The last American movie

Rating: 8/10 (14 March 2005)

Watching this movie once again I began go beyond merely being entertained to seeing this as the ultimate American movie.
James Cameron wanted to make the definitive robot movie and in Terminator he did. The very essence of what a robot is for most people comes from the Terminator movies. Arnie Burger career was made the original movie and even when he is 92 and using a walker he will still be the Terminator (maybe the zimmnator).
T1 (as it will be referred from now on in this treatise) defined a robot as an unstoppable machine that will do whatever it can to carry out its mission. It has no soul, no compassion and will not stop, until you are dead.
T2 brings 2 terminators back through time. One is a copy of the terminator from the original movie and the other is ultra high tech liquid metal robot. The special effects don't date because they are simply used cleverly.
Note: Terminator 3 is not a movie about Robots, it is a movie about time travel. It has nothing to say about machines, only fate. This time the machines are trying to kill John Conner himself when he was a young child. Too bad Sarah can't protect him, he is in a mental institution. So the big guy (Arnie Burger) back through time to become the governor of California and then the president of the united states. Their plan is to ban junk food in schools to weekend the resolve of their enemies. (oh wait, that is the plot of Terminator 4).
No, wait. John (the future John) sends Arnie to save John and battle the other Termintor. The Terminator must also learn and live within the rules of society (the machines are our servants, the destroy us because we programmed in our fears, not our hopes and dreams. It is on our own orders that they seek to kill us).
Why do I think this movie is so perfect. One, it is intelligent without pretense. It assumes the audience needs help and explains things, but doesn't just use dialog as a way to fill in between action sequences. The hydrogen bomb sequences are fabled for their accuracy.
Plot points that don't need to be there are not there. By leaving the question blank of how the invention of a tool for peace (a neural net chip) get turned into the destruction of humanity, you can fill in the blanks. Time travel or how the new Terminator make it back through time are not explained. This is a movie about robots, time travel is a plot device (I hate most time travel stories and myself, along with other people who feel the same, still love Terminator).
You also have the nuclear family represented. The terminator drives while blasting away with the shotgun. Sarah pops off a few rounds with a hand gun, and John reloads.
The action sequences are American action, none of these endless Hong Kong action clones (I love Hong Kong action, but there are other ways). There are lots of very big guns, explosions and witty lines.
There is no post modern self-referential $%#$%#. It was funny in Scream and Spaceballs (we can find out where they went by watching the movie we are in on video), but I am over it now OK.
It also sums up the most important American fears and hopes. Hope for a future, fear of our desire to destroy, fear of authority, belief that we know the problems and the answers to the worlds problems but no one will listen to us, the family, technology is both good and bad and of course big guns are really cool.
James Cameron ability in film making is superb, and part of the great tradition of American film making where the art of film making is hidden so that we can enjoy the story more.
Terminator is perhaps the last American movie ever made (now most movies have an international feel using techniques found all around the world, which I love too).