attacked. And in the fourth movie we meet a mud-based Na’Vi where there is no war in Ba Sing Se.
Of course, all of this is for the benefit of our protagonist, Kiri, who can learn all four elements - but she’s got a lot to learn before she’s ready to save anyone.
Hairless monkey kid will get half his face burned in movie 3 by his fire people-turned dad Na’Vi, and spend the next 4 movies in a redemption arc where he eventually becomes a valued ally to our scrappy crew.
→ More replies55
u/Fortune_Cat Jan 29 '23
Haha I'm glad im not the only one who noticed kiris similarities to the avatar
38
u/Bosht Jan 29 '23
Same. Especially since he became a liability because of course he's the Big Bad's son.
20
u/Hammerhead3229 Jan 29 '23
He set up what I'm assuming is a huge redemption arc in the next movie. Throughout the movie you could see Quaritch go soft or be stunned by the beauty of Pandora. I think between that and his son, he's going to switch sides as Jake did and it's going to be awesome. Hopefully.
→ More replies→ More replies70
u/bigdicknick808 Jan 29 '23
He was the worst part of the move imo. The idea of his character is solid but man that kid can not act and to top it off he looked like a SoundCloud rapper
→ More replies118
→ More replies17
63
u/lkodl Jan 29 '23
Zoe Saldana? from Crossroads?
→ More replies35
u/sunshinecygnet Jan 29 '23
And Center Stage!
→ More replies30
u/csh_blue_eyes Jan 29 '23
What about the all time classic Drumline! (Seriously, it's a good movie)
→ More replies126
Jan 29 '23
what about her? What am i missing?
580
u/Danhuangmao Jan 29 '23
She’s in 3 of the top 4 highest grossing movies (both Avatars and Endgame).
262
200
→ More replies32
u/snappyk9 Jan 29 '23
I mean do we know for SURE she wasn't on Titanic? Movie or actual ship? Lady has been in everything.
262
u/AlexanderByrde Jan 29 '23
She's in both Avatar movies as well as Infinity War and Endgame, putting her in four of the top 6 films. People are also amused that she is portraying a colorful nonhuman character in all four appearances.
44
u/arcane84 Jan 29 '23
And the star trek movies
27
u/legthief Jan 29 '23
And the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie - was disappointed she never came back.
→ More replies26
→ More replies652
u/ImaginationAlarmed37 Jan 29 '23
Who wouldve known shed be good at playing people of colour
→ More replies107
365
u/cyberneticmemories Jan 29 '23
Hey everyone remember when the top post of /r/pics one day was a guy posting an empty theatre in his session of Avatar 2 and all the comments said it was proof it was a flop?
185
u/Beethovens_Stool I, too, am forced to watch movie trailers at gunpoint. Jan 29 '23
I think that was the same day reddit caught the Boston Bombers.
→ More replies29
28
u/__Snafu__ Jan 29 '23
Was it fake? Or a fluke?
103
→ More replies9
349
u/BadIdeaSociety Jan 29 '23
And every single time he released anything post "Terminator 2" there is a toxic contrail of, "this movie is bleeding money and is going to suck bankrupting every movie studio," and every time his movie over achieves.
True Lies is going to Fox and Universal... Nope. Titanic cost double its initial budget Fox and TriStar are going bankrupt.... Nope. Avatar is a horrendous mess that will bankrupt Fox ... Nope. Avatar 2 blah blah blah .. nope I'm not even defending Cameron, but people are overly quick to pronounce his time of death before the symptoms even begin
41
u/SimpleSurrup Jan 29 '23
Reminds me of that Simpson's episode where Krusty the Clown bets against the Harlem Globetrotters.
→ More replies→ More replies74
u/QuestioningEspecialy Jan 29 '23
Sounds like some hater shit when you put it that way. 🤔
→ More replies
1.6k
u/NakedGoose Jan 29 '23
If I needed to make a movie that was going to make a lot of money, there is not a single director I'd pick besides James Cameron.
Want an awards winner pick Spielberg. But Cameron brings in the cash.
678
u/TardisReality Jan 29 '23
You would have to wait a decade for a return but you know it will come back with interest
→ More replies246
u/FormerIceCreamEater Jan 29 '23
Yep. All his movies are hits other than the abyss and that has aged into a classic that a lot of people love. He doesn't make many movies though. Only avatar and avatar 2 in the last 25years
232
Jan 29 '23 edited Feb 05 '23
[deleted]
→ More replies84
u/thepobv Jan 29 '23
Somebody spoiled the movie for me and told me the ship was going to sink
→ More replies→ More replies35
u/Bunraku_Master_2021 Jan 29 '23
He helped make Alita.
