A real masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2010)

Recently, I was listening to a discussion about filmmakers and the person leading the talk explained why he thinks that their best films (even the best directors) are usually their first ones or early ones and the explanation was amazingly simple...It boils down to this..."The director has his/her personal vision that they've always wanted to translate to the screen, the studios don't really know what to make of the film b/c it's so original, so they take a chance thinking the director will tank, but then the film's originality wins out." With minimal studio involvement or interference, a filmmaker with a great idea that is perfectly executed can put out a masterpiece straight away...And that's what James Cameron did with THE TERMINATOR!
THE TERMINATOR (1984) is one of Cameron's earliest films, and to me, it is still to this day his BEST film! I hear and read all the time of so many people fawning all over T2:JUDGMENT DAY as being superior to the original TERMINATOR, but I cannot disagree more. T2 is essentially a a loud summer "action" movie with great effects and one-dimensional characters, whereas the original TERMINATOR is an amalgamation of sci-fi, horror, action (yes, there is that!), and is very forward-thinking in its premise: it dares to forewarn us about a bleak, apocalyptic future in a rather unsettling, plausible way. The way that THE TERMINATOR presents itself really does scare the heck out of me! I personally don't think any of Cameron's other films (including the heavily overrated ALIENS and T2) are in the vicinity of greatness that THE TERMINATOR is.
THE TERMINATOR stars the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger in perhaps his greatest film performance. You can tell a performance is great when it still holds up after 20+ years! Schwarzenegger is truly confident, convincing, and terrifying as the T800, a killing machine from the future (2029) tasked to kill "The Mother of the Future" Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton in a heartbreaking and powerful performance). Sarah is to be the mother of John Connor, the leader of the future resistance. John sends back one of his soldiers Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn in a provocative, convincing performance). Both Biehn and Schwarzenegger's characters truly come off as "otherwordly", with no interest or use for the present day foibles and nonsense. These actors' authenticity as futuristic beings make THE TERMINATOR more than the typical sci-fi fare. To this day, I say that these 3 underrated performances of Schwarzenegger, Hamilton, and Biehn, are among the best in the sci-fi genre.
In addition to THE TERMINATOR having so much going for it as a multi-genre film, another thing I love about this over the sequels is that we actually don't see the pivotal character of John Connor. Of course, since he is still in the future, we can't see him, but it keeps the character a larger-than-life that we actually don't see him. Another big plus is that in addition to the main 3 actors, the supporting cast is exceptional: Paul Winfield as the skeptical police Lt. Traxler, Lance Henriksen as his wisecracking detective sidekick, and most notably Earl Boen as psychiatrist Dr. Silberman, who is equally fascinated and mocking of Reese's story of an apocalyptic future.
As previously mentioned, Cameron impressively mixes several genres well into this groundbreaking film. It spawned a lot of wannabes and you can see the influence on some of the later big 80s sci-fi movies like ALIENS, ROBOCOP, and THE HIDDEN. But THE TERMINATOR. But this film has an added "bonus" of helplessness and hopelessness that permeates throughout. If Sarah Connor dies, then supposedly machines will take over the world. If Sarah Connor lives, then the world has a bleak future ahead of it fighting said machines.
The last (and most important!) ingredient that makes THE TERMINATOR superior to it's sequels is in the title character. I'm actually a monumental fan of Schwarzenegger and most of his movies, and although he went the traditional action star route cashing in on his star-making role here (Cameron even made Arnie the "good guy" terminator in the sequels!), he can claim to bringing to the screen the most terrifying, remorseless killing machine in the history of cinema!