Spoiler Alert: I've never let go!

Movie: Titanic

Rank: 83

Year: 1997

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Bill Paxton, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart

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Within my pajama drawer, you will find two t-shirts with the title art for Titanic printed below the neckline on the back. If you flip them over, you will find one adorned with four sepia-toned faces of a young, charismatic 90’s Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson looking off in different directions. On the other shirt, Jack is hugging a bold, 17-year old Rose DeWitt Bukater played by Kate Winslet.

Originally my dad brought back these shirts for my then stick-thin older sister; I believe off a street vendor in South Korea. As her interest in Leo waned, I inherited these remnants of Titanic fever.

Neither shirt has aged gracefully, rather the photos are slightly cracking and the fabric is tattered. However, these shirts are miraculous, only akin to those traveling pants worn by Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Amber Tamblyn. If this happens to be the post that garners readers other than my average of four, I must say my thighs are not the only thunderous part of my body. It could be said my body type falls under “curvy” or “voluptuous.” Once, in a friend-generated Farmer’s Only account, it was even described as “tell ya later.” Yet, these shirts, much like Rose’s heart, will go on and on.

Lightly sings, building to a belt, “Every night in my dreams, I see you, I feeeeelllllllll youuuuu…”

"I'll never let go, Jack. I promise."

- Rose, Titanic

Now, if your talents aren’t in inferencing, let me be overt: of all the movies on this list, Titanic is not only the one I have watched the most, but also the one I loved the most. It definitely is in my top 10 favorite movies of all time, maybe even my top five. Coincidentally, or cursedly depending on your take, I was born 81 years to the day the RMS Titanic hit that iceberg in the late hours of the evening. At the mere age of four, thanks to my parents’ lack of due diligence, I sat next to them in the theater as Jack and Rose fell in love.

At this point, I typically go into some breakdown of the plot, or characters, or really any number of aspects about the films I watch. It seems absurd to me any reasonable, breathing adult on God’s green earth who has access to electricity hasn’t seen this movie, but if you haven’t, hit me up. I have more than one copy.

Let’s just say, the story of Romeo and Juliet seems like two cousins kissing in a back alley compared to the epic romance James Cameron puts on the screen in performances which should have swept the Academy Awards.

Structured as a frame story, Bill Paxton stars as Brock Lovett in modern (as in 1997) day. Brock and his crew are searching the now sunken Titanic in hopes of finding a missing necklace featuring a giant blue diamond shaped as a heart known as the “Heart of the Ocean.” While he comes up short, he finds a drawing of a naked woman wearing that very necklace. It gets broadcast on the news where an elderly woman instantly recognizes herself and makes her granddaughter accompany her to the ship. When questioned, the elderly woman takes them back to that ship and how she knew the artist, Jack.

Jack, the American abroad, wins tickets at the literal last second for he and his friend to board the ship bound for the United States. Rose, born with the privileges of “Old Money,” is the ever-sassy, trapped young woman engaged to a man for his wealth and the necessity that brings for her and her mother’s prospects.

I will take this moment to say in no uncertain terms that Cal, her “dutiful” (read: emotionally and physically abusive) fiancé is the worst. However, as my favorite faux-psychic detective* would say, “There’s something very Billy Zanian about him.”

It is an explicitly upstairs-downstairs situation, as Rose is on the upper deck with the wealthy while Jack is down below with the working class and rats. While she caught his eye early on, as any soulmate would, they don’t meet until Rose is holding herself off the edge of the boat contemplating suicide rather than the life of misery and restriction she was facing in 1912. As he talks her off the actual ledge, she slips and he doesn’t let go. You will come to realize the same cannot be said for her. Mistakenly arrested, and then invited to dinner as thanks, Jack finds himself spending time with Rose, her mother, Cal and the “Unsinkable Molly Brown.”**

Like the cartoon wolf with bulging hearts as eyes, these two fall fast and hard. Soon, they are drinking and dancing amongst the poor, spitting off the ship and looking through his sketches of the colorful French women he has drawn. The next thing you know, they are having steamy sex in a car on board. It all leads to her wanting to be like those French woman, asking to be drawn wearing nothing but the “Heart of the Ocean.”

As the ship hits the iceberg, they track down the ship builder played by Victor Garber who confirms things are dire. Soon, however, Cal sets up Jack for attempting to steal the necklace, he gets handcuffed to a pipe and Rose has to use an axe to save him while the water starts rising. On the surface, Jack convinces Rose to get on a boat with the other women and children, but she jumps back to the ship to be with him as it descends to the ocean.

