I guess the first time, ironically, I can think of that somebody suggested I watch something and I thought I would hate it, uh, I was, I believe, seven years old. And my parents didn’t get to catch this in theaters, so they brought it home as a rental on VHS. Um, and it was the first time we had a rental where you had two, two tapes that you had to switch out at a certain point in the movie. And that movie was Titanic, which is hilariously ironic that I thought I would hate it, uh, because it is my favorite movie. I watch it multiple times a year. I have it on VHS and VHS widescreen. I have a fan cut that includes all the deleted scenes, um, on my PC — can’t currently access it.
Titanic, when I first watched it, I, I remember the opening scene being like the, the waves and, you know? And they have the, the logo for Titanic show up or whatever? I was like, “Ugh, I’m not gonna like this movie,” and as I watched it, it, it struck me for a few reasons. I really resonated with Rose because my home life was terrible. And I, I’m not sure if the movie affected me this way, or I was already affected this way and I understood the movie better, but my childhood very much was focused on if I can find a man that has the ability to take me away from this home life and start a new life together, I, I have hope. Um, I always fantasized about somebody taking me away from my home life and, and completely leaving it and finding myself as a person and being free to do the things that I wanted to do. Um, and Rose does that in the movie, and I always, I think, held on to that.
And then, as I got older, I fell in love with the historical accuracy of Titanic. I, at this point, Titanic — I could really go without the love story. I really could. I would’ve rather watched a Titanic, maybe, that focused on an actual survivor story. And that’s something I have, I’ve always admired as well about the movie is the different true events that they cram into this movie. Um, you know, just, just, um, the couple that dies in the bed together, or the little girl who gets in the lifeboat and her dad sends her off knowing that he’s not getting on a lifeboat.
Um, the boots in the sand at the bottom of the ocean. Uh, the clock! The clock placement in the suite. That one, that one gets me too. Like, uh, they did another dive, I mean, they’ve done a lot of dives down to the Titanic now, but they, they had filmed the movie and put this clock on a mantel thinking, “Well, I, I think that’s where it probably would have been,” and they confirmed it after the movie was released that yes, there is a clock. That, that clock? That clock is on a mantle in the wreck. It stayed there somehow. The way objects stayed where they were, or moved in a particular way, are also very interesting for, for this um, sinking.
But yeah, I totally thought I’d hate it. Uh, it was really popular at the time. And my mom was like, “You’re gonna cry. You’re gonna cry.” And I’m like, “Oh, okay.” So, I initially was like, “I’m gonna hate this movie.” I thought it was okay the first time I watched it, and the more I watched it, I was like, “Oh no, this movie is great.” And now it is my favorite movie. If somebody asks me what’s my favorite movie? It’s Titanic.