Titanic, Plus a Hundred Years

It has been a hundred years from the maiden voyage for the Titanic....unfortunately, she didn't make it very far and...well, we all know what happened!  I must say I've always been a little bit obsessed with the Titanic (even before James Cameron made his famous movie...we'll get to that, don't worry!)....the stories of people who made it off the ship and survived, those who didn't, the magnificence and opulence and every detail of every single item on board.  Some that have been recovered and some that remain at the bottom of the ocean and probably will forever (if they haven't been eaten by some sea creature by now).  Anyway, I find it all pretty interesting. 
So when 1997 rolled around and James Cameron released his mega blockbuster about the ill-fated ship, I was on board.  So to speak.  And I might have seen it -cough, cough- a few times.  Ok, so actually I possibly may need two hands to count the number of times I have seen it (but probably not every single finger on both hands...I don't think).  We're talking in the theater.  I'd rather not guess how many times that I have watched it since, but I will say this....if Michael sees it on the guide that it is on he will do any and everything in his power to make sure that I do NOT also see that it is on TV.  I need to teach Sophia how to read the word Titanic so she can tell on him if he tries to pass it by when I'm not looking.  He swears he likes the movie, but I am skeptical.  I don't know why he doesn't like it...it has everything...romance, drama, action, tragedy...it's the perfect movie.  In my defense (of seeing it so many times in the theater....still working on a defense of why I feel the need to watch it every time it comes on TV), I did go with different people to see it.  Ok, well, really just my sister and my friend Tracey, maybe a few others possibly, but definitely more than once with those two.  But sometimes we would see it when I was home from college, and sometimes we would see it when I was at college and they were visiting me.  Is it my fault that the movie ran that long in the theater??  My most memorable time was when Tracey and I went to see it at the theater at GA Southern....someone brought their very young kids (possibly older than Sophia's age, but probably not much...totally inappropriate) and not surprisingly, the kids were loud through the whole thing.  Sure, we had seen the movie already, but Tracey was NOT happy.  We ended up complaining to the manager (read SHE ended up complaining, she is way better at that stuff than me, but I've learned from the master and can definitely handle myself now, haha) and got free passes to see it again!!  So you know, we sort of had to.  Besides just being an awesome movie that begs to be watched over and over, it does have some good eye candy...in the form of Leo Dicaprio.  Yum.  Like a fine wine, the guy just gets better with age.  I was almost hoping that James Cameron was going to do a little rewrite on the script and let Jack live...just so Leo could reprise his role.  More like if the Jack of today was on the Titanic this time around he wouldn't just push Rose's tush up on the door and hang on while he froze to death in the water...he'd push her aside and figure out how to make both of them fit on it so they'd both survive....maybe he'd cuddle close and use their body heat to survive until the life boats returned (ok, so this might be more of what I would've been suggesting had I been the one on the door...but whatever, I wouldn't just let my man die in the freezing water if he was looked like Leo Dicaprio, geez!!)....something like that.  I do love me some Leo Dicaprio, that is for sure.  Just makes the movie that much better to watch over and over and over again.  Oddly, I don't mind Billy Zane.  For a villain character in the movie, he isn't too bad on the eyes either.  Ok, so maybe the eye candy reason is a fairly shallow reason to watch a movie repeatedly but I'm sure guys watch movies with hot girls in them over and over so I think that one is a draw.     
I was super excited to hear (months and months ago when Michael read an article about it...I wonder if he was scared to share it with me for fear that he would have to go with me, hahaha) that James Cameron was planning to re-release the movie (in 3D no less) for the 100 year anniversary.  I pictured myself going to see it at least a couple times, you know, for old times sake.  And it did almost turn out that way.  When Soph and I went to Birmingham last week, my sister and I were planning on seeing it one night (even though it was just a short trip).  But it was playing pretty late and we were both pretty tired so we ended up skipping out.  I was bummed, but figured that it was ok since I had a girls night planned with Tracey and one of our other friends for the 14th (the night the Titanic sank...cool, right?!) to go and see it.  Well, stupid Atlanta, you suck cause apparently Titanic is only in limited release in the theater all over the city...and the limited release ends on the 12th.  :-(  SO disappointing.  Especially since it only came out on the 4th.  Way to screw your die hard fans, James Cameron (or whoever decided that...I can only hope that he was much more greedy than that and argued it but just lost the argument).  Oh well.  Or so I thought.  I even planned on just being lame and going to the movie on my own.  Hoping the 3D glasses would obscure my identity and that no one would know that I was all alone I guess.  Michael offered to go with me, but it looked like it pained him to even offer and that he could think of about 85 other ways to spend 3 hours of his life.  So I let him off the hook and said that he could just play with Sophia and have some quality Daddy/daughter time.  He seemed relieved.  :-) Then, all of the sudden, more dates opened up.  The 14th was totally an option and on top of that, we found out that there also was a very cool Titanic artifacts display going on in Atlantic Station as well....right next to the movie theater that just released more showings of the movie.  Score!!  Perfect girls night!  Well, more like girls late afternoon that leads into late night...perfect Titanic 100 year anniversary celebration! 
I am always going to love this movie.  It was sort of the Hunger Games/Twilight of the late 90's....except it was about something 100% real, even if the story about Jack and Rose was not real.  (Completely another post, but that is why I can't get into those movies/books...they are about made up/fantasy stuff and those things don't grab me)  I feel like the whole younger generation of kids didn't get to experience the Titanic craze the way I did, which is partly why I wish it was in theaters a bit longer (and ok, also so I could see it a few more times), and maybe that time is over but because the sinking of the Titanic was such a tragic event I guess I just wish there was a bit more focus on it.  A little more fanfare (no, that doesn't seem like the right word....recognition, remembrance...something like that).  Apparently there might be some kind of celebratory stuff going on in Atlantic Station but I haven't heard much leading up to it...there have been a few shows on TV that we have tivoed...not as many as I was expecting though I guess.  I can't wait until Sophia is old enough to watch the movie with me and I can start telling her some of the interesting facts about Titanic.  I know she is too young now....maybe next year??!!
Happy 100 year anniversary Titanic...even if you are at the bottom of the ocean!!!