THE TERMINATOR (1984) Retrospective / Review

hey buddy got a dead cat in here or what [ __ ] you [ __ ] Sarah Tana Sara coming here now you wanna sorta once again Sarah Connor 35 mother of two brutally shot to death in her home two hours ago 35 year-old Sarah and Connor was pronounced dead at the scene at her Santa Monica partner with Gerald Shirley is Connor was slain density gunmen earlier today in her home no police are refusing to speculate on the apparent similarity between these shooting deaths come with me if you want to live come on how could that man just get out left you did not a man Rasheed terminator 950 bottle one zero one the terminators an infiltration minute part man part machine underneath this hyper high combat microprocessor control fully armored very tough but outside its living human tissue that terminator is out there it can't be bargained with it can't be reasoned with it doesn't feel pity remorse and absolutely will not stop ever until you are dead 1984 saw the Terminator arrive on the big screen and took many critics by surprise and blew many away by its select direction an engaging story used on a small budget of just over six million dollars it shocked the number one slot at the box office and remain there for two weeks which is impressive for an r-rated movie and made over 78 million worldwide in 2008 The Terminator was deemed culturally historically and significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film registry the idea for the film came in the form of a nightmare James Cameron had he envisioned a robot emerging from the flames I wanted to pursue that idea James Cameron learned the tricks of the trade thanks to Roger Corman Jim was a skilled artist providing his talent and Escape from New York painting the incredible match shot for the background place he made upcoming producer Galen heard on stead of a movie he was working on and they had wanted to collaborate on a future project this became the Terminator many studios weren't impressed and turned his idea down and thankfully due to a contact at Orion Pictures they gave his script a read and loved it James Cameron had originally thought the Terminator would look like a normal guy who could blend into a crowd and wouldn't clearly be obvious to his victims and had Lance Henriksen in mind but with a meeting with Arnold Schwarzenegger he had been given the script and Jim apparently thought Arnold wanted to play the part of Carl Reese the hero of the film but he was surprised that Arnold wanted to be the Terminator which took Jim Cameron by surprise and he loved the idea when the movie was released science fiction author Harlan Ellison stated that he loved the movie and was blown away by it but he believed that the screenplay was based on episode of the Outer Limits he had written titled soldier and the demon with a glass hand Oh Ryan gave Alison an undisclosed amount of money and an acknowledgment credit in later prints of the film James Cameron was pissed off and apparently had no choice but to agree a nice to find the episodes on YouTube and the first time I viewed them you can't help but notice the similarities and I wasn't surprised Harlan spoke out about it the Terminator was released in mono sound in theaters due to its low budget when he films at that point were mixed in Dolby stereo the film was remastered for DVD and received a 5.1 Dolby Digital mix and some fans were upset by the changes made most apparent to some of the gunshot sound effects some hardcore fans prefer the original Manu mix and the best version to get is a thx mastered laserdisc because the mono mix has been left out of the DVDs and most recent blu-rays is to shame fans aren't given the option to change the audio the one thing that pissed me off when I got the DVD is at MGM removed the original prologue text and replaced it with some awful DVD subtitles totally pointless the film starts in the future the Year 2029 artificially intelligent machines are attempting to exterminate what is left of the human race two beings from this era travel back in time to 1984 Los Angeles one is a terminator a cyborg assassin programmed to kill a woman named Sarah Connor the other is Carl Reese a human resistance fighter sent to protect her he in the Terminator arrived naked where they obtain weapons and clothing after the Terminator kills two other Sarah Connors listed in the telephone book it eventually tracks down his target to a nightclub called tech-noir Carl on the other hand has been watching server closely and shows up and says Sarah in the nick of time from the terminators first attack and the two make an escape Karl explains that in the near future an artificial intelligence defense network called Skynet will become self-aware and initiate a nuclear holocaust of mankind Sarah's yet unborn son John will rally with the survivors and lead a resistance movement against Skynet and its army of machine with a resistance on the verge of victory Skynet has sent a terminator back in time to kill Sara before John can be born as a last-ditch effort to avert the formation of the resistance a terminator is an emotionless and efficient killing machine with a powerful metal endoskeleton but with an external layer of living tissue that makes it resemble a human being Carl and