Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ sails on its 25th anniversary

Above : Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett star in James Cameron’s 1997 film “Titanic.” (Photo/Paramount Pictures)

Say what you want, James Cameron endures. Not only is his follow-up to 2009’s “Avatar,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” approaching $2.17 billion in gross earnings worldwide, his 1997 Oscar-winning film “Titanic” will soon be enjoying a re-release.

By the way, the sequel’s grosses puts it at No. 4 on the all-time worldwide earnings list. And sitting at No. 1 with $2.9 billion? “Avatar,” of course.

But back to “Titanic” – which, by the way sits at No. 3 ($2.19 billion) – what’s the occasion for the re-release? It’s the film’s 25th-anniversary. As such, it will be screening again amid all of Friday’s other openings.

Let’s do a recap of some critical appraisal of “Titanic,” which was written and directed by Cameron. First of all, it features a cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslett, Billy Zane and Kathy Bates as the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown in the period-piece scenes.

Bill Paxton and Gloria Stuart are featured in the contemporary scenes.

Winner of 11 Oscars in all , the film was named Best Picture, earned a Best Director nod for Cameron and snared a host of technical awards, from Cinematography to Costume Design, Editing to Original score (for James Horner).

Dave Kehr , writing for the New York Daily News, proclaimed, “If computer-generated special effects have overpowered human-generated drama, Cameron seizes that dangerously cold technology and recasts it as dream and delirium, profoundly human in its sources and longings.”

And for The New Republic, Stanley Kauffman wrote – rather poetically – “Bursting through gaps in the hull, rushing down corridors, licking at rooms, triumphing over great ballrooms and tiny closets, down stairways and into elevators, the sea, in the hands of Cameron and his technical associates, becomes hungry, vindictive.”

Yet Manohla Dargis , then writing the L.A. Weekly, offered a contrarian view. “Cameron excels at big scenes and muscular action,” she wrote. “(I)t’s the little things, such as emotional nuance and complicated characters, that he can’t manage well.”

Ah, well, you can’t win them all – even if, clearly enough, Cameron tries.