December 19, 1997

For once, a much-touted event movie is exactly that: a glorious throwback to the days when epic storytelling really filled the screen. Despite the astonishing technological advances behind James Cameron's great visual spectacle, gimmicks are never allowed to intrude on the film's central illusion: that the audience is drawn back into the Gilded Age and intimately involved in the fateful voyage. For all its painstaking historical detail, this "Titanic" proves anything but quaint, thanks to the phenomenal immediacy of its sights and the pure Hollywood hokum of its story. As two young lovers whose romance is skillfully interwoven with real historical detail, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio are a duo with serious chemistry. With his "Gone With the Wind" -caliber ambitions, Mr. Cameron dared to dream of the impossible and came up with the movie of the year. - Janet Maslin

Pres Clinton abandons June deadline for withdrawing American forces from Bosnia in favor of open-ended commitment of troops to international peacekeeping mission, which he says is helping to rebuild Bosnia; denies misleading Congress, saying he was simply wrong to set deadline, but asks that critics also look at larger truth that mission has enforced fragile cease-fire, advanced US security and values and made it less likely that US forces will be pulled into European conflict in future; expects US forces to leave Bosnia in 'near term' but refuses to set new exit date; will look for 'concrete benchmarks' like creation of adequate civilian police force; does not foresee permanent presence, or specify size of force after June, but hopes it will be fewer than 8,500 Americans there now; Clinton is to make holiday visit to troops, along with Congressional delegation that includes opponents of his policy; photo of preparations; Clinton also supports Dutch-led arrest of two Bosnian Croats indicted for atrocities, and praises efforts to return refugees (M)

New York Jets and New York Giants find that winning is good for business, with number of no-shows down, and increased sales of teams' logos, names and colors; Giants and Jets apparel is selling at retailers better than last year; parking revenues and game concession sales are up; photos (M)

Both houses of the State Legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill yesterday to raise the speed limit on some state and Federal highways in New Jersey to 65 miles per hour, but Gov. Christine Todd Whitman is expected to veto it. Aides to the Governor, who recently had softened her opposition to the bill, said she opposed it because it did not include a provision for a trial period to study the effect of the higher speed limit. Article, page B10.

Home-business phenomenon has emerged from obscurity in recent years, as many big corporations have downsized and more people have gone into business for themselves; many cities, rather than ignoring or trying to suppress it as they often did in the past, are seeking to exploit the trend to their own advantage; first step in process for many cities has been to revise zoning laws that were drafted to prohibit home businesses; most aggressive of these cities have gone much further, in seeking to make cities attractive for home business and to tap some revenue from them; revenue they get from these previously untaxed companies is helping to hold down pressures to raise taxes elsewhere; photos (L)