By Todd Garbarini
James Cameron's The Terminator is a masterpiece of
cinematic storytelling, conceived by Mr. Cameron while in Rome with a fever
years earlier (the late director Robert Altman had a similar situation that led
to the writing of my favorite film of his, Three
Women, released in 1977). Shot in
early 1984 for roughly $6M (the amount spent solely on the sound mix of the
superb $90M sequel seven years later), this futuristic action powerhouse grabs
the audience by the throat and takes us on a wild ride. Despite the inexorable pace – much like the
titular villain’s nature – the film manages to come up for air and miraculously
never feels over-the-top, long-winded or plodding.
The
Terminator opened on Friday, October 26, 1984 and yours truly
missed out on seeing it, electing to see the horror film greatest hits
compilation Terror in the Aisles instead. I had to wait until the end of the school
year eight months later to see the film in a classroom on VHS, the small-screen
presentation diminishing none of the film’s raw emotional power to my teenage eyes,
both of which were glued to the television. The film made Arnold Schwarzenegger a super
star and was the surprise sleeper hit of the season, his depiction of a
terrifying cyborg with a relentless mission it will stop at nothing to complete
solidifying his place as an action icon. Two weeks later Wes Craven's A
Nightmare on Elm Street was unleashed on unsuspecting moviegoers and cinema
hasn't been the same since, introducing a child killer who invades teen-agers’
dreams in his attempts to murder them. The
Terminator added “Come with me
if you want to live.†and the oft-quoted “I’ll be back.†to the American
lexicon and became as familiar as “May the Force be with you.†and “Go
ahead. Make my day.†Nightmare,
of course, contributed the creepy “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you…â€
children’s song.
Linda Hamilton shines as Sarah Connor,
a 28 year-old diner waitress who unwittingly is targeted for termination by the
Terminator after it travels from the future, determined to kill her so that her
unborn son cannot rise against the machines. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn in a terrific and underrated performance) is
the human counterpart sent to intercept and destroy the Terminator so that
Sarah may live. What makes the film so
brilliant is not only the ideas it presents but how it conveys them to the
audience. For the first thirty-five
minutes, we are just as in the dark as Sarah (not knowing she’s about to be on
the run for her life) and Kyle (since the Terminator looks human on the
outside, he has to wait until it moves in on Sarah before he can strike) and
are only given little bits of information until Kyle and the Terminator meet
face to face at the TechNoir dance club (the shootout in this ultra-Eighties club, followed by the escape, are
beautifully edited set pieces that set the tone for the rest of the film).
The film may be low-budget, but it honestly
does not feel like it. The story is
enthralling and completely believable. Mr. Biehn gives a performance just as compelling as Donald Pleasence did in
Halloween (1978). Without his history, conviction and attempts
to make those around him believe that what he is saying is true, Kyle Reese,
the soldier from the future who comes across time to father John Connor with
Sarah, would fall under the weight of the film. There is a level of plausibility to the story that is lacking from other
films about the future, heightened by Stan Winston’s special effects work. The flashback battle scenes of the war in
2019 recall Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max 2 (1981) (retitled The Road Warrior for its 1982 US
release). The
Terminator is the boiler plate for future films about, well. The future!
Composer Brad
Fiedel has created a magnificently menacing score, robotic and simplistic like
the Terminator. Dick Miller provides a
great cameo as a gun store clerk (I just noticed the store’s address as 14329
and its similarity to 14239, the address of the first Sarah Connor the
Terminator kills from the phonebook listing – and I have seen the film many
times over! Oh, the clarity of high
definition!).
The Blu-ray, which was released at least
twice before (once in a special version containing a hardcover book), comes
with the same extras ported over from the previous editions:
· Behind
the scenes – runes about 13 minutes
· Terminator: A Retrospective – runs just over 20 minutes and contains interviews from
1986 and 1992
· A
collection of deleted scenes
I wish that this
time around the disc included a running commentary with the director at the
very least. This is a watershed film
that rewrote the book on science fiction action films and it is deserving of
more extras than the studios have lavished on it thus far. If you have not yet picked up the film on
Blu-ray, this edition will do quite nicely.
The film has been
remastered and looks as good as it is going to in 1080P.
Click here to order discounted from Amazon