Titanic

Titanic (James Cameron, 1997) is the first film to have earned over a billion dollars at the global box office. Unsurprisingly, it's a film that had critics howling their derision and patronizing its huge (and varied) audience. Profoundly dependent on computer-generated special effects and comic-book characterization, Titanic was viewed by intellectuals as disposable kitsch fit only for obsessive teenage girls.
David M. Lubin argues that this view is both patronizing and an inaccurate description of the film's appeal to its huge (and varied) audience. He argues that Titanic provides its audiences with a way to think about relevant modern issues of culture and class. While not by any means an intellectual film (and far less an intellectual's film), Titanic nevertheless prompts viewers to pose to themselves questions about society's divide between rich and poor, the nature of love, the meaning of sacrifice, and modernity's faith in, even obsession with, technological prowess and mastery over nature. Titanic (James Cameron, 1997) is the first film to have earned over a billion dollars at the global box office. Unsurprisingly, it's a film that had critics howling their derision and patronizing its huge (and varied) audience. Profoundly dependent on computer-generated special effects and comic-book characterization, Titanic was viewed by intellectuals as disposable kitsch fit only for obsessive teenage girls.
David M. Lubin argues that this view is both patronizing and an inaccurate description of the film's appeal to its huge (and varied) audience. He argues that Titanic provides its audiences with a way to think about relevant modern issues of culture and class. While not by any means an intellectual film (and far less an intellectual's film), Titanic nevertheless prompts viewers to pose to themselves questions about society's divide between rich and poor, the nature of love, the meaning of sacrifice, and modernity's faith in, even obsession with, technological prowess and mastery over nature.