Must See See Movie Monday - The Terminator

Film: The Terminator
Released: 1984
Rated: R
Director: James Camron
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamiton
Short Summary: (Just in case you're one of the few people that don't know what it is about.) An indestructible humanoid cyborg is sent back in time from 2029 to 1984. His mission is to assassinate Sarah Connor, who's unborn son will lead the resistance against the take over of the machines.



Why It's A Must See Movie

I felt like I hadn't chosen a science fiction movie in a while. I decided to go with one of the definite must see science fiction films The Terminator. Whether you are a sci-fi fan or not I think everyone should watch this film at least once in their life time. It is a part of pop culture that it must be known. It also contains many signature catch phrases such as "I'll be back" that must be known as well.

I must say that one of the benefits of The Terminator is that even people that generally don't enjoy science fiction, like my dad, can still find something about the movie that they enjoy. This is possibly because the film has enough action movie elements to keep anyone interested. Also the general scientific elements never get to terribly complex in terms of the story. An event which can often occur when time travel is involved. I think the fact that Terminator mixes a few different genres into sci-fi base is one of the things that makes it enjoyable for everyone. There is even a bit of romance thrown in there if you squint.

What I enjoy most about the movie is the characters and how the actors depict them. Arnold Schwarenegger is just intriguing as the Teminator. It is one role where a person can not show any human traits, but they have to do more than just frown and commit acts of violence. They still have to look like they are processing information the way a machine would. He is totally believable as an unstoppable machine without looking utterly boring. Linda Hamiton's Sarah Conner is an interesting lesson on how an average girl can be developed in awesome strong female character. She starts off very sensitive, and through out the movie she toughens up while not losing that sensitivity too soon. Micheal Biehn's character of Reese interests me as well. Mostly because he can pull off the acting of a character who has been in love with a woman that he has never met from another time, and make it not unbelievably cheesy. However, I also love that much of what we know of the world of this movie's future is told from Reese's flashbacks. Many of the sci-fi elements are explained by Reese's character who is a soldier not a scientist. Thus, the audience can feel completely okay with not knowing every detail about how time travel and cyborgs work, because he doesn't really know how it all works either. That is rather clever.

In terms of the technical elements of the this film my favorite part has to be the way it is edited. It shows how important in films it can be to create a rhythm with the way scenes are inter-cut with each other to build tension. I think The Terminator does this really well. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and invested in the characters.

So if you haven't seen The Terminator please get to watching it. Then immediately go watch Terminator 2: Judgement Day which in my opinion is even better than the first film. I love when a sequel is even better than the first film. It brings me joy.