Sarah are again attacked by the Terminator leading to a car chase where at one point their cars eventually crash and break down Carl and Sarah caught by the police and the Terminator disappears Carl is questioned by criminal psychologist dr. Silberman who concludes that he is paranoid and delusional Sarah is also questioned by Lieutenant Traxler about the events that happened the Terminator shows up bursting through the front entrance after he fails to get past the officer on duty he texts a police station and kills many police officers in its attempts to locate Sarah but Sarah and Carl managed to escape and seek refuge in a motel Sarah makes mistake of phoning her mother not knowing the Terminator is there waiting for her to call so it reveals their location to the Terminator thinking she's talking to our mother The Terminator speeds off quickly to finish off his mission The Terminator uses a great mix of miniatures stop-motion in-camera puppets for the endoskeleton and the battle-damaged Arnold some of the most impressive effects considering its low budget is the sequences set in the future where it shows Kyle battling against the machines the effects teen fantasy to make a great use of foreground miniatures mixed with miniatures in the background creating a great scale to the images it makes a movie looked like a huge blockbuster James Cameron coming from the background of visual effects and production design he clearly knows what he wants and chose the right people to achieve his vision the late Stan Winston was the guy that brought to life James Cameron's original nightmare he did an incredible job it really cemented him was to go to guy for monsters on makeup effects in the industry and he helped Jim again on his future productions they attempted many different designs but they returned to the original image James Cameron came up with they were originally going to use more stop-motion but Stan managed to build separate pieces of the endoskeleton such as a top half and legs to limit the amount of stop motion to create the greatest sense of realism limited stop motion within the film do work and and well in a number of areas stop-motion has a very unique look some may say looks very jerky but definitely adds a creepy factor to the image the theme for the Terminator has become just as recognizable as the March for Superman or Indiana Jones The Terminator theme represents the terminators heartbeat with the love theme for Carl and Sarah mixed in composed by Bradford al who has unfortunately left the movie industry is an extremely underrated composer he performed all the music live while watching the film and having no midi equipment yet to change the drum and synth loops himself during the composing process the soundtrack listen to it by itself is a very enjoyable experience there are obviously a number of memorable tracks such as the love theme the tunnel chase and the appearance were terminated near the end one of my favorites is the attack on a police station 80% of the music is just underscoring and can be a little repetitive nearly down to its limited budget bradford l had and time the film also had a number of pop songs which are featured throughout the movie the ones that are most obvious is when ginger is listening to some tunes with her enormous walkman and when sara enters the technolon nightclub my favorite track is burning in the third degree pure classic eighties pop rock a scene where Sarah ducks just avoiding the eyes of the Terminator the tune works so well with the mix of the music changing to amp up the danger she's in Plus e8e starting always makes me laugh if you go to an eighties night you have to dance like this to properly blend in the full score was released in 1994 but may prove hard to find at a reasonable price a luckily purchased my copy about ten years ago on eBay for a bargain price the Terminator did come to many home computers in the early 90s the first being on the PC which had you playing as a terminator picking up weapons and then driving around a very primitive world hunting down Carl and Sarah also the game will give you the option to be Karla and protect from the Terminator it's a very bizarre choice to the programmers to go with a 3d slap of driving game that ultimately looks very flawed but to give them credit was very ambitious then came the home console versions the first being on the NES which was very late in the console's life the programmers clearly put little effort into this game mighty graphics and poor hit detection they must have made it on their lunch breaks Grob entertainment and virgin games had a stab at producing their own versions for the Master System Game Gear Mega Drive and then make a CD the Master System version played very similar to the Mega Drive version I was apparently far more difficult in its 16-bit counterpart and thankfully the game was longer the Mega Drive version while very playable had nice graphics and music was painfully short and could be completed in just under 15 minutes as a kid old very pissed off that it was so short but it didn't stop me from retained to the game on a frequent basis now the mega CD version was the one I always wanted to play as a kid and didn't get a chance to recently it was clearly the version that the programmers put the