Titanic (1997) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on Titanic

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 10 November 2026 · The Pros 83 · The Punters 90 · Spore Score 84 · How we write our takes

Why The Punters rate it higher than The Pros

Titanic is one of the most popular films ever made, and The Punters still love it: they give it 90. The Pros are fond of it too, on 83, and the Spore Score is 84. The gap is the one you would expect. Critics have always admired James Cameron's staging of the sinking while grumbling about the dialogue and the simple romance. Audiences, many of whom saw it more than once in the cinema, care more about Jack and Rose than about the script's rough edges.

What it does well

Cameron frames the story as a memory. A treasure hunter (Bill Paxton) searching the wreck finds a drawing of a young woman, and the woman, now over a hundred, comes forward. Through old Rose (Gloria Stuart) we go back to April 1912, when the young Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), trapped in an engagement to the wealthy Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), meets Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a penniless artist who won his ticket in a card game.

The first half is a class drama, upper decks against steerage, and the Irish dance below decks is pure joy. The second half is one of the great disaster sequences in cinema. Cameron built a near full-size replica of the ship in a tank in Mexico, and the slow, logical way the Titanic floods, tilts and finally breaks apart still looks astonishing. Winslet, still in her early twenties, gives the film its backbone, and DiCaprio became the biggest star in the world almost overnight.

Where The Pros have a point

Some of the dialogue is clunky, and Cal is a moustache-twirling villain who barely needs the moustache. At three hours and fourteen minutes, it is long, and the modern-day framing scenes slow things down. Historians have also picked at some of the liberties it takes with real passengers and crew.

Who it is for

Anyone who has somehow not seen it. Romantics, history buffs and disaster film fans all get something. It works for families with older children, though the sinking is genuinely distressing.

Context

Titanic opened in the US in December 1997 and in the UK in January 1998. It became the first film to take more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office and held the all-time record for twelve years, until Cameron beat it himself with Avatar. It won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, tying the record set by Ben-Hur. James Horner's score and Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, which won Best Original Song, were everywhere for a year.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Must-see, with a Spore Score of 84. Corny in places, magnificent where it counts. The Pros have their reservations, but The Punters have the better argument: very few films are this big and still this moving.