Re-watched Titanic for the first time in a few decades, back when it came out. It holds up. There are a few shots early on where the graphics look extremely dated, but by the end, its clear they had saved their budget for the final sequences.

I had re-watched Avatar for the first time since being radicalized and turned leftist, and was surprised by how obvious the anti-American, anti-imperial themes were that I just completely missed because I was too focused on the escapist fantasy (and because I wasn't experienced enough to recognize them).

Went into Titanic hoping for a similar experience, figuring that maybe there was a bunch of stuff in the movie about class, privilege, capitalism, and poverty that somehow I had missed the first time, or had forgotten about since.

Turns out, Titanic is not subtle.

The politics in the movie is a Cinderella story and doesn't have much to say. The poor people have more fun than the rich people, and the rich people are privileged to the point of getting a people killed.

My favorite detail that I picked out is the gender swapping of Jack as a damsel in distress and Rose as the hero that has to save him. Jack's whole character is basically a manic-pixie-dream-girl and Rose is the depressed rich guy that has everything but something to live for.

Highly recommended