The greatest movie of all times

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2005)

There are 40 000 movies, or, written in American style: 40,000 movies, made till that very moment by the American film industry, not to mention the international industries. Around 40 of these films, or 0,1%, are films so great, they need not only to be watched by every existing human being - but they need to dwell in the hearts of every human, at any moment, till their last breath. "Terminator 2" is the first of them all.
This is not only the greatest action movie, but it is the greatest movie ever made. It is a film that treats the highest possible theme in the art sphere - the theme about the self-sacrifice. In this movie everyone of the main characters sacrificed himself for somebody else. The child did it to save his mother, despite what she had told him about his importance. She did it for him and for the rest of the world. And at the end even the machine sacrificed itself, for the humankind - when it understood the value of human life and that its existence was a threat for it. The three of them did that without complaining, without expecting a reward or pretending for something. They did it because it was their duty, and they would fulfill themselves as humans by doing it. Plain, simple and genius.
To the people, who are dashing pretentiously at the time paradox, and to the other ones, who moan: "I kinda didn't like it. I liked (place the name of ANY OTHER action movie here) more. There was more beating and explosions..." - to these ones I say: you have completely and tragically missed the point of "T2", and as a result of this you have deprived yourselves of understanding and embracing the best film ever made into your hearts and souls. The last things "Terminator 2" is about, are pseudo-scientific riddles with time, or creating the best special effects of early 90s in order to make the eyes of the "riping" teenagers open widely in surprise and disbelief.
As I said, I will repeat again: it is a movie about the personal sacrifice, the duty and the destiny of the strong ones - not the "written by some unseen force" destiny, which you cannot change, only follow; but the destiny of the people who have a strong character. The destiny that they CHOOSE: to sacrifice themselves in order to fulfill their duty, and ultimately - their life; in order to prove themselves as humans. And they make this choice alone, on their own: the weak ones would "duck and cover", and run away in a similar situation.
There is another character in that movie, who showed human behavior and in the end of the film - as he turned weaker and weaker from a physical point of view, due to the inevitable damage by the superior technology - became more and more human. In the last moments of the film, in one recent Bulgarian voice translation, they translated it a little bit differently, in an artistic way, and I want to translate it "back" and write it here, to show you what I mean. It is a TRANSLATOR HIT: when the Terminator realized that it should sacrifice itself and go against its own nature, and in the moment when John started to cry, because he understood the necessity and the brutal fact that the T-800 WILL NOT OBEY HIM THIS TIME, because IT HAS TAKEN A DECISION ABOUT WHAT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO, T-800 said: "Now I know why you cry. I WISH I ALSO COULD." And then, after they hugged, HE - not IT - HE stepped on the chain. He had become human in that moment, in a certain way - as he was taking decisions on his own, and as HE HAD A WISH - a wish, that never turned into a dream, because he had to step on the chain. And if there is only one thing that I want to be remade in the original version, it's not all the goofs and inconsistencies, mentioned also in the IMDb trivia of the film - they prove that human beings, including the great directors, make mistakes - and they MUST - that's why they are human. What I dream to be changed in my favourite movie, is only this line. The line "but it is something I can never do" looks cold and alien to me now.
It is a movie that will not be surpassed soon - because a new film needs to find a higher theme than self-sacrifice in order to do it (apart from all the rest, which is needed - a good scenario, which makes everything to cohere in perfect harmony; directing from a genius and a visionary like James Cameron; acting from people BORN FOR THE ROLE - like Linda Hamilton and Schwarzenegger; innovative, but not overdone, or with overexposed and misplaced effects; having well arranged and nicely corresponding music; and so on) - while if it uses the same theme, it will be a REPEAT. "Terminator 2" was THE FIRST ONE, and THE GREATEST. And the way this film is made, the way EVERY FRAME IS SUFFERED THROUGH BY THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT, makes it both unbeatable and the epitome of all that is good and human in that world. And it is even something more: it shows what we are, IT IS WHAT WE ARE. It's so universal and refined, that if aliens come and want to understand us, the humans, in the space of two hours; to find what is our basic philosophy; what our fears and problems, and aspirations are - this is what they have to see. This film.
Such a movie appears once in fifty years.