Using a variety of high-tech equipment, salvager Brock Lovett explores the hulk of the 'Titanic', still lying on the bottom of the Atlantic after sinking following a collision with an iceberg in 1912. He is searching for the fabulous Heart of the Ocean diamond, which is reputed to have gone down with the ship. He doesn't find it, but he does find a safe containing the sketch of a nude woman. The elderly Rose sees a report of the discovery on the news and contacts Brock, telling him she is the woman in the sketch and that she knows exactly what he is looking for. She is airlifted to the salvage ship, where she recounts her story: in 1912, the young Rose DeWitt Bukater boarded the 'Titanic' on its maiden voyage, accompanied by her upper-crust mother and her callous young fiancé, Cal. At the same time, young artist and adventurer Jack, wins a steerage ticket in a poker game and also boards the ill-fated ship. Depressed by the forthcoming arranged marriage to a man she doesn't love, that evening Rose climbs over the railings intending to throw herself overboard, but is talked out of it by Jack. In gratitude, he is invited to dine with the Bukaters and Cal and other first class passengers the following night. Cal promises Rose to give her the Heart of the Ocean diamond. Meanwhile, the chairman of the ship owners, the White Star Line, urges the captain to go faster: he wants to win the Blue Riband for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing. The following night, after dining with the upper-crust and impressing Rose, Jack invites her to a raucous party in steerage. There they are spotted by Cal's valet, Lovejoy; they escape but, after making love in a car in the hold, are captured. Lovejoy plants the diamond on Jack and he is arrested and handcuffed to a pipe. Just when things couldn't get worse, an iceberg looms...
Review:
Lavish, no-expense-spared spectacle is the main reason to see this eye-popping movie, as much a wonder of film-making as its namesake was of shipbuilding earlier this century; the overlong love story which makes up the first half is as unlikely as it is anachronistic, but once that iceberg looms, it's non-stop action.
