Over the years, there have been some brilliant directors that have
created some fantastic films that have gone down in history as the
breathtaking. From Quinton Tarantino making Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction,
Alfred Hitchcock bringing us Psycho, Orson Welles brought us Citizen Kane,
Steven Spielberg, with E.T, Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan and then
of course, Martin Scorsese who gave us Goodfellas and The Departed.
All of these directors have gone down in history as making brilliant and
historical films, but have any of these directors ever changed the face of
cinema? You would have to say no. There is, however one man that has.
In 1997, a film came out that would change cinema, as people knew it.
That film was Titanic. True, this isn’t a film that most would call their
favorite film, however the graphics and technology used in this film was
something that was never done before.
In the 1980’s, even the early 90’s, the thought of a film reenacting
this true story and actually seeing a ship weighing over 50,000 tones sink in
the way it did, people would maybe think you’re a bit crazy, but it was done,
and done superbly well.
The man, who directed this epic movie, was of course James Cameron. With
this film many people argue he did change the face of cinema as we knew it at
the time and he did it in style with Titanic winning a massive 11 Oscars,
including Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best sound and best
editing. Titanic is one of 3 films in history that have one this amount of
Oscars, Lord Of The Rings and Ben-Hur also have 11 wins each.
After Titanic was released, then came a flurry of films like it,
including Matrix, Gladiator and of course Lord of the Rings.
Titanic isn’t the only the great and historic film that James Cameron
gave us though. He also gave us ‘The Terminator 1&2 and Aliens. These, not
nearly as successful as Titanic!
In 2010 though, James Cameron done it again, proving he is one of the
greatest film makers in film history. He created a film that he has wanted to
make for 20 years, Avatar.
He wanted to make Avatar 20 years ago, even before Titanic. He couldn’t
however because of the technology, it simply wasn’t advanced enough. So he
waited and waited and when the time was right and technology was advanced
enough, he made his own 3D cameras, called Stereoscopic Cameras.
Stereoscopic cameras are cameras that are made for shooting in 3D. It
makes the experience a lot better for the audience as it looks a lot better
than a film made in 2D and transformed into 3D like the Green Hornet was. Films
like the Green Hornet, which maybe good films and good storylines, still may
look poor because the film wasn’t filmed in 3D. This is something that James
Cameron wouldn’t want to do.
There have been suggestions Avatar cost an astonishing 500 million
dollars to make however it was more like somewhere in the region of 280 million
plus marketing costs, costing more than films like Pirates of the Caribbean and
Transformers. It is, however reaping the benefits of this, grossing 601.1
million dollars in just 47 days according to box office data, and to date
grossing well over a billion dollars making it the most successful movie ever
made. It sailed past Titanic, also directed by James Cameron, which is
estimated to have made just over 600 million dollars all together.
Despite the amount it cost and grossed, Avatar never won the Oscar for
best film of the year, losing out to The Hurt Locker, directed by Cameron’s ex
wife Kathryn Bigelow. It did however win 3 Oscars, including, Best achievement
in Cinematography, best achievement in Art Direction and Best achievement in
Visual Effects.
Based on these facts and figures, James Cameron has clearly now changed
the face of Cinema twice with the making of Titanic and Avatar, and with Avatar
2 and 3 just been announced making it a trilogy, who knows what other records
he will brake but with Cameron also directing the making of graphic novel
called Battle Angel, he’s sure to have more success in the future.
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