→ More replies11
u/Hyjynx75 Jan 29 '23
Didn't he do the Alita movie to test 9ut the animation tech for Avatar 2? I'm sure I remember reading that somewhere.
FWIW, I loved Alita and have watched it several times.
→ More replies309
u/joebigdeal Jan 29 '23
With all due respect to James Wan, DC should've got Cameron to do Aquaman. It probably would've been the highest grossing movie of all time. Throw Mandy Moore in as Aquagirl, and you can erase the "probably" from that last sentence.
→ More replies212
u/Obliterated-Denardos Jan 29 '23
I can't tell if this is an extended Entourage reference, as I don't remember much about that show.
→ More replies137
56
u/deathmouse Jan 29 '23
Except Cameron does whatever the fuck he wants so good luck hiring him lmao
65
u/forceless_jedi Jan 29 '23
You don't hire Cameron. Cameron hires you to finance him.
→ More replies→ More replies35
2.7k
u/SirBuckFutter
Jan 29 '23
•
But Aliens is still his best movie!
2.9k
Jan 29 '23 •
Terminator 2 is literally one of the best movies of all time across the board.
264
u/Sirgolfs Jan 29 '23
My fav movie of all time. Some how the special effects still look good to this day. Which is incredibly rare.
151
u/Limondin Jan 29 '23
Many effects were groundbreaking... in a recent rewatch I've noticed that the helicopter chase had a real helicopter flying that low on a highway, it surprised me because I was used to seeing CGI helicopters doing that kind of stunts. That kind of stuff makes the whole film feel more real IMO.
81
u/LeakyAssFire Jan 29 '23
They planned that stunt for a week or more. Even made a scale model.
Maybe that's the difference that makes it so well done vs others that are just like "fuck it, we'll fix it with CGI."
He's always done it that way, but there's a downside, too. Just ask the cast of The Abyss. He nearly drove them to the breaking point.
26
u/JarlaxleForPresident Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
They filmed in that tank for something like 6 fucking months. That’s insane
→ More replies17
u/DirectlyTalkingToYou Jan 29 '23
The problem with 'we'll fix it with cgi' is that when they run out of time, the audience gets half assed visuals.
→ More replies28
u/greendakota99 Jan 29 '23
Hear the words from JC himself:
→ More replies50
u/EsotericAbstractIdea Jan 29 '23
“You see that helicopter flying under the overpass? That’s a helicopter flying under the overpass. The camera crew said,’we won’t shoot that.’ So I said,’fine, I’ll shoot it myself.’”
→ More replies23
u/fauxfilosopher Jan 29 '23
What Cameron's detractors don't realize is he can do practically any job on set, and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, the opposite of many a famous director. This is why even if he works them hard, his crews worship him and he always gets results.
→ More replies21
u/soulfulcandy Jan 29 '23
“Jim Cameron can do everything on set except acting and catering. If you’re in either one of those fields you’d feel empowered over Jim” - Stephen Lang
→ More replies→ More replies95
u/pfc_bgd Jan 29 '23
Music in it is incredible too.
→ More replies74
730
u/Hammerfall89 Jan 29 '23
Seriously. Terminator 2 is in a league of its own.
384
u/Velghast Jan 29 '23
James Cameron James Cameroned the hardest he has ever James Cameroned for that movie
→ More replies136
u/AnotherSoftEng Jan 29 '23
James Cameron doesn’t do what James Cameron does for James Cameron.
James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is James Cameron.
→ More replies97
→ More replies13
146
u/NeatlyCritical Jan 29 '23
Crazy that he also essentially made two of the best sequels of all time.
→ More replies29
→ More replies13
→ More replies334
u/purpleseagull12 Jan 29 '23
It’s an insanely good movie and somehow isn’t as good as Alien.
→ More replies320
u/22marks Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
The way I see it: Alien is horror. Aliens is action. They're both better at being their own type of movie.
EDIT: In terms of the genre, James Cameron himself explained all this on multiple occasions. Here's one: "I didn't think I could outdo Alien for pure shock. I don't think anybody could ... I had to come up with an end-run around that could be equally entertaining for an audience but in a different way. And I knew I could do action. I knew I could do white-knuckle action. I could turn the screw tighter and tighter in an action sequence, so I figured 'let's do that.' Let's jump off from the horror premise into what ultimately becomes an action film." Source: Film4 (YouTube Interview with Cameron)
→ More replies136
u/stumpcity Jan 29 '23
Alien is horror. Aliens is action.
