| In hindsight, it’s easy to take for granted that “Titanic”—with its epic scale, charismatic cast, and instant classic of a theme song—would become one of the biggest movies of all time. But, as the New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane noted in his review, twenty-five years ago this month, the movie’s success was far from assured. Lane alludes to troubles during production that helped make “Titanic” the most expensive film ever at that time; he also points out that the director, James Cameron, then best known for the “Terminator” movies, was less than an obvious fit for a historical romance. Yet, despite the film’s notable problems with characterization and dialogue, Lane finds himself largely swept away. Some of Leonardo DiCaprio’s “lines are straight out of the Hobo’s Handbook,” he notes, and the central villain “could walk into a one-reel melodrama from 1912, no questions asked.” But to focus on these shortcomings is to miss the movie’s greater contribution to cinema, he argues, citing what “may be the most beautiful special effect ever seen.” “If you are going to spend two hundred million dollars on a movie,” he suggests, “this is the way to do it.” | 
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