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The Rewatchables ·

Titanic

year 1997decade 90sdirector James Camerongenre Dramagenre Romance
host Juliet Litmanhost Amanda Dobbinshost K. Austin Collins
All 13 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 27:11

Jack at the bow yelling 'I'm the king of the world'

Amanda Dobbins: The pick is 'I'm king of the world': it has to be.

The bow scene is defended as tiny Leonardo DiCaprio standing at the front of a ship yelling one of the most iconic film lines: cheesy and a little funny, but the essence of the movie, sweet and pure; a host notes slacking the others when the broadcast was about to reach it.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 43:50

"Make It Count"

Billed as the most important category of the day, the nominees are 'I'm the king of the world', 'I'll never let go', 'You jump, I jump', and the French girls line.

The film

Titanic (1997)

Directed by James Cameron · Drama / Romance

194 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Leonardo DiCaprio Jack Dawson
Kate Winslet Rose DeWitt Bukater
Billy Zane Cal Hockley
Kathy Bates Molly Brown
Frances Fisher Ruth DeWitt Bukater
Gloria Stuart Old Rose
Bill Paxton Brock Lovett
Bernard Hill Captain Smith
David Warner Spicer Lovejoy
Suzy Amis Lizzy Calvert
Danny Nucci Fabrizio De Rossi
Victor Garber Thomas Andrews

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

10:22

Casting What-Ifs

Jeremy Sisto read opposite Kate Winslet in her screen test; Matthew McConaughey was in contention for Jack; Stephen D...

Jeremy Sisto read opposite Kate Winslet in her screen test; Matthew McConaughey was in contention for Jack; Stephen Dorff was passed over for Jack; Chris O'Donnell was mentioned for Jack; Rob Lowe was in the mix for Cal

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:22Read transcript
  • Kate Winslet had to do a screen test, watchable online, opposite Jeremy Sisto, Elton from Clueless, who auditioned but probably was not in contention; the major name in contention for Jack Dawson was Matthew McConaughey.
  • Stephen Dorff is the verified one: a New York Daily News piece headlined 'actor is thankful he didn't get Titanic role' has the Blade co-star saying he wanted a career like Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and Jack Nicholson and an Oscar, which Titanic would have made impossible, and that Leo will always be the guy on the boat.
  • One host disagrees that Leo is the guy on the boat, since he has been in so many hits and everyone has a favorite Leo, whereas Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are more locked into their 90s work; Sofia Coppola is said to have made Somewhere with Dorff because he never blew up, and Titanic will be in the first line of DiCaprio's obituary, and of Billy Zane's.
  • Billy Zane has not done much anyone has heard of since, though he has been in three times as many films as Kate Winslet.
  • Chris O'Donnell, named on Wikipedia for Jack, would have been a great and adorable Jack given his Batman movies and a season-two television arc, but could not have taken the film past a billion dollars; Leo is singular and the chemistry is enduring, though he seems strikingly innocent and little in it.
  • Rob Lowe was in the mix for Cal and is a great asshole, as in St. Elmo's Fire; pre-West Wing he might not have pulled viewers out of the film, though one host says he would have a little, and the leads mostly had blank or clean reputations at the time, which the hosts think mattered.
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14:40

Half-Assed Internet Research

Robert De Niro was offered Captain Smith but declined over a gastrointestinal infection (unverified IMDb); Winslet im...

Robert De Niro was offered Captain Smith but declined over a gastrointestinal infection (unverified IMDb); Winslet improvised spitting at Billy Zane instead of stabbing him with a hairpin (unverified); the film was Cameron's pitch to get a studio to pay for dives to the wreck; Cameron was difficult on set and Winslet swore never to work with him again (unsourced IMDb); the 2h47 runtime matches how long the ship took to sink (unverified); the drawing scene was Winslet and DiCaprio's first scene together and Cameron did the drawing