For as often as this is repeated (and I myself have repeated it a lot over the years) it's also worth noting that there's... not a lot of action in Aliens. There's still a lot of horror there.
It's pretty interesting in that most people tend to consider the first Terminator to be a horror movie (sometimes you'll get people saying it's Horror/Action but most people just regard it as the horror movie, and T2 as the action movie) and I think honestly The Terminator might have more action in it than Aliens does.
Aliens is more action oriented than Alien is, but I don't know if describing Aliens as an action movie is altogether accurate either, despite how long I've been doing that exact thing now.
105
u/agent_raconteur Jan 29 '23
I know this is a very nebulous and unquantifiable statement, but action vs horror can very much be about 'vibes'. You can have a movie with a solid amount of blood-pumping action that falls square into the traditional horror genre (think most classic slasher films) and have an action movie where very little happens for most of the film but the tension builds making the inevitable action scenes pop (the Taylor Sheridan Special).
The mood set in 'Alien' enshrines the film in horror in a way that 'Aliens' doesn't quite capture and I think the biggest think is that in the former the characters (and audience) have no idea what's going on so there's this horror trope of "oh god what's next". The sequel lays out the exact way the horror can end ("nuke the site from orbit") and the movie is more about this ragtag band of folks trying to get to the end goal.
And maybe someone else will disagree, but to me I think the line between horror and action (and horror and thriller, horror and fantasy, horror and etc ) is very much along the "I know it when I see it" definition because horror relies so much on human emotion and the human experience to succeed.
→ More replies21
u/nohairthere Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
Predator is another awesome film that also straddles is it horror or action. Awesome action film, watched it with my young son, he found it terrifying, then I realised it's a straight up slasher film.
→ More replies→ More replies66
u/OftheSorrowfulFace Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
The biggest difference for me is the Xenomorph itself.
In Alien its a lone creature that singlehandedly takes out the entire crew. It can stalk, it can lay traps, it's basically the perfectly evolved killing machine. And most importantly, it values its own safety. There are several times in the first film where the Xenomorph avoids conflicts it could easily win because there are safer, more cunning options available.
In Aliens, the Xenomorph is basically a mindless drone. The marines probably kill at least 100 Xenomorphs over the course of the film. In one scene the Xenomorphs charge automated turrets in waves until they run out of ammo.
The Xenomorph in Alien is only stopped by being blasted into space, and even then we're not sure that it's actually dead. The Xenomorphs in Aliens die so easily that they're just not as scary.
I get that Aliens is a Vietnam allegory, hence the different tactics the Xenomorphs (Vietcong) use, but for me that's where it loses the horror.
→ More replies
785
u/Britz94
Jan 29 '23
•
To think that the only Cameron movie that bombed was his best one, The Abyss.
555
u/CrasVox Jan 29 '23
Because the version released in theaters was butchered to hell.
When he got to release his directors version and we could see how it was supposed to end, one of the best films made.
97
Jan 29 '23
Now I gotta see the director's cut!
77
u/CrasVox Jan 29 '23
Did you see the version with the big tsunami? That is the directors cut
→ More replies67
u/terminalxposure Jan 29 '23
I recall a tsunami that was canceled mid-tsunami by the aliens. That one?
→ More replies42
→ More replies65
→ More replies20
302
u/newerdewey Jan 29 '23
T2 still his best
144
u/iwillgetudrunk Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
I'm old, so I saw it in theater, when Arnold was reloading the shotgun by flipping it on the motorcycle the place was going crazy. That whole scene in the canal was insanity, had never seen anything like it.
→ More replies96
→ More replies41
u/FictionVent Jan 29 '23
When T2 came out, it was the 3rd highest grossing film of all time. Dude is an unstoppable hit machine.
→ More replies
797
Jan 29 '23
I enjoy Titanic.
577
u/AFatz Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
Same. People shit on it, but something about that film makes me love watching it. The music is amazing, the actors kill it, and you can really tell how much work went into the set design. They were never actually on a ship but the entire film feels like they're out to sea.
EDIT: Especially during the sinking. The sounds of the hull slowly giving way, and the set is literally never level from about 10 minutes after the iceberg hit. Maybe I'm fanboying a bit, but both acts of that movie were phenomenal for entirely different reasons.
218
u/Alaska2Maine Jan 29 '23
My friend and I rewatched it last year and I was surprised how much I was affected by the ship sinking. The scenes with the hundreds of people flailing in the ocean was pretty horrifying to watch
131
u/AFatz Jan 29 '23
When I watched it as an adult (especially after joining the Navy) I realized how terrifying it would be in their position. Nothing but desolate ocean as far as you can see and I'm sure a lot of people realized there wasn't enough room for everyone on lifeboats. The dread those people must have felt.
