James Cameron. An Auteur?

Rating: 7/10 (8 October 2012)

When watching a James Cameron film if you didn't know he directed it, you wouldn't guess. He doesn't exactly have the complete directive control on all of his films. He doesn't stick to the same genre; although no matter what genre his film is there is always a strong aspect of love and it isn't always romance. There is however some similarities within the films he has directed. Firstly, he has a large budget when it comes to making the film. Identifying the budget; Aliens was around $18,500,000; Titanic at $200,000,000, and a more recent film being Avatar at $237,000,000. Two top box office films were also both made by James Cameron so he is making a huge profit on what he is putting into the film. It could be argued that James Cameron is an auteur when it comes to money in terms of the budget and the profits. Secondly, there is always an aspect of strong love within his films. In both The Terminator, and Aliens the human forms a relationship with the non-human species although that same species within each film is shown to be bad. In Terminator the viewer witnesses a strong love between the robot and the boy almost like a father and son relationship although the enemy is also a robot. In Aliens, although it is a horror and the aliens are the enemy there is a scene where Ripley has no choice but to kill the alien to survive but it is quite emotional as there is a bond between this alien and herself. In both of the above films the non-human species is shown to be good and bad. It changes with Avatar. A human and a Na'vi fall in love, and instead of one of the non-human species being the enemy, the human is. Which takes the film from another perspective but it still shows a strong love within this film. Although not as obvious as another director such as Tim Burton for example, James Cameron could still be perceived as an Auteur in the ways mentioned above.