Firstly and foremostly, I am a guy, which (in most cases) means I did not go see Titanic to see DiCaprio...although I think he can be a great actor. Reading through earlier comments, i grew a bit weary of hearing about lame script and shallow characters. I went to see a ship sink...the plot and the characters were, at least to me, a kind of icing on the Cake. I actually think a lot of the characters were done well; that is, by the time they die in freezing water, you actually felt a tinge of sadness for them. But , by the time Titanic was over, I was sufficiently moved to make me tell people that it was a great movie. Kate Winslet was good, Kathy Bates was perfect, Leo was ok (I'll give you people that - I've seen him shine like I know he can ... Basketball Diaries, Romeo & Juliet). But ultimately, the Titanic sinks...and it was absolutely stunning. Bravo to Cameron. He didn't just show us a large ship sinking, he showed us the back half of it crashing down on a hundred freezing, drowning people; he showed us a third class mother attempting to sing her children to sleep because she knew they were all doomed (broke my heart - i cried the most right there at that point), he showed people who worked extremely hard to get OUT of the bowels of the ship only to be sucked back in when a random window shattered and the water carried them on back in...detail. I like detail in a movie. Very impressive job.