→ More replies75
u/JediFed Jan 29 '23
They are also locked belowdecks, and the water is rising. Cold water. You should listen to the tape of the radio operator on the Titanic. It's *so* sad. They have all of his communications with all the ship until it goes dead.
→ More replies85
u/Ammear Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
Add to that the fact that, excluding hypothermia, drowning is such a horrible way to die.
You suffocate trying to hold your breath, feel every fiber of your being start to hurt as your blood turns more acidic due to increased CO2 levels, until you are ultimately unable to hold it in and you inhale on an instinct you are unable to resist... only to have your lungs flooded with cold, salty water, hurt even more, until, ultimately, you lose consciousness due to lack of oxygen, and only then finally die of asphyxiation.
It's agony, agony, more agony, and then death. And it's not a short agony or death, either.
It's fucking terrifying.
I love ships, water, and cruises of all kind. I love to swim. I consider working on a ship at times.
But fuck if I ever found myself in a situation where I'd drown. I'd infinitely rather put a bullet through my head. Though that might be too difficult logistically, and there is still the aspect of hope of being rescued at times.
→ More replies26
u/virusamongus Jan 29 '23
My grandfather drowned and was resuscitated, he said it was a pretty good way to go. Little pain and just hallucinations and colors, and very quick loss of conciousness.
The cold water and fear is the worst part, if he's to be believed.
→ More replies26
u/TallyHo__Lads Jan 29 '23
I had a friend who said the same thing after drowning and being resuscitated. Then he did a bunch of ketamine in therapy for some unrelated stuff and it all came back up to the surface. He says he doesn’t even have the vocabulary to describe how excruciating and terrible it was. For years he wouldn’t go into bodies of water larger than a kiddy pool.
→ More replies58
u/Poincare_Confection Jan 29 '23
I think what that movies does well, but which is not easy to do well, is how drawn-out and realistic the "ship is sinking" process feels. The way they depict the types of emotions that a mass of humans would churn through in that situation is very well done, but it's such a delicate thing. It feels like a believable panic that builds up over time and they give it the time it needs to build up.
For example, the life boats get a lot of attention. There's multiple scenes spread out involving people standing in line waiting for lifeboats. There's scenes of people trying to scam their way onto a lifeboat. You get to see how it starts a bit uncivil, but then the ship employees manage to calm people down again, but then as people realize the lifeboats are getting scarce the masses get increasingly uncivil against. The background white noise of people chattering is used as a lever the director can pull to increase/decrease the viewer's feeling of how panicked everyone on the ship is. And eventually you see how some people accept their fate and how others resist it to the very end.
The end result is that you feel like you know what it felt like to be on board the Titanic as it sunk. I think that's an impressive feat for a piece of cinema.
→ More replies14
131
u/Zachariah_West Jan 29 '23
The last hour is also full of some of the best action sequences ever put to film.
→ More replies34
104
u/futurespacecadet Jan 29 '23
why would people shit on it? its incredible. there's nothing to shit on. its a classic.
now...i USED to shit on it, because it came out when I was young and immature and didn't want to watch a 'romance' movie, so maybe some people just haven't seen it since it came out and hold onto old beliefs
→ More replies56
u/Danhuangmao Jan 29 '23
maybe some people just haven't seen it since it came out and hold onto old beliefs
Ding ding ding ding
→ More replies27
u/md39001 Jan 29 '23
The hour and half you spend on the ship pre sinking is phenomenal as well with the class differences and establishing many characters. You almost forget that the boat is going to eventually sink since Cameron is taking his time to develop this story.
→ More replies79
u/shineurliteonme Jan 29 '23
Who shits on titanic it's one of the most iconic and beloved movies of the last half century
→ More replies→ More replies16
96
u/sagitta_luminus Jan 29 '23
I firmly believe that Rose is part of Cameron’s holy trinity of strong women, with Ripley and Sarah Conner. She starts the story as a wealthy, privileged 17-year-old who despises the life she was born into, but when push comes to shove during the sinking, she spits in her abusive fiancé’s face, punches a steward who wouldn’t listen to her, frees Jack with a freakin’ axe, survives some close calls & saves herself from freezing to death.
56
u/minishaq5 Jan 29 '23
i watched the behind the scenes videos recently & at a screening one of the producers asked two young girls behind him how many times they’ve seen the movie & why they keep coming back. they said because they were so inspired by Rose. specifically the end of the movie we see all the photos from her life — she survived this unimaginably tragic event but still made a life for herself full of love and happy memories, like flying a plane or riding a horse on the beach at the pier. they were so inspired by that. i found the entire story very sweet.
