Titanic

The past few years I have been trying to get the kids into movies enjoyed by my generation. After-all things haven’t changed that much have they? The storylines are still the same. But ‘Croc Dundee’ was a fail and only generated upturned noses and a lone watcher (me) after a walk-out.

My god, I loved that movie! I still remember circa 1987 sitting in the Regent Theatre placing Jaffa after Jaffa into my mouth and chortling with my brothers.

But I guess the digital quality is not the same and, I had to admit, the picture looked lame. It just wasn’t how I remembered it.

Annie and Grease held my daughter’s attention but the boys, once again, left the room to play Lego, feigning disgust.

And then along came Titanic.

Sunday night saw us lined up in front of the tele and it wasn’t just the prospect of staying up late from the 3-hour 15-min duration which held appeal. The kids have been asking questions about the Titanic for some time so when I noticed a re-run programmed for TV3, I recorded it and decided they could have a crash-course in history.

I must admit, since watching its debut at the movie theatre while at university, I had no yearning to watch it again – I think it was the Celine Dion song which was off-putting. But, with a new appreciation, I sat transfixed with the rest of them, including the new kitten who had front row seats on the bean bag.

The nude scenes had the kids covering their eyes while rolling round convulsing with hilarity, likewise the expletives and when Rose ungainly pulled the middle finger. It goes to show how sheltered they must be – long may that last. They were even shocked by all the smoking – how times have changed.

They were pretty sombre towards the end with the drowning scenes and sure they would have nightmares but they didn’t and woke the next morning and promptly watched it again.

That’s a lot of free educational baby-sitting during the school hols which has rekindled my desire to hunt for more.