Wildly over budget, beyond studio control, with bad publicity pouring over the bulkheads, Titanic was destined to be the worst flop in film history. Until it wasn’t. Instead, it made Leo a one-name celeb, made Cameron “king of the world,” and made more than a billion dollars—still the record. The critical headscratching began: what made it bigger, if not better, than anything that had come before? Was it, as Vivian Sobchack argues, the bathos of the bathysphere in the frame story or was it the pasticherie of James Horner’s score? Could Celine Dion be responsible? In the end, no doubt, DiCaprio’s unthreatening class insouciance and bluffing sexual forthrightness could have encouraged many folks besides Kate Winslet to disrobe. Still, that scene has a certain pathos once we know that it is James Cameron himself drawing Winslet’s portrait.