Blu-Ray Review - Titanic (1997)

The Film:

Released in December of 1997, James Cameron's historical epic Titanic was almost written off before it was even released as an expensive flop waiting to happen and would certainly be the end of Cameron's directorial career.

But Cameron is one not to be underestimated and his grand vision for the story of the RMS Titanic which sunk on the night of its maiden voyage paid off with a grand box office where until his 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar it sat as the top grossing film of all time.

But why was it such that this did as well as it did, made as much as it made and had audiences the world over going not once, not twice but multiple times for a grand a vision as such?

The reasons are simple, first off the film has the look and feel of a glorious epic, the such Hollywood hadn't seen much of before and sadly hasn't seen much of since, every scene is brimming with small details such as the metal of the ship, the costumes, the bedsheets, the fine china, so much of those small things help to make an impressive visual fabric that makes the audience feel like they're part of this grand ship.

The second is Cameron himself, an ambitious taskmaster if ever there was one, his keen eye for detail is persistent throughout the movie, not once do you feel like that the grand scope of the climax overshadows the human drama nor do you get the feeling that it's all just so big in its scope, you simply stop caring about the human characters and in a day and age where we have directors just shooting everything up close and bombarding the audience with so much visual splendor that it bores you half to sleep, to have someone like Cameron doing the kind of big scale action direction that actually impresses audiences rather than send them to sleep is something to be grateful for.

But most important of all, the film is one that gives you your money's worth, you know going in how this will end and Cameron plays with that brilliantly by starting the film in the modern day and showing you how the ship sinks in a small computer animation which when you get to the film's spectacular climax you can just sit back and enjoy the spectacle of it all, the love story between Jack and Rose, the themes of class and shortsightedness by man and how it all ties together into a grand sweeping epic.

The Image:

Before converting Titanic to 3D for its re release in cinemas earlier this year to mark both the film's 15th anniversary but mainly the centenary of the Titanic herself, Cameron and his team undertook a major restoration of the film to bring it up to the highest standards of visual and sound quality.

And my lord what a restoration it is, the movie looks simply fantastic with not one tiny speck of dirt or age to hold it back, in the daylight scenes it looks as though you are really there on the boat and the night time scenes have sufficient light in them so that it doesn't look to dark, the film also has a very natural look to it as well in that it doesn't look to heavily color graded which can be a temptation when remastering older movies.

What also shines in this new transfer is the level of detail in the scenes, from the metal of the ship, the fabric of the rich man's jackets, the metal of Lovejoy's gun and even the streams of water as they make their way through the ship, this is simply a fantastic transfer.

The Sound:

As good as the image is, the sound is as good if not better, presented in DTS-HD 5.1 audio, Titanic sails with a grand new sound mix that captures every sound of the bustling ship, lines of dialogue and sounds that you may not have noticed in prior DVD transfers of the film and it expertly captures every moment of the film's climax.

And happily the mix has a nice balance to it in terms of the quieter moments and the action, what also shines in this is James Horner's score for the film which is a nice mix of Irish folk music and a traditional orchestral score.

The Extras:

Deep breath folks as there is a lot of stuff to be found in terms of extras, with two exceptions though most of it is ported over from the 2005 special edition DVD release but in this case that is far from a bad thing.

On the feature disc you will find three commentary tracks, all of them originate from the 05 DVD release.

The first is a solo track by Cameron and he goes into a lot of detail about the making of the film, the period of the time in terms of the female characters, the history of the ship herself, despite the film being 3 and a quarter hours long Cameron talks almost nonstop throughout, fans of the film might be familiar with this track but its certainly one that's well worth listening to now as it was then.

The second is a cast and crew commentary track that splices individually recorded comments together from many cast and crew members that talk about the making of the film from their own perspective, its an okay track but if I had to rank the three this one would be the weakest, still its worth a listen.

The third and final track on this disc comes from Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, both men were historical supervisors on the film and as such their track focuses on the historical side of the story, its a good track but will be of more interest to history buffs than to fans of the film.

Okay with those out of the way, its time to head to the second disc in this set (there is also a Blu-Ray 3D version available if that's your fancy) and there are a LOT of extras to be found here, all but two are ported over from the 05 DVD release but you will be very glad that they are here.

First is the "Documentaries" section, it contains two new documentaries exclusive to this release:

The first one is "Reflections of Titanic" and runs just over an hour and can be watched as a whole or in any of its 4 parts, this doco details the genesis of the film, the production as well as the release of the film, the phenomenon that followed and the recent 3D conversion.

This is an okay doco and its worth watching but its also the kind of making of that you will most likely watch only once as it borders on feeling like a puff piece rather than a proper making of doco like Charles de Lauzirika's "Dangerous Days" which detailed the making of Blade Runner warts and all.

