Titanic: What is all the fuss about?

There's something very strange about the Academy Awards. How can the biggest movie of all time win Best Picture without being nominated for Best Screenplay?

While you're pondering over that, here's a few words on James Cameron's $200million historical epic Titanic which defied sniping critics to become the most lucrative film ever.

Such labels have been attached to many movies since the first flickering images ran through a projector over 100 years ago, but while in recent years the likes of Star Wars, ET and Jurassic Park have made more than a few quid, the financial success of Titanic defies belief.

If you look at the top 100 movies of all time, you'll see this tops the list whether it's on home turf or around the world. What is amazing is the gap between Cameron's blockbuster and the number two movie.

Having grossed over $600million in the States alone, it went on to make a spooky $1,234million outside the USA - Jurassic Park comes in at number two with less than half that.

Statistics aside, you may wonder why Titanic succeeds where most wannabe blockbusters fail. Well, there's no recipe for success otherwise we'd all be millionaires but Cameron wisely recreated a sort of 1912 version of Romeo and Juliet - doomed romance always strikes box office gold as long as you have the right cast. Luckily, the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet added more chemistry than he ever could have hoped for.

That, together with some good effects and a literally breathtaking finale kept the hi-tech fans happy, more keen to see how the team at Digital Domain created computer generated waves and people than Kate and Leo making eyes at one another.

The Merchant Ivory fans were also catered for with enough posh frocks and etiquette to gloss over the dubious script - it seems there was a little of something for everyone.

Cameron had been a fan of the subject for many years and having never made a financial flop, the suits at 20th Century Fox fell over themselves to back his movie. But he's never been the sort of film-maker to do things by halves and soon the budget started rising rapidly.

Studio executives got nervous as the release date had to be pushed back; the shoot was hampered by a miffed crew member lacing some clam chowder with PCP (Angel Dust) and many of the cast were not happy campers - Winslet expressed her unhappiness to the Press in a move which seemed like career suicide.

So what of the plot? Well, it centres on a depressed society girl who is prevented from committing suicide by a penniless rogue during the doomed ship's maiden voyage, and gradually finds herself falling in love with him - setting the scene for a series of violent confrontations with her jealous fiancŽ.

The script leaves a lot to be desired and contains some hilariously bad moments. "There are icebergs out there," remarks Rose (Winslet) to a concerned officer. "I can see them in your eyes."

Oh dear.

There's also the moment when a crew member spots the fateful frozen peril; harking back to Dick Van Dyke/Mary Poppins days: "Oiceberg! Roight ahead!"

Spending hours diving down to a sunken cruise liner and risking life and limb is a piece of cake for James Cameron. However, getting a Hollywood extra to read out a simple line of dialogue in an English accent?

Forget it.

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