067 Titanic (1997) Tape 2

Retro Grade Podcast

On this week’s episode, we finish our retrospective on James Cameron 1997 classic, Titanic. In the previous episode, we summarized the entire story, going through Jack and Rose’s blossoming romance to the Titanic crashing into the iceberg and the aftermath of it all. We talked about our initial thoughts, what worked and what didn’t, mainly how some of the dialogue has not aged well. But as a whole, we all concluded that while not perfect, the story has largely has well enough to still get viewers invested in the love story and in the story of those on the Titanic, both in the wealthy and poor.

From here, we move into the production and reception of the film. We talk about the immense list of actors who were considered for this film, from Matt Damon and Paul Rudd for Jack, to Winona Ryder and Gwyneth Paltrow for Rose, and how Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet ultimately won out over everyone else. We talk about they’re experience filming, including Kate bruising a bone and getting hypothermia filming the climatic sinking, leading her to say that she would never work for James Cameron again unless she was paid a lot of movie.

We talk about the filming techniques used to film the movie, and how they combined visual and practical effects to bring it all together. We break down specific scenes from the film and how they were shoot using different techniques including using miniatures, building actual sets, using mirrors as set extensions, computer generated imagery being composed with real life elements to bring the early 1900s to life. And we go into how all these techniques were used to film the sinking of the ship, and all the techniques they used to sell the viewer that what they were seeing was actually real. So sit back, relax, and join us in this final episode of Titanic.

Music is from Triune Digital and audio clips pulled from movies we will be reviewing in other episodes.

Artwork by @jannelle_o