The Terminator (1984)

Well here we are in 2009 being given a new Terminator film(at least it's no remake), so to celebrate I'd like to give everyone a look back at the series itself.

First, I'd like to start off with the film that started the entire franchise off, THE TERMINATOR. The film as we all should know is written beautifully and directed by James Cameron, who besides directing two awesome sequels that surpass their originals(T2 and Aliens)has also directed films like Titanic, The Abyss and the lesser favored Piranha II: The Spawning. Cameron is seen here directing a great piece of film making, getting the action sequences right, the dark, gritty atmosphere which shows you how close to self destruction the world has become and an unimaginable future that makes us question whether or not technology should keep on advancing. I mean every shot from the opening shot of the Hunter Killers(HK's as Kyle calls them)circling a wasted future(which you know is just miniatures to the sunny and bright introduction of Sarah Connor to eventually the climatic ending tells us a story and keeps us interesting.
I also love how the film manages to keep a realistic type feeling, while still having quite a few stop motion sequences(mainly at the end). The score is done with perfection by Brad Fiedel who seems to really capture the feeling of every new piece of music with their respective scenes. The main title theme is one of those themes that you'll find yourself adding to your Ipod or MP3 player. Even the love making theme(which is actually a slower remix of the main theme) given to Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn helps make the brief nudity scene tasteful and not at all gratutious.
Now on to the actors, the film is given several great performances that keep amazing me everytime I watch the film. Arnold Schwarzenneger here does a fantastic job as the Model 101/Terminator. In a lot of ways I prefer this version of the Terminator over his T2 ans T3 counterparts. Its just fun to see Arnold as a bad guy and he does it very well. Many may think its extremely easy to just walk around and act like you don't care or have no emotion, but it is hard. Even during several action sequences his face never seems to change from a very focused face. For instance, the scene in the club Tech Noir, we have him in a gun fight with Kyle Reese(played by Michael Biehn)and while he is doing this he manages to shift his focus back to Sarah and stop her from leaving, even while he is being shot at by a shotgun. I especially enjoyed his opening fight with the three thugs, to them he is just a crazy guy walking around naked, not taking him too seriously, but without his face even changing he dispatches two of the thugs who would go on to play in several popular films and TV series(Bill Paxton and Brian Johnson have the cameos as two of the thugs). Very menacing and intimidating. Although he isn't in the final battle, you still feel his presence and THAT is what makes for a good performance.
Michael Biehn comes in as the soldier Kyle Reese, who comes to save and protect Sarah Connor, but must rely on nothing more than his survival skills, since he is both in a time he doesn't know and human and can be killed. He's the total opposite of Schwarzenneger in evety way, from his physical look to the fact he has emotion. Biehn portrays this character in a very real way. He manages to capture the real emotion of what it would be like if you grew up in a wasteland of a planet and than you have the opportunity to go back to before it was all destroyed and experience what life was meant to be experienced like. There's a scene that was cut that amplifies this emotion, where Kyle takes out his gun toward Sarah out of anger from her hitting him and we see how he had to live, how tough it is for him to know how beautiful everthing is and how in the present(our present)people are happy with no care in the world and to know what happens in the futue to everything. Its a very emotional scene that should have stayed, but it does connect to another scene that was not needed, so I'll let that past, lol. Michael Biehn just does an a mazing job in this film and certainly continues do to so in Aliens ans T2(cut scenes).
Linda Hamilton comes into the film as a weak and mild youg waitress whose only worry is why she can't find a man in her life. Suddenly she gets 1 man who wants to protect her from an artificial man who wants to kill her, what bad luck is that?. Linda Hamilton also does an amazing job and while I say this same thing for all the actors, it is true. Cameron wrote this character right, she evolves extremely well in the time span we see her in and never seems to evolve too quickly or too fast. This film really showed that Hamilton could act(she had really been known only in the Stephen King Adaptation of Children of the Corn, released not too long before this and that flopped). She would go on to play in its sequel T2 and voice over in Terminator: Salvation and star in the first 2 Seasons of Beauty and the Beast with Ron Perlman, but that's a different review. There's really nothing more to say about her acting, she just captures the character in a way that many actresses, even gifted ones may have missed on. One of my favorite scenes is a very subtle scene where she learns more about what is to be expected in the future by her son, while bandaging Kyle up. You can see it in her eyes that she does not want to believe this because it just sounds too impossible, but somehow she does. Awesome work there.
The rest of the cast did a fine job as well; Paul Winfield comes in as the very calming Lt Traxler, who seems to want to have an open mind about what is going on and doesn't understand until the Terminator comes to the station after Sarah. Winfield's performance is breif, but everlasting. It is never actually known if he dies(although a deleted scene does show him after he gets shot helping Kyle get Sarah away), I'm guessing you could interprete it either way, but it would have been nice to his character in T2. Lance Henricksen, another actor you can consider A-List now was originally Cameron's first choice as The Terminator before deciding on Schwarzenneger kept him on as Detective Vucovich, the skeptic. He's the one who actually shows Winfield's character that the women the Terminator is killing are named Sarah Connor, so his character is definitely significant. Henticksen's characters are always teamed up with Winfield's and therefore is also brief, but the two made their mark on the film and feel the loss when they leave. We do get some other minor performance by Dick Miller as the unfortunate gun shop owner, Rick Rossovich as Matt, the doomed roommates boyfriend Matt and Bess Motta as Sarah best friend and roommate Ginger. All give great performances, but they are the blink your ee and mis characters, so unless your a fan of them from another film(like Dick Miller in the Gremlin films or The Flash TV Series), you don't notice them.
Well there you have it, the film to me really shows you how an action and Sci-Fi film should be done, even with its dated effects, it still manages to impress. Definitely go see it, if you haven't and if you haven't that you must be under 10, because no one in their right mind should ever be deprived of this classic. 5 out of 5 stars. EXCELLENT FILM.