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Ah, that tin whistle. I would know it anywhere. I'd be willing to wager that if you were

conscious in 1997, that romantic little melody blown mournfully into one of the world's

most annoying instruments is carved just as deeply into the grey matter of your brain

as it is in mine.

If you weren't around in 1997 or were living in a corner of the world that somehow escaped

the pop culture tsunami that was James Cameron's Titanic, then it might be difficult for you

to fully wrap your head around its unrelenting cultural domination.

The movie Titanic premiered in the United States on December 19, 1997 and was immediately

embraced by both critics and the movie going public in general.

The sprawling, unapologetically romantic historical epic seemed to have something for absolutely

everyone. It was one part Romeo and Juliet and one part towering in Ferno. It was a disaster

movie wearing the ornate jewelry of a romantic period piece. Everyone and their grandmother

saw this film in the theater. In fact, this was the kind of movie that you saw in the

theater with your grandmother and somehow you both walked away feeling satisfied.

Now I know you might accuse me of exaggerating when I say that everyone saw this movie and

I know that's technically impossible, but this movie was the number one film in America for

15 weeks. That's a solid three months as the top grossing movie. And then it's not like

it slipped out of the theaters after that point. It just wasn't number one anymore.

Titanic would be the first film ever to gross a billion dollars worldwide. It would remain

the top grossing film of all time until James Cameron broke his own record with the release

of Avatar in 2009. But the cultural impact of Avatar really cannot be compared to that

...