Titanic originally came out in theaters in December 1997 and played for about six months. I watched it three times on the big screen back then, and I remember being awed by the filmmaking if not so much the story. The seamless blending of live action shots with sweeping zooms over models of the ship where the actors were replaced with CGI seemed so ‘new’ and amazing. If you looked closely you could see how the computer generated characters also regressed in detail as the camera zoomed away, until the ‘people’ became ‘stick robot’ figures like in the early days of computer games. Fairly fresh out of film school, I marveled at the spectacle of it.

In 2023, Titanic returned to theaters with a 25th anniversary re-release, and I finally watched it again on my big screen TV after not seeing it for a good long time. There’s a lot of reviews where people write about how it stirred ‘core’ memories. I felt some of that as well. While I still marvel at the moviemaking aspects of it, I found myself identifying with the story a lot more.

Ultimately the story is about a woman liberating herself from the notions of a world run by men. This didn’t seem like such a radical notion to me when I first saw the movie. It felt like the movie framed the progress women had made in the 20th century fairly well. Now I wonder if perhaps I had been living in a collegiate bubble back then, believing things had changed for most women when maybe they didn’t change as much as I thought.

Or maybe we as a society have regressed in women’s rights in the last twenty-five years. And maybe it goes further than that; we’ve regressed in civil rights in favor of corporate thinking and greed. The movie touches on all of this.

The story in Titanic is about class struggle. It connects the idea of classism and greed to the liberation of women. Is a life lived in pursuit of profit where women become “indoor girls” a ‘rich’ life? I remember rejecting such ideas as a young man. I never wanted to get caught up in games of chasing riches, and I gravitated toward the arts and independent women who were outdoorsy. These days, I often feel my choices weren’t the smartest, but watching Titanic again reminded me of ways of thinking that led to a life rich in experiences rather than in monetary gain.

Watching Titanic again has left me feeling as though we’ve regressed in so many ways over the last twenty years, even in the way movies are made. Most ‘big’ movies no longer feel as ‘epic’ and compelling as movies did two decades ago. I think of how ‘Titanic’ or ‘Lord of the Rings’ or ‘The Abyss’ feel somehow larger than many newer movies, not only in the scope of the productions but in the ideas and storytelling. It feels like we’ve regressed in human rights and civility in that time too, refighting battles that were already won.

Can a movie really reveal all that? Or is this some kind of generational bias? I look at those sweeping zooms pulling back from the live action to become stick robot figures, and it feels like something is being said about the regression of our society and the dumbing down of movies and media. The pandemic undoubtedly limited movie making in some ways, while the proliferation of media in the last 25 years has made for more mediocre content. But also my memory may not be serving me well, latching onto the compelling content of the past while forgetting some of the old mediocre stuff. I’m left wondering, could something as ‘big’ and epic as ‘Titanic’ be made today? Would anyone even try?