THE TERMINATOR
US, 1984, 105 minutes, Colour.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield.
Directed by James Cameron.
The Terminator is an unexpectedly good film. It is action-packed, exciting - perhaps a bit too violent for some audiences.
However, it is an interesting variation on the time warp genre (Time After Time, The Final Countdown, The Philadelphia Experiment). The film opens in the future, in the aftermath of nuclear destruction. But most of the action takes place in Los Angeles in 1984 where a Cyborg from the future comes to destroy the mother of the future leader. He is pursued by the hero - who is, eventually, the leader's father. Whatever the philosophical implications of time warps and travel, .the film has a fast pace, a sense of urgency with its many chases, but a sense of involving the audience in the issues and emotions. The film is co-written and directed by James Cameron, an expert in stunts.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Conan the Barbarian) has a credible role as the inhuman human-looking Cyborg. An interesting variation on the nuclear theme and the desolation of the post-nuclear age.
1. An exciting and interesting thriller? Message? Blend of action and message?
2. Production qualities: the cinematic skill in action, chases, special effects? The importance of pace and editing? Explosions, chases, timing? The Terminator and his powers of destruction? The mechanical monster? A film of technical bravura? Atmospheric musical score?
3. 1984 and Los Angeles, the ordinariness of the city, the roads, the factories, squalor, the police? Light and dark, night and day? The end and the coming nuclear storm?
4. The contrast with 2029: the ruins of Los Angeles, a garbage dump, the sophistication of weaponry, the helicopters, the battles, the resistance fighters for survival? The darkness and night of the future? The visuals creating the desolation of the post-nuclear age?
5. The opening commentary: the nuclear situation, the dropping of the bomb, the unknown reasons? The 1990s, the aftermath of the explosion, the dark? The highlighting of the computers and their intelligence, machines clashing amongst themselves? The emergence of power struggles, the HK - Hunter Killers, the human camps, the slave work, the development of the Cyborgs and their control?
6. The film's comment on human survival? John as the leader? Sarah having trained him? The beliefs in freedom? Kyle Reese and his heroism, being engaged in battles, willing to die for John? Hilling to go through time for him? Winning?
7. Themes of time travel; the fallacy in this juggling of present and future? Yet the tantalising possibilities? The present caused by the future and the future caused by the past? The father being sent by his son into the past etc.? John sending Reese, John having his mother's tapes, Reese having the photo? Enjoyable time travel?
8. The Terminator and pursuer and their arrival? A new birth into 1984, nakedness, light and pain, beginnings? The desperation of each? The time travel destroying the equipment - nobody able to follow? The mission of each, their reJentiessness? The image of the robot become Cyborg, the relentless death machine?
9. Arnold Schwarzenegger embodying the Terminator? His arrival, the reaction of the punks, his fighting them, the ominous searching of the phone book for Sarah, the buying of the guns and killing the storekeeper? The relentlessness of the Terminator - his appearance, dress, going to the home and killing the first Sarah? The death of the second Sarah? His confrontation with Ginger and Martin, shooting, the fight? The phone call and discovery of Sarah's being at the disco? His going there? The destruction in the disco? Taking the police car? The visuals of his seeming death yet his continued survival? His ability to mend himself? The ability to take on other voices? The police station and his visit, crashing the car? The destruction in the police station? Detecting Sarah's presence? Imitating her mother's voice? The bike, the chase? The final explosion with the tanker? The skeletal Terminator, the red light eye? The chase through the factory? The death of Kyle? The smashing of the machine - yet his still pursuing with half the machine? Inhuman malice? The eye light finally going out? An embodiment of evil?
10. Kyle as hero: his being born again, the pain, his being chased, taking the clothes, eluding police, the chase through the store? His looking at the phone book, the guns, shadowing Sarah at the disco, protecting her, the desperate explanations as they drove in the car, the long chase sequences, coping with her fear? The police station and his arrest? The psychiatrist and the interviews? His stories about the future? The escape? The motel, his confessing his love for her, the photo? The escape, the final explosion? His death? A saviour figure - in the future and in the present?
11. Sarah as the ordinary young woman, her work, her becoming the mother of the saviour and legend? Her difficulty in accepting this? At work, at home, the iguana. Ginger and the jokes? Martin's phone call and the jokes about sex? The TV news, her trying to contact the police and her being put off? Her thinking Kyle was chasing her? The disco, her terror and the story, the interview with Traxler? The chase, the motel, the love for Kyle? The chase through the factory, the final reaching out of the Terminator? Her defeating him and crushing him? Her going off with her child to help in the post-nuclear age? Going to Mexico, the young boy taking her photo? A credible and plucky heroine?
12. Traxler and the police, their desperate investigations, the press, the psychiatrist and the TV interview, the chase, the destruction of the police station?
13. Ginger and Martin - the human touch, their being massacred?
14. An exciting plot? Sufficient delineation of character? Action sequences? A nuclear thriller?