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:40Read transcript
  • An unverified IMDb item says Robert De Niro was offered Captain Smith but turned it down because of a gastrointestinal infection; the hosts find the specificity absurd and say there is no way De Niro would have taken the role.
  • The scene in which Kate Winslet spits at Billy Zane was reportedly improvised: he did not know he would be spat at, and she was supposed to stab him with a hairpin; the hosts hope it reflects on-set tension.
  • Billy Zane is called fantastic in the film and perhaps the best pure acting performance, with the most to work with, believable as a man with everyone in his pocket; the necklace, Le Coeur de la Mer, is recalled as the propulsive force of the plot.
  • The whole movie was a pitch to get a studio to pay for James Cameron to dive to the Titanic, and he ended up spending more time with the ship than anyone who rode its one voyage.
  • Research on how difficult James Cameron was during filming: Kate Winslet, studio executives and everyone on set describe him as demanding and cursing a lot, Winslet had a horrific experience, Leo seems to have hated it too but is more diplomatic, and an IMDb item the host could not source says Winslet swore never to work with him again.
  • Unverified half-assed trivia holds that the film's runtime, two hours and 47 minutes, matches how long the Titanic took to go down (the transcript has 'save'); the hosts find it tacky but very James Cameron, like the iceberg hitting exactly mid-film.
  • More trivia: the first scene Kate and Leo shot together was the nude drawing scene, James Cameron made the drawing, and the shot was reversed so the left-handed Cameron would look right-handed, setting the tone on day one of principal photography.
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18:59

What’s Aged the Worst?

James Cameron's reputation; the fake-looking boat and CGI sky; the wooden dialogue; Rose describing the Titanic as a ...

James Cameron's reputation; the fake-looking boat and CGI sky; the wooden dialogue; Rose describing the Titanic as a slave ship

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:59Read transcript
  • Asked whether anyone who has spent extended time with Cameron has spoken well of him, the hosts can name only his current wife, met on this film and cast as old Rose's granddaughter, and the studio executives he made rich; Catherine Bigelow (as transcribed) is remembered for beating Avatar with Hurt Locker.
  • James Cameron's reputation has aged the worst: from the visionary of Aliens, True Lies, Titanic and Terminator to the wacky maker of a movie about blue people, with four sequels already written; one host would have liked another Avatar movie, and its realistic water drops are praised.
  • The boat is a fake-looking boat, though loved anyway: a film sold as a technical feat no longer holds up because the CGI sky and the ship are visible, and the sky might blend in better in a planetarium.
  • The last hour is a technical feat, but mostly an excuse to keep sending the leads back into the water to almost drown; one host likes the last hour precisely because it is so stupid, and another sees the feat as stretching the film longer than the actual sinking.
  • Some of the dialogue is laughable and wooden, Cameron never understood how two people interact, and even Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio cannot always sell it.
  • In dissent, one host found on rewatch that it had not aged that badly: the boat always looked a little fake, like a theme park ride, and such practical effects should age better than the CGI of Avatar.
  • Rose describing the Titanic as a slave ship at the start is offered as what has really aged the worst, though the speaker adds 'that was already bad', alongside a complaint that the script's mechanics and every beat are visible.
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23:34

What’s Aged the Best?

Leo and Kate's chemistry; the music

Leo and Kate's chemistry; the music

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:23:34Read transcript
  • Leo and Kate's chemistry: there is no movie without them hitting it off, the romance is involving, and a late-night viewing of the ending was genuinely moving even when Rose's jump from the lifeboat seems stupid.
  • The music is also put forward as what has aged the best, and another host agrees: phenomenal, rousing, emotional, and good for working in the office.
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27:11

Most Rewatchable Scene

Jack at the bow yelling 'I'm the king of the world'; the string quartet scene; the dinner Jack gets to attend

Jack at the bow yelling 'I'm the king of the world'; the string quartet scene; the dinner Jack gets to attend

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:11Read transcript
  • The pick is 'I'm king of the world': it has to be. — Amanda Dobbins
  • The bow scene is defended as tiny Leonardo DiCaprio standing at the front of a ship yelling one of the most iconic film lines: cheesy and a little funny, but the essence of the movie, sweet and pure; a host notes slacking the others when the broadcast was about to reach it.
  • Being very sentimental, the favorite is the saddest scene, when the string quartet starts. — K. Austin Collins
  • The quartet scene is called cathartic, the music beautiful and one of the most underrated parts of the film, and James Horner's score phenomenal before it gave way to one of the biggest hit songs ever.
  • The dinner Jack gets to attend is another pick: Cal and Rose's mother try to embarrass him but he is unflappable, turns down the caviar, and, like Pretty Woman, cannot work the silverware until Kathy Bates's character tells him to go from the outside in; the clip of the exchange is played.
  • Kathy Bates is very good in the film, yet her commitment clashes with some of the worst dialogue, as the lone liberated, new-money woman, Downtown Molly Brown.
  • The dinner leads into a second favorite, Rose meeting Jack in steerage for the party with Irish dancers, dancing on her toes and chugging beer, like finally kicking off shoes after hours in formal wear, plus Leo telling the little girl she is still his number one girl, Cora.
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33:41

Top Five List

Telling Cora she is still his number one girl; calling Rose an indoor girl; his concentration face with his hair fall...

