Resurrected post: Titanic vs. Ben-Hur

 By popular acclaim (well, my sister mentioned this and someone else liked her Tweet), I am resurrecting a 1997 post from a defunct blog of mine. I'm in a hurry and I haven't taught myself how to do tables in HTML, and tabs would probably look odd in mobile, so I'll just put the comparisons on top of each other instead of side by side. I did add the quotes  and run-times today, since IMDB makes that easy.

Major spoilers for movies from 1997 and 1959!

Why Titanic pales in comparison to Ben-Hur, despite 11-Oscar tie

Titanic has: Doomed romance

Ben-Hur has: Seemingly doomed romance with a happy ending!

Titanic: Costume drama (early 20th century)

Ben-Hur: Costume drama (Imperial Rome/Jerusalem)

Titanic: Class hatred (first vs. steerage)

Ben-Hur: Race/empire hatred (Romans vs. Jews and Arabs)

False imprisonment for political/career motives! Ex-friend's betrayal!

Revenge plots! Civil war plots!

Titanic: Leonardo DiCaprio handcuffed to a railing

Ben-Hur: Charlton Heston chained shirtless to an oar

Titanic: "Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your French girls." - Rose

Ben-Hur: "Look... look for them... in the Valley... of the Lepers! If you can recognize them!" - Messala

Titanic: "I'm the king of the world!" - Jack

Ben-Hur: "Your eyes are full of hate, forty-one. That's good. Hate keeps a man alive. It gives him strength." - Quintus Arrius, to Judah Ben-Hur

"You seem to be now the very thing you set out to destroy. Giving evil for evil. Hatred is turning you to stone. It's as though you had become Messala." - Esther, to Ben-Hur

Titanic: Ship sinks

Ben-Hur: Naval battle with lots of ships burning and sinking!

CHARIOT RACE!!!!!!!!

Miracle cures of lepers! Crucifixion!

Titanic: 3 hours, 14 minutes

Ben-Hur: 3 hours, 32 minutes

Titanic: Hero dies; villain survives; heroine escapes fate only by erasing own identity

Ben-Hur: Hero lives, redeemed by love/God; villain trampled (dragged) to death by his own horses; heroine, hero's mother and hero's sister all get a happy ending.