titanic

Titanic came out on December 19, 1997. I saw it opening weekend, Sunday afternoon, December 21st, in a packed theater in downtown Santa Cruz. I still have the ticket stub.

In this episode, I go back to that moment an what it felt like to experience Titanic when it first arrived in theaters. No phones. No streaming. No clips circulating online before you even saw the movie. Just a dark theater, a giant screen, and three hours of being completely swallowed by a story.

I talk about the feeling of walking into the theater that day, the chaos of finding seats before reserved seating existed, and what it was like to watch Titanic before it became Titanic — the global phenomenon, the endless memes, the internet discourse. Back then, it was just a movie you fell in love with and kept returning to.

I share a few of my favorite moments from the film (including the iceberg scene, Rose jumping from the lifeboat, and Jack shaking the gate in one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s most cathartic acting moments), but more than anything this episode is about the feeling of that era — when culture moved a little slower and when loving a movie could feel strangely personal, like it belonged to you.

Titanic didn’t end when you walked out of the theater. It followed you home — on the radio, in magazines, on bedroom walls, and in the way teenagers of the late 90s quietly obsessed over something that felt bigger than life.

For me, it’s still my favorite movie.

hosted by Kathy Patalsky

healthyhappylife.com

IG: KathyPatalsky + notes.kathy

Transcript

 titanic

There was something oddly soothing about it being so long, over three hours. You sat in your seat and you're like, I am here. Got my sweet tarts, Sour Patch kids, Twizzlers, I don't know. Whatever you wanted. You had it and you were there.  

You are listening to Notes with Kathy Patalsky. Today's episode, Titanic.

The first time I saw Titanic, It was Sunday, December 21st, 1997, and Titanic had just come out a few days before. On December 19th. My sister and I parked on the very top level of the parking garage in downtown Santa Cruz. I remember stepping out of the car into this bright, windy winter sunlight my hair blowing everywhere, I had absolutely no idea that I was about to walk into one of the biggest cultural moments of the nineties.

And I was about to see what would become my favorite movie.

It starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Francis Fisher, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, among others. I know I saw it on that Sunday because I actually still have the ticket stub from that event, which is kind of wild.

My sister and I walked across the street, went into the theater, handed over our tickets to be torn at the door and rode the escalator up to the top level. I can picture that theater so clearly,

the dark patterned carpet, the dim lighting, the smell of buttered popcorn, and that feeling that it was suddenly nighttime and everything was dark, even though right outside was the bright sun. Teenagers and their families were buzzing around. There was basically two things you'd kind of throw out there if you didn't know what to do on a weekend. Hey, should we go to the mall?

Get some frozen yogurt shop at wet seal, or should we go to the movies and watch whatever is playing?

Back then there were no reserved seats. You just showed up and hoped for the best. Titanic was brand new, so it wasn't Titanic yet.

My sister and I walked in, we had to walk all the way down the aisle.

I think it was either the second or third row, and there were two seats on the very end. The audio will be too loud. The screen is too in our faces. Our necks would be craned the entire time. We sat down, the lights went down and the movie started.

You see the ocean, the music swells. The title floats across the screen. I remember that feeling of settling into my seat. Something about that music and that opener that made you feel like you were sinking into your seat for like a Broadway show.

You were being transported somewhere, for the afternoon. You guys, it literally was an extracurricular activity. People wouldn't just go once or even twice. Girls like me who were 16, 17, just got their driver's license, I would go there by myself to a Saturday matinee at 1:00 PM and then I'd just sit there for three hours in total bliss.

It made me happy. I think I saw Titanic in theaters at least six times. You just don't do that nowadays. You wait for streaming. You couldn't go on Instagram and watch clips.

If you wanted to watch the movie again, you had to go back to the theater. And the thing is, people wanted that feeling again and again. It was so moving and funny and alive.

And yes, when you rewatch Titanic today, there are some scenes where you're like, wait, that dialogue's a little clunky. But at the same time, it still works.

Chemistry is still there. It's still Titanic. Jack and Rose. They could roll up and say anything and it would've worked. And that was part of the magic of Titanic. And that wasn't just the two actors, that was how the movie was set up and how everything looked great.

You have to give James Cameron credit where it is deserved. It is just a magic movie in my opinion.

I'm so happy today when I'm 45 years old, and people still get giddy with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet references. You can see it at award shows, social media, but it just makes me feel so validated. I think all of us elder, millennials, millennials who are like, I was in that all by myself. That was my fandom. It was a fandom of one. It was me in my bedroom.

Listening to my heart will go on. With the inserted movie clips over and over again, reliving it in my own little world. There was no fandom. It was me. It was just me. And then you grow up and suddenly wait a minute. You are obsessed with Titanic? Leonardo DiCaprio? What? I really thought nobody else was going and seeing this movie multiple times, I thought it was just me. So that is also part of the magic of that decade and this movie that was so successful at this certain period of time.

And I just love to talk about it. I think it's lovely.

This was before boy bands, before Britney Spears, before the whole TRL vibe of things.

It was right before that, 1997.

You went to the movies to be swallowed whole by something for a few hours. You didn't have to turn off your phone because you did not have a phone.

You went there fully committed. This was your extracurricular activity for the afternoon, you'd sit there and settle in. There was something oddly soothing about it being so long, the fact that it was over three hours. You sat in your seat and you're like, I am here.

