[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMSpmIYjXAg[/yt] I've been a fan of this film for 30 years and, though I heard about a few of these scenes, like the last one, I'd never seen them for some reason. This movie is so fascinating.. it has essentially a very simple story, but it works in a profound way. All of these comic book films with convoluted stories, uninteresting McGuffin's and connected universes, none of them, even the ones I like, have the power and emotion of the Terminator. It seems every blockbuster has 1up or outsmart the last one, and they are missing the point. Really. (Looper should have had the power of Terminator, as it was a lower budget kind of raw sci fi film. But it was the pits) I wasn't aware that there was a scene that was cut wherein Sarah gets the idea for destroying Cyberdyne, which she does in the second film. Very cool. Michael Biehn is the heart and soul of the film.. his performance is one of the best I've ever seen because he has to deliver all of the exposition, but he also has to deliver a solid emotional arc that he pulls off so well. You believe it that he memorized every line, every curve in that photo and that he truly did everything for her. I met Biehn two weeks ago at Great Allentown Comic Con and I got to thank him for creating a tough, yet vulnerable male hero I have always looked up to.
Hey, man, I share your affection for the movie, but you're being a bit hard on subsequent movies here in the sense that once The Terminator has already been made, one can't exactly re-make it quite the same way with quite the same elegant simplicity. It's kinda like Pachelbel's Canon - bravo to Pach for writing it, no doubt, but if he hadn't, does anyone think no one else would have arranged those four basic chords in that way? And, hey, Looper was pretty good.
Nice that you like Terminator so much, but the truth is that all Cameron's films try to find a sense of the epic caught within a simple story. It is kind of his thing in the same way the original Star Wars or Indiana Jones films were. The Abyss, Avatar, and even Titanic are all very similar in this respect.
I'll admit that I was being a bit harsh.. I can do that. However, by a bit harsh, the point I am making about Terminator and storytelling, might stand in relief from people that would have a knee-jerk reaction against it.. the Terminator is a good example of something culturally iconic (Arnold in the role) which should, by all rights, be much more complicated (because of time travel. it in fact is complicated in a sense) and even the talent of all those involved in bringing it to life somehow are encapsulated by a stunningly simple yet quite powerful emotional beat. I was just saying that current cinematic trends for sci fi or comic book-style films are straying away form ever being able to do this. I'm not saying that none of them do this, or they can't do it. Look at Days of Future Past.
Those deleted scenes...I can see why 1980's audiences wouldn't "need"them...but for 2014...those are powerful, and shows a lot of insight. They create some deeper characters (like Paul Winfield's) ,and makes T2 seem way more than a regular sequel. And that ending...hmmm...
Thanks for posting, I'd like to check these out. I taped Terminator of Prism or HBO and wore it out, I must have watched it 50 times. This movie has one of my all time favorite lines. Spoiler: quote Fuck you, asshole. It's not just the line but how it's used and the guy's reaction.
I'll see your 'Rush' and raise you 'Yes' ! Terminator is one of my very favourite movies, more so than the second one. It's genuinely tense and scary the first time you see it whereas the second one is a big budget action adventure movie. Oddly, Alien and Aliens have a similar relationship but Aliens is my favourite..
Rush is my favorite band, bar none. I was listening to Caress of Steel tonight. The Terminator, for me, is better than T2, but T2 is as strong a sequel as anyone could hope to expect. But while Arnold was fantastic in the second film, nothing beats the his ruthlessness in the first film. And nothing beats the simple love story that really makes us care despite its paradoxical nature.
One thing that I think is especially good about both movies, but more so in the first, is if you watch the movie with no preconceived notions (hard to do) you really don't know who the good guy is too quickly. Reese really doesn't do anything that would normally be considered good until the first showdown in the garage and even then it's not certain. I think that's a really nice touch, but it was ruined by all of the ads and previews. Rush is my favorite. I use that for my facebook too!