The Terminator was the film that cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger's place in the action-brawn firmament, and both his and the movie's subsequent iconic status are well deserved. He's chilling as the futuristic cyborg that kills without fear, without love, without mercy. James Cameron's story and direction are pared to the bone and are all the more chillingly effective for it. But don't overlook the contribution of Linda Hamilton, who more than holds her own as the Terminator's would-be victim, Sarah Connor, thus creating--along with Sigourney Weaver in Alien--a new generation... of rugged, clear-thinking female action stars. The film's minimalist, malevolent violence is actually scarier than that of its far more expensive, more effects-laden sequel. --Anne Hurley, Amazon.com On the DVD: Rejoice, The Terminator is back, better looking and louder than ever. After years of inferior VHS versions, the cleaned-up print of this DVD is a revelation, as is the digitally remastered Dolby 5.1 soundtrack: from the opening MGM lion's roar to the crunch of Arnie's boots and the pounding of Brad Fiedel's techno-industrial score, both picture and sound are of a quality that belie the movie's age. The first disc has the movie plus a DVD-ROM feature containing three different versions of the screenplay, which can be read scene-by-scene along with the film. On the second disc there are seven deleted scenes, including a fascinating foreshadowing of Sarah Connor's mission in T2, as well as trailers and TV spots. There are also two "making of" featurettes, one being an 18-minute piece from 1992 based around a friendly at-home chat with Cameron and Schwarzenegger ("We did the first Terminator for the cost of your motor home on the second film", jokes director to actor). The hour-long "Other Voices" featurette is an in-depth montage of cast and crew reminiscences covering all aspects of the production from its initial genesis as a fevered nightmare to the "guerrilla" filmmaking of getting the final shots. Script collaborator Bill Wisher neatly sums up the movie as "It's a Wonderful Life, with guns". The second disc also contains a stills archive of production photographs, James Cameron's amazing original conceptual artwork, plus his first story treatment. If you own a player, how can you resist? After all, the Terminator movies are what DVD was invented for. --Mark Walker [show more]
I think this is a must have for any film collector as it is the best action flick I personaly have ever seen. Arnie plays a superb role as the ever reluctant Terminator and Linda Hamilton is amazing as Sarah Conner. I would recomend this film to everyone it has everything you want in a action film violence, swearing and loads of guns. James Cameron is a master mind to have made this film as it is a sci-fi classic and should be owned by any sci-fi fan.
Well, he did say he'd be back.
I've lost count of the number of home video releases we've seen over the years for James Cameron's classic, 'The Terminator'. Lovers of the movie - like me - have faithfully bought and rebought the movie in now-defunct formats like VHS and Laserdisc, before upgrading to more recent reissues like MGM's excellent 2-disc DVD release and the first Blu-Ray version a couple of years ago. So when I heard about the release of this latest edition, I couldn't help but wonder: what can yet another reissue really offer, even for the most die-hard Terminator fan?
A lot, as it turns out.
You see, for this latest Blu-ray release, the producers have gone back to the original source and come up with a brand new, high-definition remaster of the movie that blows previous releases out of the water (even the earlier Blu-ray transfer - which wasn't great, but was until now the best the movie had ever looked). It's a cliché, but this new version really does make the film look as if it was made yesterday - if you ignore the bouffant haircuts, wince-inducingly-'80s clothes and contemporary industrial-electronica soundtrack, that is.
Put simply, the Terminator has never looked better: and the reason I've written this review is as much to draw attention to this specific rerelease as to sing the praises of the film itself. Having said that, before I get stuck in to discussing the new transfer, it's worth mentioning just how good the film is in its own right - especially after the last couple of entries in the franchise turned out to be such disappointments that they've tarnished the Terminator brand to an extent.
The first (and arguably best) movie of the Terminator series provides the template for everything that followed it. Fittingly, for a movie inspired by the crazed dreams suffered by Cameron during a particularly nasty bout of food poisoning, the whole thing plays out like a dark futuristic nightmare, with a paradoxical time-travel storyline providing a mere backdrop against which the real meat of the movie can play out. Because for all its mind-bending sci-fi trappings and outlandish cyborg concepts, Terminator is just about the simplest story that it's possible to tell: a chase.