Telling Cora she is still his number one girl; calling Rose an indoor girl; his concentration face with his hair falling over his forehead while drawing her; 'Rose, what are you doing?' when she jumps back onto the ship; joking while handcuffed to a pipe as she swings the axe

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:33:41Read transcript
  • The list is proposed on the spot, with the Cora line, already called a top five dreamy Leo moment, as number one.
  • Number two is the line calling Rose an indoor girl; another entry is his concentration face, hair falling over his forehead while drawing her, a one-time-only DiCaprio event.
  • Number four is Jack's 'Rose, what are you doing? You're so stupid' when she jumps back onto the boat, along with the classic 'You jump, I jump'; most picks come from before the sinking.
  • Number five is Jack staying funny while drowning, handcuffed to a metal pipe as Rose wields an axe for the first time, joking that he hopes she hits the right place; the test swing into the dresser is recalled, and the scene stresses a host out because Leo is so pretty.
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38:24

Unintentional Comedy Award

Kathy Bates's dialogue; 'draw me like one of your French girls'; the sound Gloria Stewart (as transcribed) makes thro...

Kathy Bates's dialogue; 'draw me like one of your French girls'; the sound Gloria Stewart (as transcribed) makes throwing the heart of the ocean into the water

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:24Read transcript
  • The award goes from one host to Kathy Bates, some of whose lines are absurd and dumb; another thinks that is partly intentional but agrees.
  • Another goes with 'draw me like one of your French girls', a favorite internet meme.
  • A third nominee is small: the sound Gloria Stewart (as transcribed) makes when she throws the heart of the ocean into the water; the whole heart of the ocean plot line is called unintentional comedy, recalling a Britney Spears video built around it.
  • The true gift of unintentional comedy is the memes of the last three or four years, which Cameron could never have foreseen, including a genre of innuendo jokes about the sinking ship, one of them read aloud.
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43:18

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Billy Zane

Billy Zane

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:18Read transcript
  • Billy Zane gets the award: a tour de force, very handsome, astonishing on the rewatch when he throws the table over.
  • At the end, searching for Rose on the deck of the Carpathia, he looks so emotional that he clearly loves her under it all; the performance is not flashy and sits within the ensemble.
  • Earlier, Zane was called fantastic and possibly the best pure acting performance in the film.
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43:50

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"Make It Count"; "You Jump, I Jump"

"Make It Count"; "You Jump, I Jump"

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:50Read transcript
  • Billed as the most important category of the day, the nominees are 'I'm the king of the world', 'I'll never let go', 'You jump, I jump', and the French girls line.
  • A host adds 'Iceberg, right ahead!' as 'one of my favorites', not really acknowledged, a line said a lot with a college roommate.
  • Other lines added are 'Women and children' and the 'ship of dreams' line that bridges the underwater footage to 1912.
  • One host's favorite is 'Make It Count', from a favorite scene, and Jack also writes it in the note.
  • 'You Jump, I Jump' is a favorite; it has been displaced in the culture by 'If you're a bird, I'm a bird' from The Notebook, which may itself have been replaced for teens by The Fault in Our Stars, though that lacks a line, so the hosts stick with 'you jump, I jump'.
  • 'I'll never let go, Jack' is yelled all the time, including to coworkers in inappropriate moments to convey camaraderie; it had a second life in Gilmore Girls, spoken by Rory.
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47:13

Apex Mountain

James Cameron; Billy Zane

James Cameron; Billy Zane

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:13Read transcript
  • James Cameron is called the only answer, and agreed to.
  • Dissent on Cameron: a host who says 'I like Terminator movies' grants only that culturally he obviously reached his apex here.
  • Billy Zane is added and someone commits: 'I'll definitely go with Billy Zane'.
  • Cameron has not gotten past Titanic personally and is still digging around in it rather than the Terminator world, making it his psychological apex; it is his apex in cultural significance if not filmmaking technique, and five Avatars will not outdo it.
  • A fatal flaw of Avatar is that handsome Sam Worthington's face barely appears, whereas Leonardo DiCaprio's face means so much to Titanic; another host wants evidence that Worthington can act first.
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48:34

Picking Nits

Kate Winslet's makeup clinging through the water; Leo's hair never out of place; Rose jumping off a lifeboat for a ma...

