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
if rose was supposed to save Jack, she fucked that up pretty good.
Its sad that Jack dies, and that's the point, but it also means he never got old, had to make practical life decisions, was a bad husband, or anything. He is the perfect fantasy. Its like never showing the monster is scarier in horror films
or they just let his ass die because he's a broke guy and they are replaceable under bullshit patriarchal courtly love tropes.