And what a chase it is. Starting off as a contest between Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese and Arnie's Terminator to be the first to lay their hands on Linda Hamilton's iconic heroine, Sarah Connor - who just happens to be the mother-to-be of the as-yet-unborn boy who's destined to become humanity's saviour in a future war with an army of sentient machines - the film quickly escalates into a straightforward game of cat-and-mouse, and one that rarely lets up. Even during the (rare) quiet moments of the movie - such as the scenes in which Connor seeks refuge in a police station, or later in which she and Reese shack up in a secluded motel - there's a constant sense of tension that's driven by our regular glimpses of the monosyllabic, ultra-focused killer-robot that's pursuing them, and getting closer to them with each step.
As Reese famously states in his explanation of what the Terminator is to Sarah: "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." And somehow, amazingly, the filmmakers manage to live up to this extreme description by bringing us an absolutely convincing depiction of a relentless, stone-cold killing machine that never lets up in its quest to terminate Connor for good. In doing so, Cameron and his cohorts - most notably Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the role he was born to play - create not only one of the most memorable villains in all of cinema, but also one of the most gripping and compelling action-movie thrillers, too.
But if you're thinking of buying this particular blu-ray edition, then I'm presuming you're already familiar with the film, and you're really interested in what this version can offer in terms of improvements over the previous releases.
The first thing that hits you is the sheer level of detail that's apparent in the new transfer of the movie, finally dispelling the memories of all those years of fuzzy, orange-and-blue-haze-y video transfers for good. Whilst the improvement is apparent throughout the film, there are certain points at which it really stands out - such as the shiny chrome of the Terminator's robotic endoskeleton, upon which you can now see all sorts of tiny details like little scuffs and scratches that help to enhance the real, tangible feeling of what you're seeing (and show just how much more convincing it can be to use A-list, Stan-Winston-masterminded models and practical effects, rather than the overly-smooth CGI of today's blockbusters).
With your permission to invoke another well-worn cliché, it really is like seeing the movie for the first time: iconic images - like the hunter-killer robots crushing a field of human skulls under their caterpillar tracks in the opening scene of the movie, or the terminator rising from the flames towards the end - suddenly feel like they've been liberated from a smudgy filter that had previously obscured their finer detail, allowing them to live and breathe here in a way that makes previous transfers look flat and lifeless in comparison.
And it's not just the picture quality that makes this new release worth upgrading to, either. The sound is also incredibly clear, remixed to optimise modern sound systems without ever feeling like it betrays the film's cheap-and-nasty (in a good way) 1980s action-movie roots. Brad Fiedel's iconic score, in particular, sounds amazing as it booms out of your speakers in all its muscular, orchestral glory.
That said, the soundtrack is also the source of one of the few niggles that some fans will have with this edition of the movie, as it isn't 100% faithful to The Terminator as it was originally released (for instance, some of the slightly limp and weedy gunshot sounds used in this version were later additions to the film that replaced the meatier effects that were used originally). But unless you really know what to listen for, you probably won't notice it.
The only other real complaint I have about this blu-ray version is the lack of a comprehensive selection of supplemental material. Whilst there are a few extras here, there's certainly nothing as extensive as the documentary-laden 2-disc DVD set that we got back in 2001, which also featured tons of deleted scenes and other bonuses (some of which are included here in full, whilst other bits appear in edited-down versions). So if - like me - you've still got that old DVD set, it may be worth hanging onto it for the complete package of extras that are inexplicably lacking here.
Having said that, I'm increasingly finding that these sorts of bonus extras matter less to me than the presentation of the film - and given that anyone considering shelling out for a blu-ray is presumably interested in picture and sound quality first and foremost, I can definitely recommend this Terminator rerelease as a worthwhile purchase.
Until the next update comes along, at least.
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A ruthless cyborg travels to present-day Earth on a strange mission He must kill a woman whose unborn child is destined to become a powerful enemy of the world&39;s future leaders
James Cameron's much-imitated sci-fi classic. A humanoid cyborg from a future dominated by machines (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back in time to kill the mother (Linda Hamilton) of the as-yet-unborn rebel leader John Connor. Meanwhile, the rebels also select an agent (Michael Biehn) to travel back in time and stop the Terminator, thereby ensuring that events follow their pre-ordained course.
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