James Cameron's Incredible Luck

[Too Much Fun]

I think what you meant to say was "James Cameron's Incredible Talent."

QTF.

Does that mean "quoted the fuck"? I think Cameron really earned his success with early movies like "The Terminator" and "Aliens". Although I'm sure "The Terminator" derived a lot of its character and story elements from science fiction stories of the past, I also think it was a very original work that was very well-written and directed, and an amazing achievement for someone's first movie made on a relatively low budget.

With "Aliens", he had the enormous pressure of sequelizing a classic made by someone else, and although I've soured on the movie a bit recently, I still think it is objectively an excellent movie in many ways and it was worthy of its predecessor, succeeding where many sequels directed by someone different than the original director failed. Anybody who could make a debut as spectacularly entertaining AND thoughtful as "The Terminator" and deliver a sequel as impressive as "Aliens" has a lot more going for them as a filmmaker than luck.

P.S. Does anybody else think at first glance this thread looks like it's news about James Cameron getting hired to helm a sequel to the "The Incredible Hulk"?

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

...and an amazing achievement for someone's first movie made on a relatively low budget.

Second film actually. But, yes, it was still an amazing achievement.

 

[Pilot Ace]

I think what you meant to say was "James Cameron's Incredible Talent."

QTF.

Does that mean "quoted the fuck"?

It does now.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Of course, Avatar has the benefit of twelve years of ticket price inflation, in addition to 3-D and IMAX ticket sales, which are well above the price of a normal ticket.

Cameron has spent a lot of time experimenting with 3-D technology, not only this movie but the Universal Studios Terminator attraction and Ghosts of the Abyss so that isn't just happenstance either.

 

[Blue_Trek]

Cameron likes to make movies that blow people away with the wow factor. I saw T2 on opening weekend, no spoilers, no trailer, I new absolutely nothing about the movie, some friends asked if I wanted to go and I went. We all walked out of the theater absolutely blown away, I haven't had that type of experience since Star Wars.

It takes real talent to put that level of movie on the screen. And he has done it again.
On a Star Wars board a long time Star Wars fan posted that a movie came out that is finally better than Star Wars "A New Hope". That is the ultimate compliment, and has nothing to do with luck, but skill.
Are Kobe buzzer shot nothing but net 3 pointers luck, no that is raw skill.

 

[Greg Cox]

Then there was the fact that the movie was actually 2 movies. Pretty crappy romantic comedy that the females seemed to really love

Romance maybe, "romantic comedy" . . not exactly.

Unless you think "Romeo and Juliet" is a comedy, too.

 

[Reverend]

Oh I don't know, Mercutio is always good for a giggle.

As for the topic, as many have said already, Cameron's success has very little to do with luck. Sure, like any filmmaker there was probably an element of luck (cut with a fair amount of hard work, I imagine) in getting his career off the ground, but since then, the guy has consistently made films that are both "good" and commercially successful.

Calling it luck does Cameron at the hundreds/thousands of people that make it happen quite a large disservice. As if they just edited together a bunch of random footage taped on the streets to a script based on one of those online plot generators, slapped some special effects on it and shoved it into theatres. "Over 1 billion in ticket sales you say? Whoops! I only wanted enough to buy these jelly babies!"

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Luck always plays a part. There are plenty of filmmakers who are just as good and don't get half the recognition.

I don't think that's true, actually.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Cameron's career shows it is anything but luck.

He just knows how to make movies that a lot of people like.

So does Satan. Coincidence, I think not!

Those denying the existence of Faustian deals may be demons themselves.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I just finally saw Avatar and I'll go further than above: this guy is King of The World. If there are any other filmmakers who even potentially have this kind of skill and talent who are nonetheless overlooked throughout their careers or unable to build careers at all it's not due to "luck" but to their inadequacies as organizers, leaders, or their failures of nerve and determination.

 

[Nardpuncher]

No, no...he definitely sold his soul. No one is that lucky.

Ha! I was saying the same thing earlier today!
Of course we're kind of joking, but especially with Titanic he sort of lucked out, in the sense that people were expecting that film to be another disaster.
The new movie though, you could tell it would make a lot of money, but I didn't think it would be such a big hit.

