The Terminator

The Terminator (1984)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: James Cameron

Starring: Arnold, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Winfield

From: Hemdale

Like I promised recently, I started to dive into the Blu-ray set of the Terminator films. Of course I started at the beginning and that is what I saw last night. Onto the Letterboxd review, but not before I mention that I'll be back Monday afternoon.

For awhile now I've had the Blu-ray set of all the four Terminator films (which I am glad was put together considering all the different companies that released the films and how some have been long defunct) and I figured last night was a good time to revisit this, as the last viewing was way too long ago.

I don't need to recap the plot of man (and woman) vs. machine as everyone should know it by now. It is a brutally simple tale and the movie doesn't waste a minute telling it, a time travel tale that isn't too confused or complex, and you instead focus on how Arnold is tremendous and is made to look tremendous as an unstoppable force of nature as he tries to murder what seems like a random woman and a soldier from the future tries to protect her... along with teaching her how to survive in the future.

The film is a blast from beginning to end. There are great action scenes throughout but what makes it great is that there is always a feeling of dread, whether it's during the daytime or all the nighttime scenes in the present or the future of 2029. Describing it as TechNoir (a wacky 80's nightclub in the film) seems apropos. The scenes from 2029, those aren't dated at all; that world looks rather bleak and painful, with it always being dark, the ruble and skulls all about, how everyone and everything is dirty, etc.

The movie definitely screams 1980's, from the tremendous fashion and hair to the silly 80's-riffic songs. That's part of the charm, though. The synth score from Brad Feidel is pretty tremendous. Some of the greenscreen stuff looks not so hot if seen in Blu but otherwise I think the special effects are still effective. Stan Winston and Fantasy II did a fantastic job with that.

Even 30 years after the fact is is easy to understand why both Arnold and James Cameron became huge stars after this was released. He was perfect in the direction and script and the T-800 became an iconic figure. The cast and crew all did pretty well (the veterans like Lance Henriksen and Paul Winfield are nice assets) but those two stand out. It reminded me that I should not have waited so long to watch this for another time.