It was rumored that documentarian Ed Marsh had made a making of doco for the film to go on the 05 DVD release that did go into the production of the film in more detail only for it to be scrapped at the last minute which is a big shame as Marsh's "Under Pressure: Making the Abyss" documentary is one of the very best making of doco's you'll ever see and given the enormous success of Titanic, I would've liked a similar doco detailing this production and the success that came afterwards.

One fun thing I did see while watching this doco was how much Don Lynch resembles Stephen Lang who appeared as the colonel in Cameron's Avatar, the resemblance was interesting.

Happily the second doco "Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron" more than makes up for any shortfalls the proper making of has, running at 96 minutes, it details Cameron and other nautical experts trying to piece together what happened on that fateful night.

Cameron narrates the doco and speaks with such detail and precision that's its hard to ignore watching it all in one sitting, Titanic and historical buffs should really enjoy this doco and its easily the better of the two in this section.

And that's all in terms of documentary material, from here we deal mainly with extras that come from the 05 DVD release.

And speaking of those, the next section is "Deleted Scenes", 29 in all plus an alternate ending for the film and an intro by Cameron explaining why the scenes might have been cut, Cameron also gives a small commentary on each cut scene and the alternate ending going into more detail on why he cut that specific scene and where it would've sat in the final film.

The quality of the scenes is on a par with the finished film and combined all 30 Deleted Scenes run for nearly an hour but they're worth watching even though you won't miss any of them from the final film.

After the "Deleted Scenes" section we go into the "Production" section, which contains most of the smaller extras that were created for the 05 DVD release, there are some goodies to dive into it so let's get snorkeling.

Behind the Scenes Vignettes: These small Featurettes were part of a branching option on the feature film discs in the 05 DVD release and have been ported here in full, they range from small interviews, VFX breakdowns, production footage and even a small one on the creation of that music video, together they run at just over an hour in length and are definitely worth a look.

Timelapse Construction Video: Pretty much what it says on the menu, a timelapse featurette regarding the construction of the 900ft Titanic boat set in Mexico, would've been quite a sight to see, Marsh provides an optional commentary for this featurette as well.

Deep Dive Presentation: This featurette is essentially a compiled presentation of the deep dive footage of the real wreck of the Titanic on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, this feature also contains narration from Cameron who talks about his own passion for diving and about the technology used to film the wreck in her final resting place, some of this footage is quite eerie to watch but this feature is well worth a look.

$200,000,001 - A Ship's Odyssey: Essentially a gag reel but its one of the better ones you will come across, of highlight is members of the cast singing the theme song to the TV series the Love Boat.

Videomatics: These are effectively videomatics on two key sequences, the ship's sinking and the deep dive stuff regarding the real wreck at the bottom of the sea, some good stuff to be found here but if you watched these on the 05 DVD release they won't be new to you here.

VFX Breakdowns: This feature contains three VFX breakdowns and the full simulation of the ship's sinking that is used in the beginning of the film, again if you watched these on the 05 DVD release then you will have seen these before if you didn't then these are a good watch though the highlight is easily the simulation from the film in full.

That's it for the "Production" section of this disc, now we come to the fourth and final section on the disc and that is the "Archives" section, again there is a fair few things to find here so let's get to it.

"My Heart will go on" Music Video by Celine Dion: Yeah, you knew it had to be here, you've seen it before and most likely a lot of you had to endure it on a loop 24 hours a day 7 days a week when the film came out, so let's move along shall we.

Trailers: A fair selection of trailers are to be found here, from an interesting teaser trailer featuring concept art (a similar trailer was done for The Empire Strikes Back), the full US trailer, the ShoWest trailer talked about in the making of and even the recent 2012 re release trailer, trailer buffs will really enjoy this section as did I.

TV Spots: 8 TV spots can be found here and they're okay though most likely you'll watch them once and then forget about them.

Still Galleries: A lot of stills can be found here and there are a few galleries here as well, ranging from Cameron's original scriptment to production pics to initial artwork to storyboards to paintings and even a gallery of posters from both the 97 and 2012 releases of the film, you'll spend some time here as there is a lot to go through but you certainly won't be bored doing so.

Parodies: 3 Parodies round out the "Archives" section and this disc of extras, again like the Videomatic and Visual Effects sections in the "Production" menu, these originated from the 05 DVD release and are actually pretty funny for the most part though if you saw them on the 05 release then you aren't seeing anything new if you didn't then you will have some fun watching these.

The Verdict:

Despite my complaints about the making of doco made for this disc, Titanic sails in a grand way on Blu-Ray and when the 2 discs are combined they helped to make one of the year's best disc releases, fantastic A/V quality and a huge array of extras that vary in their scope will not leave fans disappointed, especially if you can find it at the right price, this is certainly a set that comes with a very high recommendation especially if your planning to replace your DVD copy with this one.