Maybe the extra PR of just having a huge budget makes people think they'll be getting more for their money.

 

[LitmusDragon]

I think that despite his apparent anti-Cameron bias that the original poster has a point. No director, no matter how talented, has any right to expect the level of success that Cameron has achieved. Does he deserve it? Most definitely. Moreso than Lucas or Spielberg though? Difficult to say. Certainly Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, and ET are every bit as iconic if not moreso than anything Cameron has done. So why then does Cameron have the top two grossing movies? I would say that some degree of luck is involved.

PS- I would also argue that James Cameron may be more media savvy than Lucas or Spielberg. Stepping away from big-budget fillm making, then coming back after a long hiatus, seems very smart now.

 

[Cain]

When I saw Terminator 2 in the theater (on opening night I believe), people clapped at the end. I remember turning to my cousin and asking why everyone was clapping, because I've never been to movie where there was applause. He said, "Because it was damn fine movie." To this day, I think T2 is the greatest action movie ever made.

There is certain amount of luck to what Cameron has accomplished, but there is a huge amount of talent there as well. Also, I think there certain level nuttiness, too. He apparently has a crazy obsession with detail and perfection.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I think that despite his apparent anti-Cameron bias that the original poster has a point. No director, no matter how talented, has any right to expect the level of success that Cameron has achieved.

That's empty rhetoric - who suggests that Cameron ever expected the level of success that he's achieved as if it were his "right?" He's worked hard and with focus for all of it.

Playing the game about how much of our comfort and success comes down to a role of the dice on the most macro level is a waste of life itself - I guarantee you, if it weren't for the "dumb luck" of our circumstances not one of us would be frittering away our time playing on computers today at all.

 

[LitmusDragon]

That's empty rhetoric - who suggests that Cameron ever expected the level of success that he's achieved as if it were his "right?" He's worked hard and with focus for all of it.

Playing the game about how much of our comfort and success comes down to a role of the dice on the most macro level is a waste of life itself - I guarantee you, if it weren't for the "dumb luck" of our circumstances not one of us would be frittering away our time playing on computers today at all.

So it is luck, but it isn't luck? I'm not sure what you're driving at here.

 

[Reverend]

There's an element of 'luck' in anything anyone does, but it's certainly not the deciding factor when it comes to making mountains of cash out of multi-million dollar budgeted films. Planning, know-how, skill and sheer will power on the other hand, are.

Seriously calling it luck just sounds like a sour grapes attempt to dismiss a success. Do people win Olympic gold medals for the one hundred meters luck out? No.

 

[Nardpuncher]

There's an element of luck in that the mob is fickle and may not like your movie.

I really expected that to happen with Titanic.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

So it is luck, but it isn't luck? I'm not sure what you're driving at here.

Simply that for someone to say that Cameron owes his success to luck is no diferent from my saying that you owe the fact that you or I are not poor Haitians picking our way through the rubble of Port-au-Prince today to "luck" - it's a meaningless remark that boils down to nothing more than "if things weren't the way they are, they'd be different."

If that doesn't clarify it, I really can't help.

 

[Lindley]

To clarify my previous statement, skill and talent kept people coming back to Cameron's movies.

Luck got people to notice him in the first place, before he was a big name.

 

[LitmusDragon]

Simply that for someone to say that Cameron owes his success to luck is no diferent from my saying that you owe the fact that you or I are not poor Haitians picking our way through the rubble of Port-au-Prince today to "luck" - it's a meaningless remark that boils down to nothing more than "if things weren't the way they are, they'd be different."

If that doesn't clarify it, I really can't help.

Ah, so if I understand it correctly, you see luck as a complete non-entity in this case. That's cool.

I tend to see luck as a factor in just about everything. I will often think "he's lucky" or "that's unlucky".

Also just to be clear, I did say that I think Cameron deserves everything he's gotten, but perhaps so do Lucas, or Spielberg, just that the stars have not aligned for them in the same way that they have for Cameron.