Best Action Movie Ever: James Cameron's Terminator
by: Dana Young
"The Terminator" is an true blockbuster classic; for me personally, it's
the best action movie I've ever seen (to me, of course!). Although its
sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is far superior technologically and
visually, this first film in the franchise is by far the best of them
all, and in no small part thanks to James Cameron's brilliant script and
direction in which he creates a moody, atmospheric landscape within
which a battle between man and machine is waged, and yet a love story
about star-crossed lovers is the true heart of the movie. Arnold
Schwarzenegger found his signature role, and some might say the only
role he truly fits like a glove, a killer robot from the future with a
deadly mission to kill Sarah Connor, the future mother of the human
resistance leader against the machines in the future. Unlike other
sci-fi films, which tend to border on the silly or amusing side, this is
a film you can take absolutely seriously, even with Arnie in the lead,
and is a thrilling ride from start to finish.
After being treated to a post-apocalyptic nightmare of the future in the
film's opening prologue, the film begins with Arnie's arrival as the
Terminator in LA. He arrives completely naked, a fact that some street
punks find amusing until the Terminator kills them in order to take
their clothes. From there, we're introduced to Sarah and her normal
life, and then to Kyle Reese, a human sent back in time to help protect
Sarah from the Terminator. All three eventually come together in one
particularly tense sequence in a night club where the Terminator reveals
himself to everyone, pulls out his gun and is just about to shoot Sarah
when Reese intervenes and saves her.
By today's standards the visualisation of the Terminator on screen (at
least in the end) looks a little old-fashioned and clunky but it's no
less thrilling. We are treated to a number of full body shots at the end
which are stop motion and stilted, but this doesn't detract from the
thrills, especially when in one sequence where we think the Terminator
has been destroyed, twice, and he still gets up again. There's a great
scene in the documentary on the bonus disc where the composer, upon
first seeing this scene, says, "if that things gets up one more time I
swear I'll... &%$#!". It's very suspenseful and entertaining.
Linda Hamilton does an amicable job as the vulnerable Sarah Connor;
she's the girl next door who finds herself in an extraordinary situation
and has to learn to adapt to an entirely new life once the Terminator
enters the picture. Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese with an almost manic
intensity, driven to protect Sarah Connor at all costs. Throughout the
film we are slowly treated to a more human side to the character who
comes to fall in love with Sarah and thus conceive the leader of the
human resistance, John Connor. Biehn does an excellent job, more so
because it falls on his shoulders to explain everything that's
happening, something I'm sure he wouldn't have relished. But at the same
time, it's to Cameron's credit that this exposition which would have
been boring otherwise is always told in the middle of a tense action
sequence, so it's never boring.
Perhaps what sets this film apart from most action films is that
everything is driven by the drama of the story, something you don't
often find. So when the Terminator is chasing our heroes in a
spectacular car chase with gun going off and parts of the city getting
destroyed, we can still feel the tension and the drama in the scene for
the characters rather than being a spectacular technical feat which so
often happens in so many action films. As a result, you're constantly
wondering if they are going to be able to stay one step ahead of the
unstoppable cyborg.
"The Terminator" is a truly awesome film; it might be a little dated
now, but it's no less great than when it was first released.
