From: davidv@sco.COM (Uncle David)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: T2 - Why didn't Sarah die???
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 92 00:50:19 GMT
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.


thssapk@iitmax.iit.edu (Al Kwiatkowski) writes:
>Doug Fierro writes in his T2 FAQ:
>>9)  Why did the orderly in the mental institute lick Sarah's face?
>>
>>    Discussion:
>>
>>    a) To set a mood for the situation Sarah was in.
>>   
>>    b) he was a pervert.
>>
>>    c) It was an included scene to show Linda's self-control and determination
>>
>My *EXTREMELY* cynical answer to this question:

>     d) It was included so that, later in the movie, when Sarah bashes
>        this same orderly's head on the floor and we get a close-up
>        of the blood seeping out, the audience would think, "that #$%&
>        pervert got just what he deserved!", instead of thinking, "she
>        KILLED that poor guy! Maybe Sarah is crazy after all!" In other
>        words, it was a blatant piece of manipulation.

>Too bad that this is the actual reason, since otherwise there is NO
>reason for the 'lick scene' to even exist!!  There are plenty of other
>scenes that show Sarah's situation and determination (the psychiatrical
>evaluation scene for one, the scene showing her doing chin-ups for 
>another).

actually, from reading the script of the movie (available at your
local bookseller, it's called "Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The Book
of the Film, An Illustrated Screenplay") i get the feeling that it is
all of the above.

the script-book contains the full shooting script that they used, and
includes notes about why a scene was cut, rearranged, or otherwise
altered. to understand what cameron wanted us to feel, you need to go
back to the first scene with Sarah at the hospital, just after Silberman
has asked Douglas (the guard that gets smashed) to get Sarah to take
her medicene and stop "disrupting her room", there is an omitted scene 
(shot but not used) where we see Douglas' cruelty in how he tries to
get Sarah to take her medicene and "clean-up" her room.

cameron states in the book that:

"Scene 23 was shot as scripted but omitted from the final film due 
to both time considerations and to the fact that it was deemed
uncessary to show further that Pescadero's not a nice to live. The
loss of the setup of Douglas' sadistic cruelty here so he can get his 
come-uppance later in Sarah's escape is well covered by his slimy
perfomance in Scene 60. The omitted scene also stacks the audeience's
sympathy toward Sarah -- which is something she is supposed to earn in
the course of the story -- too eary; by intentionally keeping Sarah
appropiately harsh in the hospital, it gives her a point of departure
for the development of her character."

Sarah's character at first is supposed to appear to us to be crazy. 
later on in the film, she gradually changes, and our sympathy towards 
her grows. you can see the guard licking scene as the turning point
here (though it really doesn't hit home until the nuclear nightmare
scene and the attack on Dyson). the licking scene shows that Sarah
is not in a nice place, builds sympathy for her, and shows her
determination to survive at any cost, be it through the loss of her
dignity with a dickwad like Douglas. 

in a sense, option D is correct as well. you can interpret it both
ways, depending upon how well you think cameron setup Sarah's
character and our lack of sympathy for her. remember, Sarah is
supposed to earn our sympathy later on in the film (around the attack
on Dyson, as i interpret things). so, in a sense we are supposed to
think Sarah's full-on bat-shit crazy for attacking Douglas so
visciously. or, if you think our sympathy for Sarah is supposed to be
building at this point, you can think "yeah, sarah!" for getting the
creep. 

however, an ommitted scene mentioned in the book softens Sarah's 
character a bit. there is a scene where the t-1000 is cruising the 
corridor's, looking for Sarah's cell. he eventually reaches it. 
Sarah's not in it, obviously, but someone is. it is Douglas. his face
is a bloody mess, but he is still alive, and yells to the T-1000 (who
is in the guise of Lewis) about her being loose in the halls. with this 
scene intact, we don't think Sarah is bat-shit crazy.  without it, we 
think she's more crazy, and our sympathy for her doesn't build for a 
while (until, once again, the attack on Dyson).

so, as i intepret things, (and the way i felt), the licking scene adds
a bit of sympathy to her character, but she almost completely anhiliates 
that sympathy for her when we see how visciously she attacks Douglas.
yes, i felt "yeah! go sarah! get the fucker!", but at the same time, i
felt a build repulsed at her own cruelty towards him. so my sympathy
for her hasn't really started to build yet.
-- 
David Vangerov, Systems Analyst - Advanced Technologies, Information Services.
Voice: 408-425-7222, x4357 | Email: ...!uunet!sco!davidv | SCO would never say 
Fax:   408-427-5460        |        davidv@sco.com       | something this lame
 "I never can come up with these damn witty quotes. Got a better one for me?"
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