Movie Review - Terminator

  Terminator (1984)

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton

Over the years, a debate has raged within me about which is the superior film: Terminator or Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  That debate has a personal significance for me exceeding the one between Godfather and Godfather II.  My opinion on the matter has flip-flopped a number of times over the years, but for the most part Judgment Day has gotten the nod as my preferred film (by a hair).  That isn't a knock against the first Terminator by any means.  T2 is probably one of my five desert island movies.  Meaning if I had to live the rest of my life with only five movies to watch, Terminator 2 would more than likely be one of them. Obviously, I regard T2 pretty highly.  In spite of that, though, Terminator is right there with it in my mind.  In other words, this is a really good movie.

Terminator hits a lot of my sweet spots as a movie lover.  To begin with, I can’t get enough of sci-fi flicks that take place in a dystopian future.  The 80's was a golden era for such movies, and Terminator is right there in the bleak, futuristic science-fiction movie Hall of Fame (along with other greats like Blade Runner and Escape from New York).  I also love slasher films (again the 80's being a particular era of worship), and the T-800 is essentially Michael Myers with an assault rifle.  I've never heard anything specific about James Cameron drawing inspiration from slasher films when he made Terminator, but it’s hard to believe he didn't,  especially given the popularity of that genre during this era.  The pattern is just too familiar (unstoppable, inscrutable killer picks off sinners one by one before finally being overcome by the innocent, seemingly fragile heroine). 

Finally, I adore B-movies.  And Terminator is very much a B-movie.  It’s a creature feature with a robot assassin standing in for The Creature from the Black Lagoon.  Stop-motion animation, gruesome makeup effects, and a shoestring budget are all qualities Terminator shares with contemporary B-movie classics like The Thing.  Of course, in 2013, it is eminently weird to think about “King of the World” James Cameron directing a B-movie.  In fact, the IMDb trivia page for this movie says Cameron was essentially homeless when he made Terminator.  Certainly, the alleged $6 million budget of the movie was probably exceeded by catering costs on the set of Avatar. 

But, as we all know, movies are like sports: the hungriest (both literally and figuratively) competitors tend to be the best.  And there is simply a passion for film making on the part of the director that is readily apparent in Terminator.  And one wonders to what degree Cameron possesses that anymore.  Like other directors, the quality of Cameron’s movies has generally decreased as the budgets have grown (see Lucas, George).  Also like other directors, Cameron seems as entranced by new technologies and actual film making equipment as he is with the art of film making (see Jackson, Peter). 

But Terminator will forever remain evidence of just how good Cameron can be when he is on.  The movie is perfectly cast (I continue to believe to this day that Arnold Schwarzenegger was literally born to play this role).  The action scenes are straightforward, yet innovative.  Die Hard gets a lot of credit for ushering in the modern era of action films, but every North American action movie that features a gun-toting, one-man wrecking crew owes a debt of gratitude to Terminator (and First Blood).  The story is intriguing (and one of the best time travel related plotlines ever), while not being confusing.  And, largely due to the incredible music and special effects, Terminator is tense as hell from beginning to end.  Not to mention the fact that Schwarzenegger is absolutely terrifying (something you can appreciate even more after the intervening thirty years of wisecracking, wink-and-a-smile Arnold we've come to love since.)

More than likely, James Cameron will never make another film as good as Terminator (or Aliens, or even True Lies for that matter).  But maybe that’s OK.  Most directors are lucky to retire with just one true classic under their belt.  Cameron has at least two, and perhaps more depending on how you look at it.  And producing films as mind-bending as Terminator, ones that are simultaneously genre-defying and genre-defining, may be best left to younger, "hungrier" filmmakers.  Yes, maybe James Cameron will never make another Terminator.  But we can hope.

Verdict: 9/10