No one's gonna bother me. I got my sweet tarts, my Sour Patch kids, popcorn, junior Mints, Twizzlers, I don't know. Whatever you wanted. You had it and you were there.

I'm not gonna give you a play by play of the movie, but I am going to passionately retell you three of my favorite parts.

One of my favorite moments of the movie is he's in the tower, and then they see the iceberg and the look on his face mixed with the ringing of the bell. And then he just shouts into the night iceberg right ahead. And that just starts the whole cascade of events. They come after it. Before that, the movie is all character and drama and emotion and glitz and glamor and beauty and fashion.

And then from that moment on, it's just complete chaos and adrenaline. It wasn't just a line of dialogue that was spoken, it was truly an entire tonal shift to the movie.

Whenever you're rewatching it, you have to stop and look at the screen for that moment.

My second favorite moment in Titanic is the moment when Rose is being lowered on the life raft after Jack and Cal put her in and she's looking up at the balcony and both those boys are staring down at her, sad faces.

Fireworks are going off. It's slow motion. The music swells and it's the most beautiful version of the Titanic theme.

Right when the music really starts, swelling, rose jumps over the balcony. Jack sees her, he runs down, they embrace, they meet again, and Cal's just tortured. He's just done. And that's when the music picks up steam and they have to escape and blah, blah blah.

But it's just that moment, the slow mo, her being lowered down. That is the moment when I started to cry, and you basically don't really stop crying for the entire movie.

My third favorite moment is when Jack is handcuffed. Handcuffed to the pipe. The ship is filling with water, the lights are flashing. You're sitting there thinking, oh my God, there's absolutely no way he's going to get out of this.

Rose was gonna get that ax and have to chop his hand off. Because that's the only way this would work, right? But then it's just believable enough that she actually hit the exact right spot and freed him.

Leonardo DiCaprio is so good in this scene, his voice is so hoarse and he is just struggling to talk. Jack's in trouble and now Rose is the one who has to go save him, this role reversal, it's a great scene. I love it.

And then one more scene I do need to reference because it is secretly my absolute favorite moment in the whole movie. Just go rewatch it and you'll have to see it differently through my eyes. They're on the third class level and they're trying to break through the gate, but the guy, the white star line guy, will not let them through.

And he's like wagging his finger at them saying, get back from the gate. He threatens them. I think he eventually pulls out a gun. Leo goes to the front and he says, open the gate. Open the gate right now. Open the gate right now, and he turns around.

He turns away, and he kinda looks like he's walking away, like he's giving up and then he turns back around towards the gate. He puts both hands on the gate and he looks at the guy straight in the eyes and he just shakes the gate with all of his built up anger from his life and being on this ship and the disrespect of it all. His anger for not being able to save himself and protect Rose. And he just screams, and him and his friends, they go and they get the bench, they peel the bench off of the ground and they lift it up and they go 1, 2, 3, and they boom, and then the gate comes down and they all just storm free. Probably my favorite moment in the movie because of Leo's acting. The way that he's calm and he's postured and he's Jack and he's just trying to help, and the anger is so good.

That moment is so cathartic for me because of the anger that he gets to express from everything that they've gone through. And it's not just like an angry moment. It's just so well done and I love it. If you watch Leo through his career, there are certain moments in in a bunch of movies where he gets to express this anger and he does it so well.

He gets mad, he gets a little madder and then he turns around, turns back, shakes the gate, and freaks out. And it's so incredibly satisfying, for me anyways, I love it.

 Those are my favorite scenes. But what I really loved about that time with Titanic was that when you walked out of the theater, it didn't just end, it followed you home the song My Heart Will Go On was on the radio constantly. And you're like, I need to go back to the theater tomorrow and watch it again for the seventh time. If you wanted to have that feeling again and again, you had to go back to the theater. You couldn't stream. You couldn't go on social media and rewatch it. You had to go back to the theater, buy your ticket, take that three and a half hours out of your day and really commit.

That's a big chunk of what people are talking about when they're reaching for nineties nostalgia right now. The fashion and the vibe and the music and all of that, but I think it's more that feeling of culture moving a little slower and landing a little deeper because it had to, there was not a lot to cling onto.

So the things that did hit, hit so deep.

It was this time period when you can fall in love with something and feel like you are the only person in the world that was a fan of it.

Yes, you knew that Titanic was successful financially and people were going to see it, but you didn't understand that other people were obsessed with it in a fandom sort of way.

You didn't know that.

So when I think about Titanic, that's my memory. The whole feeling of that moment in time.

I love hearing about people's favorite movies. Think about it. What is your favorite movie?

What does it say about you? I'm guessing that your favorite movie is not just for the movie itself. I'm guessing that your favorite movie has a whole lot of little things attached to it that help create your identity and your story and your history and how you grew up, and your values and how you see the world.

I'm guessing that your movie defines you a little deeper than you might even realize. So Titanic does that for me. And I used to be really embarrassed to say that Titanic was my favorite movie because I knew it sounded so cliche, so pedestrian. But these days. Everything that  📍 that movie for me is attached to that moment in time. I'm more than proud to say that Titanic is my favorite movie.      📍  📍  📍  📍  📍  📍  📍  📍  📍 This was Notes by Kathy Patalsky

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