The Terminator [DVD]

Latest DVD release for the terminator.

Let's talk about the movie first, just in case anyone reading this hasn't seen it.

1980's america, and ordinary lady sarah connor has her life turned upside down when a cyborg from the future travels back in time intending to kill her. so that she won't give birth to the man destined to lead the human fight against machines that want to rule the world. Her only hope is kyle reese, a human fighter from the future who has also travelled back in time. But his mission is to protect her. The terminator shatters sarah's life, and she and kyle have to run and fight to survive. To live, Sarah will have to find the will to fightback.

One of the best action movies ever made. It never lets up for a second. And it benefits from excellent casting. Schwarzenegger was originally down to play reese, but we went for the terminator role instead. a smart move because it suits him better. uttering less than forty words in the entire film, he's an absolute force of nature. a seemingly unstoppable force of destruction.

Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton as reese and sarah respectively both fill their characters with so much humanity that you can really root for them.

Violent and with a fair amount of adult language thus a 15 certificate, but never gratuitous. a movie that should be in the collection of every science fiction and action movie fan.

now about the dvd:

this is a new single disc edition with absolutely no extras. The disc begins with the ubiquitous anti dvd piracy add but just pressing next will take you to the main menu. it offers direct scene access, and the following languages and subtitles:

languages: english czech polish

subtitles: english czech danish finnish greek hebrew norwegian swedish.

and that's that. There's no digital restoration or the like to the print, but the picture quality is good enough anyway. if you want to add this to your collection cheaply, or if you want a cheap way to encounter a classic movie you've not seen before, this will suit you fine.

The Terminator did not need one sequel, let alone three. It was fine as it was; intelligent people can use their imagination and finish the story themselves, they don't need everything explained, every loose end tied up. The Terminator did not deserve the embarrassment of being turned into a family friendly science fiction thriller franchise; it was never meant to be that. It's as idiotic as doing a family friendly version of Caligula. I'll illustrate what I mean by mentioning that the The Terminator was an 18 cert; T2 was a 15; T3 was a 12. See a pattern here? What next, a PG and U to complete the set? Crass commercialism and exploitation, nothing else. The sequels utterly ruined the whole concept: The Terminator was and always will be an adult-oriented, violent, uncompromising, futuristic, dystopian vision of the future, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The Terminator machine goes from being a cold, unemotional, ruthless, relentless killing machine, to being a surrogate father who wouldn't hurt a fly. Such perversion of an iconic character deserves only one response: GIVE ME A BREAK!

TERMINATOR is a movie purely incredible in many ways, but the two best things in it are first the successful modern retelling of THE tale mentioned in the title, (a tale which appears at least once in all human cultures since the dawn of time) and then the unique and powerful love story. There are also many other treasures in this film (see below, at the end of the review).

But first, the tale. From distant and terrible future comes to present day the Dragon (or if you prefer you can call it the Beast, the Monster, the Destroyer, or any other similar name). This Dragon is a powerful and cunning monster - it hides its real form (and it can even disguise its real voice), it doesn't feel pain, it never sleeps, it doesn't need to eat, drink or even rest, it knows no mercy, no fear, no doubt - and as if it was not enough, all its vital organs are covered with nearly indestructible armor... Few of those who will cross his path will live to tell the tale - and even those lucky few will be marked by its passage for ever, in their chair and in their mind. Oh, by the way, the Dragon looks very much like Arnold Schwarzenegger...

The Dragon came for one and only one reason - it must find and slay the Princess (in some versions of this story also called the Maiden, although in this particular case she is probably no more qualified...). The Princess name is Sarah Connor and she bears a strong resemblance to young Linda Hamilton. She is absolutely not aware of her importance and being born in a very average family, she lives a rather banal life of hard labor and simple pleasures. On the surface she is a very average young girl, barely out of her teens, not very bright, not very ambitious, not very courageous (at least in the beginning in the movie), cute but not really a stunning beauty - but in fact she is the most important woman in human history since Virgin Mary! And if the Dragon finds her and kills her, all humanity will perish with her!

Lucky for her and the whole humanity, the Dragon has been tracked and followed by the Knight (the Prince, the Paladin, the Hero, the Warrior, the Monster-Slayer, the Great Hunter, etc.) who swore to save the Princess (and therefore the whole humankind) no matter what the price, without any regard for his own safety. This Knight (who looks a little like young Michael Biehn) is still young, but in the same time he is already a precociously aged battle scarred veteran, who slayed many a lesser dragon before, but who never yet faced such a formidable foe as this particular Dragon and even worse, who had to leave his magic sword (here called plasma rifle) behind, in his own times... For that reason the Knight can not just face the beast and slay it - he must first find the Princess and make sure she is safe and only then find a way to outsmart the Dragon, in order to have a chance in the unavoidable confrontation. And that will really, really NOT be an easy quest!

The TALE would not be complete however if love did not intervene. And surprisingly TERMINATOR, when one looks carefully, is in fact a story about an incredible love. A love completely mad, passionate, burning, tragic, condemned from the beginning, without any hope to be fulfilled but which will ultimately defy the time, the destiny and even the death itself - and triumph! And it may well be, that by this love the whole humanity will be saved - or at the very least get a fragile second chance...

As promised, here are some other treasures you can find in this movie. There is the excellent camera work, great music and an incredible atmosphere of a great city (Los Angeles) at night with its game of lights and shadows - all of which is the trade mark of great James Cameron, who signed here his first masterpiece. There are excellent second roles of Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen and Earl Boen. There are action scenes which still are impressive 28 years later and which did not age at all. There is the archi-famous Schwarzenegger's line "I will be back", which contains so much menace in it that I still shiver when hearing it even if I watched this movie like 20 times already. And finally, there is the water and fire proof perfection of scenario which appears in its full glory in the last two minutes of the movie...

I can not find any more words which could praise this movie enough, so I will stop here, inviting you with all my heart to discover this immortal tale, in which the Dragon, the Princess and the Knight will meet their respective fates... and in which they will all lose... but in the same time they will also all win (as it is explained with more detail in the less magnificent, but still very honest sequel).