20 Best Movies Over Three Hours Long
13. Titanic (1997)
Runtime: 3 hours, 14 minutes
Even after all he's accomplished over his career, Titanic remains James Cameron's purest vision as both a filmmaker and storyteller.
With astounding practical effects, including meticulously detailed scale models, Cameron's real-time exploration of the Titanic's sinking is first and foremost a romance, shared by Leonardo DiCaprio's penniless artist Jack and Kate Winslet's suffocated socialite Rose. Their connection is intoxicating, so much so it's easy to forget the tragedy to come.
But the tragedy is still there, waiting and closing in. When the sinking begins, Cameron switches gears in the most impressive of ways, turning its love story into a thrilling tale of survival that honours the real-life souls who were lost while also maintaining focus on its central pair, whose final moments together remain harrowing.
Romantic and gorgeous, bracing and devastating, Titanic is a gripping story that unfolds like a dream that becomes a nightmare, and the results are electrifying.