Titanic (1997) Special Collector’s
Edition DVD
(Region 1)
2005 DVD Release Review
Part 1 - Prelude & DVD Packaging Review
Reminiscing about my
first encounters with the film…
1997… Back then, I was still in
high school, not yet a senior. Me and my friends were into blockbuster movies
(like Independence Day, Lost World:
I recalled that the first time I had known and was curious about this feature film (Titanic) by James Cameron was when I read an article regarding the shroud of mystery over the production set that James Cameron, Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet was working in. Both the production crew and cast were stringently silent (maybe they were under a contract of total secrecy) as to what James’ film was all about. Back then, the film was given a fake name ‘The Planet Ice’ so as to prevent any leakages with regards to the content of the film in production.
The next time I read about the
film before its theatrical release was when it was reported that the budget of
the secret film ‘Planet Ice’ (‘Titanic’ in disguise) had sky-rocketed to over
USD 200 million and the film which was originally supposed to be released in
July 1997 was delayed till December 1997 in order to refine and complete the
visual effects. Because of this, the film studios that were co-financing the
film seem to be in a precarious situation, as a lot of money had been pumped
into a film that may or may not succeed or worse may not even allow the studio
to break even. It can be said that such a situation seems to affect 20th
Century Fox more in 1997 as it had pumped in 2 to 3 times more money than
It was also reported then that James Cameron gave up his profit participation for this film because of the production budget overruns.
The premiere of Titanic over at
the Tokyo International Film Festival in
When the film was finally in theatres, I went to get the tickets to the earliest show with my friends. When we stepped into the theatre, it was not very packed. Then, the Paramount Pictures logo appeared and the rest was my memories of watching the film for the first time. Truthfully speaking, the point in the film during and after the dialogue between Jack and Rose when they were both floating in the dark and cold ocean was when my eyes became slightly damp (close to having tear drops trickling down). This scene together with the evocative film score continues to linger in my memory even till today.
When it was announced that it had garnered Golden Globe nominations (which are usually an indication of possible nominations for a particular film for the Academy Awards), the media coverage on both cable (MTV, E! Entertainment, CNN, BBC, etc) and terrestrial channels around the world started to come in full force. And it continued to make showbiz headlines over the months of Dec 97 till late 1998. One of which is the 14 nominations with 11 wins for the Academy Awards and a total worldwide box-office takings of more than US$1.1 billion due to the repeated viewings reported (people even competed/compared the number of times they had viewed the film in theatres. Anyone wants to guess who was in the Guinness Book of World Records for such a challenge?)
The DVD…
So, when I finally adopted the DVD format (LDs were expensive and bulky) in 2000, I wanted to get the DVD but was disappointed that the film was not anamorphically enhanced (meaning that it will not fill a widescreen 16 x 9 display, should I get one in the future) and also there were no supplemental materials on the disc (except a trailer) when other titles was given substantial extras.
Also, the video quality of the 1999 DVD release was not as good as it could or should have been.
As such, I was determined to
postpone my purchase until I see the Special Edition of the DVD being
announced. Having waited for 5 years, James Cameron, Lightstorm
Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home
Entertainment LLC and Paramount Home Entertainment finally announced the
Special/Deluxe Edition 2-disc/4-disc DVD set. But
Despite all these, I still got the 3-disc set. Did the 3-disc set live up to my expectations? Stay tune for next few parts of my review as I explore the different aspects of this 3-disc DVD set and I may do some comparisons (if possible) with the 4-disc set.
DVD Packaging
Considering that this is an enhanced DVD release with best possible picture and sound quality on the DVD format and it is a multi-disc set, the multi-disc digipak is housed in a hard board (with a leather texture) slipcover. Such a packaging fits very well with its status as a Special Collector’s Edition. In this respect, it is on par with excellent packaging of the LOTR 4-disc sets. However, points also have to be deducted in terms of its packaging because of the appearance of a production photo on the slipcover. To me, the cover would have been excellent with just the artwork of the original theatrical posters (that is Jack and Rose posing together) being used.
In terms of practicality, I agree that the hard board slipcover does a better job of protecting the discs that are contained in the relatively “vulnerable” digipaks, than some paper cardboard slipcovers or worse no slipcover (An example of no slipcover for discs kept in digipak would be Universal’s 2002 release of E.T. 2-Disc Special Edition)
Score: 4 / 5
Stay tuned for Part 2 (Film review) of this review before/by 1 Dec 2005.
Review Part 1 – 29 November
2005
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