most effort into it has detailed animation great level design fantastic original music and the difficulty curve wasn't too steep the frustrating part was trying to shoot on the stairs and aiming in the right direction when climbing down ladders but it shouldn't be too problematic the more you play it the game also had FMV cutscenes from the film between levels but the quality is hilariously bad I think it's even bad for mega-cd standards there was also a Super Nintendo version this game was being made famous for its difficulty and no continues very much like the Mega Drive version the levels dragged on and on making the whole experience playing it a dull one avoid this version the mega-cd game is clearly the one to play if you are a fan of the series what can I say about the Terminator that hasn't already been said it is one of the best sci-fi films ever made the ideas laid out in the film are incredibly fascinating and very much relevant today with its theories on artificial intelligence and the advancements made in robots and combining technology with human anatomy the story moves long at a great pace with the expositional dialogue effectively executed during the chase scenes is too the movie's coming to a standstill to explain the plot Michael Biehn is incredibly underrated as a huge shame you didn't become a huge star James Cameron thankfully used him again in aliens and the abyss but Hollywood didn't exploit his talents Arnold was already a star thanks to Conan the Barbarian and he was the biggest selling point of the movie and a further boosted his career as one of the best action stars with all the films he has done the role of the Terminator is clearly the one most people associate with him in the Hamilton plays a very likeable Sarah Connor appearing independent but lost and clearly uncertain about her future by the end she really shows signs of what she's supposed to become it's great seeing strong female leads in an action film which at the time was rare James Cameron Aussie loves strong female characters and they are very much evident in his films the original Terminator is sometimes forgotten about when people talk about the Terminator franchise it's very much Terminator 2 that is most often discussed probably down to its huge success and technical achievements I love the films it's hard to decide which one is better the visual design for the first film is very distinctive and reminds me of a water hill film with that smoky look and cold blue neon lighting to the nighttime scenes it has those great b-movie ideas and runs with it and tells its story in a smart way and it oozes with confidence and finesse Linda and Michael show great chemistry and sin credibly sad at the end when he dies when I first saw it as a kid I knew something was going to happen to him and he had already been heavily wounded it's frustrating as an audience member when Sarah phones her mum but doesn't realize the Terminator is one step ahead and has killed her and is impersonating her voice and ability I don't think Karl's aware of and so it gives away their location the suspense is great because if she had listened to Karl they could have had a better fighting chance and Karl could have survived but in the movies history Karl has to die to save Sarah the movie certainly plays up the horror aspect well with the Terminator being this unstoppable force and the very ballistic makeup work on Arnold during the scenes where he removes his damaged eye and repairs his arm the heavy use of contrast with its photography and the attack on a police station capture that 80's feel of an exploitation horror flick it brought as many elements from other genres and blends it so well it stands on its own I've never come across a bad review of this film or anything negative because it's such a polished and well made movie with a lot of care and attention paid to the story and direction it's all about the story that makes this movie that much more than being labeled a standard action sci-fi film and it stood above the rest during the 80s with Terminator 2 it's an incredible sequel and probably one of the best sequels that were made but there are maybe one or two scenes that dragged the pace down but with the first film you don't get that feeling the soil is told swiftly and the action never outstayed its welcome the Terminator is a true classic movie and one that is fondly remembered from the 80s and makes many people's top lists of favorite films if you have overlooked it then please watch it as soon as possible and if you already own it I hope I got you excited to watch it again look I didn't ask for this honor and I don't want it any of it your son gave me a message to give to you made me memorize it Thank You Sara for your courage through the dark years I can't help you with what you must soon face except to say that the future is not set you must be stronger than you imagined you you must survive where I will never exist I came in last time for you sir I hope so Rhys is crazy in technical terminology he's alone don't get it to you to find it that's what he does wait for you you

Channel: Oliver Harper

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Id: PRYFDGDBdG8

Length: 17min 22sec (1042 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 31 2013