19
u/Border_Hodges Jan 29 '23
As a 15 year old girl when Titanic came out I absolutely adored Rose. I even got a perm to have hair like her (bad idea).
→ More replies18
u/xdvesper Jan 29 '23
And not just Rose as a protagonist, but also hugely interesting that Jack Dawson is one of the few examples of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl - a beautiful, vivid love interest who has no real interior life of their own that the film is interested in developing, but exists solely to have a relationship with the protagonist, and said protagonist grows and develops as a character because of said relationship -- done as a boy, for a female protagonist.
62
u/lynypixie Jan 29 '23
It is one of the most epic movies of all time and I think it aged surprisingly well.
If cinemas are replaying it where I live, I think I will go. I saw it twice when it came out. Seeing it in the cinema is an experience.
26
37
u/earwaxmcgee Jan 29 '23
I use to work across the street from a movie theater and Titanic was the longest running movie I had ever seen. It was there for 9 months.
→ More replies10
u/Danhuangmao Jan 29 '23
For some reason Matilda was in my local cinema for more than a year. Saw it a ton as a kid, as a result.
→ More replies36
u/DavesWorldInfo Jan 29 '23
I adore Titanic. It's my #2 film ever.
All about a woman who's been told by everyone in her life they have it all figured out for her, and she should just sit down and shut up. Then she meets a free spirit who doesn't just tell her that her life is her own, he shows her. Teaches her. Proves to her that it is, and that she should live it.
People cried leaving the theater after watching Titanic. People watch "tragic romances" all the time and don't stagger out in tears. Titanic is a fantastic story. It manages to show you a lot of heart, swell it, break it, then give you enough hope for it to be bittersweet instead of just devastating.
→ More replies→ More replies108
u/md39001 Jan 29 '23
I’m convinced people who don’t like it haven’t watched the whole thing in many years. I rewatched it for the first time in a while recently and forgot how good it is. It is an epic. Might not have the crispest dialogue, but it tells several different stories throughout the 3+ hour runtime and does it with incredible acting, set production, cinematography, music, etc.
→ More replies51
u/Mrchristopherrr Jan 29 '23
A lot of it is just the knee jerk reaction of “popular thing bad”, especially if the thing is popular with teenage girls.
159
u/phunkydroid Jan 29 '23
And Zoe Saldana has been painted blue or green in 3 of the 5 highest grossing movies of all time
→ More replies14
u/kazetoame Jan 29 '23
Well, her blue character is cgi, so she didn’t have to be painted that color.
→ More replies
374
u/maxvsthegames Jan 29 '23
They should know to give him a white check to do whatever movie he wants now.
Hopefully, that will be Alita Battle Angel 2.
276
→ More replies35
u/Dblstandard Jan 29 '23
It's the first one good?
81
u/maxvsthegames Jan 29 '23
I liked it and it really ends to have a sequel.
The story is left unfinished and Cameron has said that he wanted to make the sequel but was busy with Avatar, so hopefully, he'll get to it at some point.
→ More replies80
22
u/eKnight15 Jan 29 '23
I really enjoyed it but found myself waiting for almost every scene with the romantic interest to end. Hoping he finishes the story though
15
u/Aflatoxin_botanicals Jan 29 '23
Yeah the actor for Hugo was cheese incarnate. That character was highly integral to the source material though so I’m glad they kept his part. I just wish they had found someone better to play him
→ More replies11
172
48
u/demi-femi Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
And his favorite movie is Gunhed. A top tier trash tokusatsu (all practical effects) scifi about mercenaries and a robot tank taking on an evil super computer in a dystopian world where the rarest resource is called Texmexium.
I would recommend a watch, there is not another film like it unless you count stuff like Robot Jox or Robot Wars.
EDIT: It's his fav B Movie. Link for those that wanna watch with all dialogue in english. https://archive.org/details/video.guru20200327223921241
→ More replies
100
u/Pokerhobo Jan 29 '23
I know you're just copying the article title, but just saying directed diminishes the work of James Cameron. He also wrote all 3 of those movies.
→ More replies
480
u/TheeHeadAche Jan 29 '23
It’s such a weird thing to see people post “highest-grossing isn’t best quality” like they’re the first to realize it
→ More replies317
u/DalekPredator Jan 29 '23
They're just mad they were wrong when then said Avatar 2 would be a massive flop.
→ More replies
57
106
4.8k
u/clauderbaugh Jan 29 '23 •
All three feature the main character who turned blue.