Review of The Terminator (1984) by Filipeneto — 29 Jan 2021

This film is one of the action classics that has never left the TV since it premiered. It started a cinematographic franchise that developed later and has been one of the most dystopian visions of the future of humanity in cinema: an extermination war between humans and machines.

In this film, Sarah Connor is a young girl like so many others. However, she is the target of a dark killer, who will not stop until she is killed. When he is about to succeed, another man appears, saves her and tells him the truth: the killer is actually a complex machine, sent to the past to kill her before she can give birth to a guerrilla commander who, fifty years from then, will lead the war against machines.

If it is action that we are looking for, this film takes that expectation seriously: what it offers us is pure and hard action, from start to finish. It's full of normal and welcome elements in films like this: destroyed cars, car chases, police cars, exploding trucks, highway shootings, high-speed cars. Okay, these folks in the Eighties and Nineties don't seem to be able to design an action movie without destroying cars! Nothing against it, but it is something that I found curious. I particularly liked the shooting sequence at the police station, and the ending, at the factory, is just as memorable.

Linda Hamilton is the most interesting actress in the cast. She is a good actress, and shows talent in the scenes where she is allowed to. I say this because the film was not nice to her: the only thing she does most of the time is to be in danger and to look scared and confused. Still, she did it sincerely. Michael Biehn has more time and opportunities to show what is worth, and he too was extremely competent in his work. But it is Arnold Schwarzenegger who takes the rug off them and makes the film iconic. The film is still from that time when he was just a muscle mountain, hard as steel, with a strong, barely disguised, German accent. He couldn't be better, and it's hard to imagine another actor for the role.

James Cameron ensures an inspired direction. He knew how to guide his team and get the best out of his cast. Being a 1984 film, I was expecting something different, much more dated and looking ugly, as many films of that decade seem to be now. However, I was very impressed: cinematography is beautiful and the film is sharp and excellently filmed; sets and costumes are, of course, a reflection of the time, but that was to be expected. What about visual and special effects? Okay, I'm willing to concede that they seem archaic to our eyes, but here the fault is ours. James Cameron is an effects expert and used the best there was... in 1984. And in fact, considering it's age, special effects will look much more magnificent. Before finishing, a word of praise for the main theme of the soundtrack designed by Brad Fiedel in synthesizer: undoubtedly, one of the most striking soundtracks for action cinema.