Top Ten Biggest Oscar Snubs – Nominations #6
6
Leonardo DiCaprio and James Cameron (as screenwriter) for Titanic (1997)
The absence of Leonardo DiCaprio and James Cameron’s Titanic screenplay from the list of 1997 Oscar nominations deserves its own slot because Titanic wasn’t just a movie: it was a cultural and financial phenomenon.
DiCaprio’s failure to nab a nomination was particularly surprising because he is at the heart of the film, which helped to catapult the young actor to the realms of superstardom and unbridled teen idolatry. The guy even freezes to death so as to save the film from sinking along with the ship. All for naught.
DiCaprio’s omission — and, for that matter, that of Cameron’s screenplay — become even more glaring when you consider that just about everyone and everything in Titanic received nominations — fourteen in all, a record (shared with the 1950 drama All About Eve). Nominees ranged from veteran Gloria Stuart and to the most amazing, astounding girl, er…, woman co-star Kate Winslet to both the ship itself and the killer iceberg (by way of the nominated production designers and visual effects people).
As for James Cameron’s screenplay, the San Francisco Examiner’s Barbara Shulgasser wrote the following:
"The big, proud credit that runs at the end of the three-hour howler, Titanic, touts James Cameron, of The Terminator fame, as the writer-director of this $200 million extravaganza. I would like to warn anyone with circulation problems or a short attention span that Cameron gives writing-directing, and the tradition of making multihour movies, a bad name.
"The guy might be gifted at spending money on computer graphics and Poseidon Adventure-like special effects, but he sure as hell hasn’t the slightest clue how to write a scene." (See parody below.)
In the Los Angeles Times‘ Kenneth Turan lambasted the film — and Cameron’s writing — so often ("To the question of the day," begins Turan’s review, "what does $200 million buy?–the 3-hour-and-14-minute Titanic unhesitatingly answers: not enough") that the director, I mean, writer-director wrote a piece in that newspaper demanding Turan’s "impeachment." (That was around the time of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky media sewage spill.)
Happily, Turan is still at the Los Angeles Times — one of the fewer and fewer reasons for Angelenos to check out that publication — while Cameron hasn’t had a narrative feature-film director’s (or writer’s) screen credit in nearly 12 years. (His Avatar is supposed to come out in late December 2009.)
Jack Dawson — that’s Leonardo DiCaprio’s character — impersonator delivering dialogue found in Titanic. Clip posted by withrowjared
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