Kate Winslet's makeup clinging through the water; Leo's hair never out of place; Rose jumping off a lifeboat for a man she met three days ago; the heart of the ocean never falling out of the coat

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:34Read transcript
  • The hosts combine picking nits with probably unanswerable questions, saying the two go hand in hand.
  • Kate Winslet's styling raises questions: very red lips and pasty makeup that cling to her through all the water, dark eyeliner exaggerating the paleness, and the hats, starting with her entrance from a carriage the hosts call a buggy.
  • She looks great in the first half and realistically soggy after two and a half hours of running through a sinking ship, except the makeup stays; one host prefers the second-half look, with the long red hair, the soaked dress and the big overcoat with the necklace that never falls out.
  • Leo, by contrast, barely has a hair out of place, even frozen; the only explanation offered is wanting the handsome man to look as handsome as possible, while Winslet was not yet famous enough for the same treatment, even though hers is the real emotional journey.
  • Rose jumping off a lifeboat for a man she met three days ago is questioned, with a joke that their earlier encounter went well; others read it as a callback to her wanting to jump off the ship, and as her choosing Jack at all times, just as her spit at Billy Zane echoes Jack teaching her to spit.
  • Earlier, a host noted the heart of the ocean never falls out of the jacket at any point in all that water, a bigger problem than whether Jack fit on the board.
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48:34

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Why is no one seasick? Why make Rose an American? If the ship reaches New York, what does Rose do and how long until ...

Why is no one seasick? Why make Rose an American? If the ship reaches New York, what does Rose do and how long until she realizes her mistake?

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:34Read transcript
  • Asks, with open waters in mind, why no one is seasick. — Amanda Dobbins
  • Cruise liners supposedly rock less, which another host disputes from experience; the film Brooklyn is cited for its portrayal of a transatlantic crossing where the heroine is sick all night.
  • Why make Rose an American when Kate Winslet is British and there were plenty of British heiresses? A host reasons that it was usually titled British men marrying American heiresses for money, as in Downton Abbey, so maybe that is why, though a British Rose could have been plausible.
  • If the ship makes it to New York, what does Rose do and how long until she realizes she made a mistake? One answer is half the time she has known Jack, a day and a half.
  • Another answer: without the sinking she never sees that Cal set Jack up, the moment behind her spit, and she would remember her mother cinching her corset, decide she does not want her mother to be poor, so the practical outcome is not going with Jack.
  • A later reading cuts the other way: even without the sinking, she would not want her mother to almost kill her again.
  • The corset scene is called an unimaginative American-epic trope for conveying class, as in Meet Me in St. Louis and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, very James Cameron.
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53:28

Who Won the Movie?

Kate Winslet; Leonardo DiCaprio

Kate Winslet; Leonardo DiCaprio

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:28Read transcript
  • Asked whether Kate Winslet won the movie, the host who could not take their eyes off her says she definitely wins it, she and the iceberg, which is called the big boss of the movie.
  • Another says you have to go with Leo: not peak Leo, which is Romeo and Juliet, but close; he is charming, and the role made him so famous he can do whatever he wants.
  • The third host is torn after both cases, wanting to say Winslet to support a breakout but swayed by Leo's charm; reminded that her breakout was Sense and Sensibility, the host is absolved to like Leo; someone then says that ultimately, for them, it is the chemistry, since the romance is all they care about.
  • Calling it a toss-up between Kate and Leo, the wrap-up turns to 'Doesn't James Horner win?', answered 'You're right, James Horner. And Celine Dion', whom the hosts have barely discussed.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Kate Winslet
Speaker not identified
Leonardo DiCaprio
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More from the conversation

