Revisiting 'Titanic'

I have literally just sat down from seeing the 3D re-release of James Cameron’s epic, “Titanic”.

Having only ever seen this film on a screen no bigger than 32”, I can say wholeheartedly that the film belongs in the cinema. It truly is an epic and seeing it on a big screen is, in every sense of the word, breath-taking, to the point where I literally had to remind myself to breathe at certain moments.

What you miss on a smaller screen is the detailing of the film; you can see everything from the textures of the ship’s bow, to the ornateness of the decorations in the first class quarters. Everything is so much more vivid and bright, to the point where you can see the hairs on Leonardo Dicaprio’s impossibly beautiful face. The film is absolutely beautiful, and the action scenes are so much more panic ridden and emotive; but I was also amazed at how the quiet stillness of the calmer scenes amongst the panic translated. These are the scenes I feel made best use of the cinematic re-release.

And now for the controversial topic of the films 3D conversion; a topic that has divided critics. I for one was not a fan. For the vast majority, the 3D was obtrusive, invading and, worst of all, misused. The worst use of the conversion was towards the very beginning of the film when Kate Winslet steps out of the car and turns her head upwards to see the gigantic ship. Whilst I remember this shot so well from when I originally watched the film, here it had been ruined because suddenly I had a giant bonnet coming towards me.

Because the conversion relies on the use of different plates, what is most affected is James Cameron’s original and beautiful cinematography. The best example of this is one of the film’s more memorable scenes, where Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio ‘fly’ at the front of the ship. Whilst the two protagonists should be at the forefront of the shot, they aren’t. Instead a great metal wire is; invading the shot and pushing the romance into the background.

The only point in which the 3D conversion didn’t bother was during the actual disaster scenes, and that’s because there is so much going on that you don’t really notice it; it’s becomes unnoticeable. You aren’t thrown into the experience as the 3D conversion should do, but instead become accustomed to it.

What I was impressed with, in terms of the 3D conversion was the colour. Most 3D films I have seen are drained by those bloody awful glasses, but this wasn’t the case with ‘Titanic’. The film had been saturated and so kept its previous bright visuals, instead of being washed out.

Despite there not being a 2D option, I would strongly encourage anyone to go and see the film quickly before its shoved back onto DVD at twice the price than it was 3 months ago.