Titanic Hot Take

Watched while drunk: seemed to make sense and highly entertaining

VW

Thank you for Thing Good content in the middle of the Nothing Good era. Speaking of Thing Good content - that thumbnail/title gets *****/***** (rating will not be revised).

It's hard for me to admit, but I actually liked Titanic quite a bit when it was initially released. I was a big fan of James Cameron, due in particular to Aliens which I watched so many times my childhood is almost inconceivable without it. I could still probably recite half the lines from memory, but I digress. When Titanic became something that was almost exclusively for teenage girls, I caved into the pressure and disavowed it or just kept quiet most of the time. It is what it is, I'm not particularly proud of that, but in terms of regrettable actions of my youth that one ranks pretty low.

Jed Hovey

great video =D any chance your book will show up on audible?

Ravnholt

Great video.

Dean Hacker

An addendum: Speaking of Mr Cameron..... I would *LOVE* to see you do your take(s) on his work as an art director, etc with Roger Corman..... 😬😬😬

Carl Sage

As always, wonderful analysis. Even if I personally don't care for "the boat movie" any more than I do "blue Pocahontas". .... But that is, after all, a part of storytelling. Not all stories are intended for all audiences. And that's not a bug. It's a feature. BTW: Counting the days till 'Axiom's End'. 😁.

Carl Sage

I understand the concept that just because something--like Titanic--doesn't necessarily work for me does not automatically mean that it is bad. It's just not my thing. Other people like and love it, and that's awesome. PS, and I really, really hope that Axiom's End works for me. Preordered what feels like months ago

Keith D. Jones

Whoa, Mr Plinkett has a first name, and you know what it is?

Keith D. Jones

It lasted the entire Spring of 1998 ("The Man in the Iron Mask" came & went in that time!). I still remember the shirts saying "The boat sank. Get over it."

Jon Heiman

I assumed it was intentional XD

Cannot express how much I love the "Space Jam Might Also Be Good Actually" interlude.

Am I the only one that noticed she mixed up the name of the actor and character when referring to Bill Paxton, saying that was the character's name?

Ali Bushell

Excellent. Even though I was pretty young, I remember the stigma of not liking it because it was a "romance" film. This made me not watch it until I was an adult and I was surprised that it was actually decent. Very astute to loop it in with the other disaster movies of the era., I think it fits this label far better than it does a romance label.

Loved it! Really appreciate your making Thing Is Good Actually content. Can't wait to see what you're working on :)

Vladimir Barash

I would like to document for marketing purposes that the puppies clips were what got me to actually preorder the book.

Andreas Stahl

I just thought it had no pathos. I could NOT get myself to care about any of the characters. Maybe it was the wooden acting.

JM

As the great man/murderer Harry Plinkett once said, "Titanic is a movie that's both one of the best movies ever made, and maybe the worst."

Xylem

Speaking as someone who was 15 at the time Titanic came about, the Titanic backlash seemed to be less about Popular Think Liked and more IT WAS FUCKING INESCAPABLE. It was everywhere you looked, everywhere you went, it was all anyone talked about for MONTHS in pop culture. The song was on the radio, girls in my class saw it over and over and over, talk show hosts wouldn't shut up about it, endless magazine and newspaper ink was spilled on it. As bad as Twilight was, multiply that times a THOUSAND. Because we didn't really have much of the internet, so pop culture tended to be more focused. By the time it finally ended and the backlash ensued, it felt like a collective fever dream we all had. We weren't sick of Titanic The Movie itself, we were sick of the absolute cultural nightmare it became.

Azzinita

Love the video, and the Leo "montaAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGHHge" was a weird kind of delight.

Karel P Kerezman

Thing good content is vital. I'm so glad you're making it.... Titanic was absolutely inescapable when I was in school and good god damn is that movie long and boring. Couldn't voice that at the time because such an opinion would have made me "not a real girl" (ha) but I couldn't wait for Jack to shut up and drown every time that movie was put on at a social event. In my old age I do wonder if we'll ever be able to tell historical stories in a less fetishitic way. Cameron's comment about having to pass on misinformation because it's "what the audience expects" sure does hurt. There's always that hope that if people actually paid attention to history things wouldn't always have to keep going wrong in the same way over and over. I guess until we figure it out, it's up to the Nellas of the world to share the tales of oyster pirates and municipal water delivery.

De

Rose and Jack are some of my favorite characters in cinema. They're unironic, earnest lovers. We never doubt them. They're motives aren't subverted by cynicism. They're truly in love. Pure hearts all the way through.

Ok,so Jack could totally survive. He's on Pandora. When he says,"I'm the king of the world"!,he's actually referencing his destiny as a future monarch on another planet. A portal deep in the ocean allowed him to head starward, but he couldn't get back to Rose because the homeworld tree was destroyed. That's why James Cameron is releasing Avatar 2 the same year as Titanic 2.

Noice but when's the Blazing Saddles essay coming out?

I, like a babe in the woods, was not aware that Titanic had a backlash other than 'this movie made an ungodly amount of money and yet there are other things I prefer'. Like, Titanic is not my favourite movie, and I'm not in the primary audience, but I was enjoying it even before the ship started spectacularly sinking. (Now Avatar, on the other hand...)

Matt Cramp

I’m so excited for this video to start a “feud” between you and Jenny Nicholson. But really, such a great video. Much excitement for your book!

Alex Stephen

First of all, this video rules, I especially love that you were able to make it into an argument for sincerity and enjoyment, but MORE IMPORTANTLY you need to know I would watch the shit out of a three hour Love Never Dies video.

Shiny Skunk

Wow that Caprio credits supercut was something. Nice video! I love that film and will always well up watching it and it's good seeing someone discuss the film for its merits outside of the context of its backlash.

D B

omg that Leonardo Dicaprio montage at the end *chef's kiss*

Awesome, thank you. I bring up the framing device sinking ship v sinking ship at end of movie point in every conversation I have defending Titanic, but now I have about another hundred things I can add.

Pulled Prok Productions

Bonus points for using the word "Synecdoche".

Avalon Hamakei

The Natalie energy in the early bit of this one is intense. I also love the artful messifying of your desk, if only because my actual IRL desk looks ... worryingly similar. I didn't know a lot of this about the backlash to Titanic -- was too young and divorced from the Mainstream at the time to understand it.

Stormbourne

Okay but does it factor in the commentary from MBMBAM? 🤔

Sarah

I'm going to a drive in to see a film tonight. But I'm excited to get home and watch this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (My thumb got tired of typing them so, pretend there's fifteen more.)

Jay V

Super excited! I rewatched Titanic maybe a year and a half ago and was surprised how much I liked it outside the hype (positive, negative, ridiculous) that surrounds it.

Eileen Nguyen

I'm so excited

Laura K