The hosts love the film and find it rewatchable despite being over three hours, though one loses interest once the ship starts sinking; one caught it on E!, where the DVR cut off before old Rose's final scene, and a host fast-forwarded through some of the sinking, scandalizing a co-host.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:56Read transcript
In 1997 Leonardo DiCaprio was 23 and came straight from filming Romeo and Juliet in Mexico, unhappy about staying there per a 1998 Vanity Fair piece; the film was shot at a studio in Baja California with a 22-acre water tank, recalled from an Oprah special. 1998 is framed as the apex of monoculture: Shakespeare in Love would be an indie now, and its Harvey Weinstein equivalent today would be Tulip Fever.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:17Read transcript
The production ran many years and $65 million over budget and was covered all through 1997 as a disaster, which James Cameron now dines out on; the film became the second-biggest box office hit after Avatar, with Frozen noted as bigger through licensing.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:54Read transcript
A Titanic water ride is imagined, like Pirates of the Caribbean with rockier water and 90-degree angles, contrasted with the Backdraft and Jaws rides, and judged unlikely because the sinking was a real event.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:59Read transcript
Despite expectations of failure the reviews were very positive: Charlie Rose opened his Cameron interview with an Anthony Lane New Yorker quote, a host wonders aloud whether it was a four-star Ebert movie, and it was the Best Picture frontrunner, though some backed LA Confidential; people went to see it twice.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:26Read transcript
The hosts were between 10 and 13 when it came out; girls at school saw it ten to fifteen times for Leonardo DiCaprio, who is still remarkably cute in it, though today he could only play Cal, a meaty role and perhaps the only good thing Billy Zane has done apart from The Phantom, recommended as Zane in a purple costume; Kate Winslet came off Sense and Sensibility and became the youngest person nominated for two Oscars, as told on Inside the Actors Studio.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:01Read transcript
A host thinks Cameron wishes for a Titanic sequel; the hosts imagine a British miniseries about another sinking such as the Andrea Dora (as transcribed), call Downton Abbey a kind of sequel since it begins with the sinking, and pay respects to Bill Paxton as the underwater cowboy Cameron wants to be, praising Big Glove (as transcribed).
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:15Read transcript
Hearing the score's cues still triggers emotion from how often it played in school; one host once put Titanic score tracks, without the Celine Dion song, on a fifth-grade mixtape that got no response, which the others find beautiful.
Approx. transcript time · 00:29:24Read transcript
DiCaprio was not Oscar-nominated, skipped the ceremony, and seems not proud of the film; Winslet did more press; favorite Leo films range from Romeo and Juliet to The Wolf of Wall Street and Catch Me If You Can, while accent Leo, as in Blood Diamond, is the worst. Gangs of New York divides the hosts; Leo's shift from ingenue to imposing roles is tied to his bulking up, and Billy Zane is the same height despite seeming to tower over him.
Approx. transcript time · 00:33:56Read transcript
In her Inside the Actors Studio segment Winslet read unhappy Titanic diary entries and described the drawing scene becoming mechanical; a host sees comic potential in her, citing The Holiday.
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:37Read transcript
Beyond the innuendo memes, an old illustration of the sinking ship recalls A Night to Remember, which one host had to read before seeing the film, as with memorizing the Gettysburg Address before visiting Gettysburg; on the Jack-would-have-fit-on-the-board meme, the hosts doubt the Mythbusters verdict and would exempt Cameron from well-actually objections.
Approx. transcript time · 00:41:59Read transcript
The 90s loved giant water tanks and transportation disasters, from the Waterfalls video to Con Air, Air Force One and Speed; a host is furious Twister has not been done as a Rewatchable.
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:51Read transcript
Winslet's career is more defined by DiCaprio than his by her; their friendship humanizes him, and her marriage to someone named Rock and Rolla (as transcribed) and a son named Bear comes up, including an Ellen exchange.
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:28Read transcript
The romance is what matters to the hosts, and Rose still being hung up on Jack as the ship sinks is ludicrous and beautiful; the forced separation of children from parents is upsetting, though she met him only about a day earlier, the ultimate vacation fling, and at 17 she is over her mother and her rich-girl life.
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:46Read transcript
Celine Dion's song is a key-change classic on the level of I Will Always Love You and a middle school dance staple; the 1998 Oscars are remembered with Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon fandom, Oprah's specials, and Damon breaking up with Minnie Driver on Oprah; Dion followed Up Close and Personal and is now in Vegas.
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:52Read transcript