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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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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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