This is where my, and every other viewer’s, snark sets in. Maybe if she had stayed on that boat, Jack would have been on the floating door they end up with as an alternative. Maybe if she had scooted her ass over, he could have laid next to her and they could have aided each other with body heat. Maybe she could have suggested alternating who stayed on the door so Jack didn’t freeze to death, causing her to claim she’ll never let go despite physically letting go.

I must say, I understand she is speaking metaphorically, but literally, what the fuck? Even MythBusters proved they could have both stayed on the door, albeit only if they tied her life-jacket underneath. They were a resourceful duo; they could’ve figured that shit out. James Cameron may go on-and-on about how he had to die, and the door would’ve just been made smaller if he realized, but really, what does the writer-director know?

Either way, Jack dies unceremoniously and tragically, sinking into obscurity, while Rose is able to get saved thanks to a whistle off one of the many floating, frozen bodies. At this point, her mom has stayed on a lifeboat and Cal has kidnapped a child in order to convince them he needed aboard. I just cannot say enough what a class act he is, as the child’s actual father let it happen so she’d survive. Faced with naming herself as they try to discern who survives, she takes on Jack’s surname and restarts life as Rose Dawson, going on to live an exciting life, with love and babies.

The audience soon comes to realize Rose is in possession of the necklace, wearing the jacket with the necklace they planted on Jack. She held onto it for all of those years without anyone knowing. I am assuming Customs wasn’t as diligent back then. In the middle of the night, she walks to the edge of the modern-day boat and drops the necklace into the ocean. A move which would be immortalized in the Britney Spears’ classic, “Oops, I did it Again.”

“...Near, far, wherEVER you are, I believe that the heart does go onnnnnn…”

"I want you to draw me like one of your French girls."

- Rose, Titanic

Here is where things get interesting. The movie ends with Rose being greeted by Jack and many others on the staircase of the main dining room. Does this mean she sees him every night in her dreams as Celine Dion so expertly sings about or has she died, as many of the audience theorized? Leonardo must like an ambiguous ending, here’s looking at you spinning top. If you want my hot take, for sure she died. After all, as the gif says, it had been 84 years. At least she spoke her truth.

I know there is a weird population of people who believe Titanic is overrated. To those people, I only have one thing to say: how dare you!?

Clearly that was a lie, when have I ever had only one thing to say? Titanic is a classic, which has stood the test of time and ingrained a public fascination with everyone’s favorite friends: Leo and Kate. Originally expected to be a flop, due to going over budget and being so long, it was the highest grossing movie of all time until Avatar, unjustly if you ask me, usurped the title in 2009. It proved successful enough to return to theaters in 3D, which I of-course attended, and spawned one of the most popular memes of the social media age. It was the most-requested myth to be busted on MythBusters and even caused Keke Palmer to wear an outfit adorned with a young Leo’s face. The fact it only ranks 83rd baffles me to my core. I know the rest of this viewing endeavor can only go down-hill from here. And next time these naysayers are on a boat, I know for certain the impulse to run to the front and shout “I’m King of the World” will come over them.

I usually try to pretend to offer some analysis or pull out some big words from my college Film Studies minor I never get to use. However, what more is there to say when perfection has been caught on camera and shared with the masses?

I know what more there is to say: putting my sister on blast. One day I came across Titanic, half-over, on television and decided I was just in the mood to watch the whole thing. Luckily for me, we had a copy on DVD. Rather, DVDs – that long length was too much for early DVDs and it had to be split in half, VHS-style. I searched high and low. I dug through every shelf, drawer, nook and cranny of the house. Finally, exasperated, I texted my sister in her Freshman year of college hoping she might know who last watched it before departing for dorm life. Let me remind you, dedicated four readers, that this was not her movie. She did not own it. Yet, when I asked, she informed me she in fact was in possession of it and assumed no one would notice. I did notice, required its immediate return and when I went off to college, I stole it in spite. Now we all know what you did, Mandy.

“…Love can touch us one time, and last for a lifetime…”

"I'm the king of the world!"

- Jack, Titanic

*Shawn Spencer, the main character in the hit or cult (I’ve heard it both ways) classic television show, Psych. If you haven’t watched this show, there’s still time to binge it on Amazon Prime before Psych: The Movie 2 drops this holiday season. (For my Instagram fans #notanad).

** If she were alive today, the bad-ass, boss-bitch known as the “Unsinkable Molly Brown” would listen to Lizzo and rail against the injustices in the world. While this movie shows the disdain of the “Old Money” for her “New Money” ways, she shows kindness to Jack and has a fighting spirit. One of the many characters portrayed on screen, in the fore- and back-ground, who actually existed in real life, she found her notoriety for pushing to have the lifeboat turn back for survivors. If you’re in the mood for a Wikipedia spiral, she is a fascinating person with which to start.