Suspense and action were two very popular genres of the late 80’s and early 90’s. These films were pioneers for the movies that would follow in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
THE TERMINATOR was a huge deal when it was released on October 26th, 1984. Director James Cameron was behind the film and according to the academic journal , Journal of Popular Film & Television by James Kendrick, James Cameron’s films were considered to be thematically complicated. THE TERMINATOR was also a breakout film for actress Linda Hamilton because most of the action movies in the 80’s had male roles. Linda Hamilton’s character of Sarah Connor was a first for the action film genre because female lead roles were uncommon at the time. The article ,Film Criticism by Margaret Goscilo, suggests that in the beginning of the film, Sarah was the victim, but towards the end, she became the hero of it all. Here is the trailer to THE TERMINATOR:
Also, the film’s use of CGI was very impressive at the time. Here is a clip that features the CGI used in the film:
SOLARIS on the other hand, has a great use of special effects and since it was released in 2002, the effects look more realistic. Director Steven Soderbergh wanted the film to be in more of a futuristic and artsy direction. The film featured all these cool gadgets and some of them actually exist today, like the doorbell camera. The film was mostly based on the element of mystery. A review by Stephen Holden from the New York Times states that the film is visually handsome but, it did lack some action and adventure. It left the viewer feeling puzzled and wanting to find out why and how things were happening. An article by Suzie Mackenzie from The Guardian claims that SOLARIS flopped in the U.S and because of the flop and all of the bad reviews, the film wasn’t released in Britain. The trailer for the film gives you an idea of how puzzling the movie really is:
Both of these films contain suspenseful moments. It leaves the audience wondering what is going to happen in the next scene. In my opinion, THE TERMINATOR was more suspenseful, to me at least, because he was set to kill Sarah Connor and there were some scenes were he would come out of no where to try to kill her. In SOLARIS , Steven Soderbergh’s idea of suspense was to have these characters stuck on this space station and see how long it takes for them to go insane.
Both of these films appeal to the science fiction genre as well. There is space, futuristic elements, and world destroying robots. Their other similarities include a tragic love story and cool visual effects.
They do have a variety of differences to them. First off, SOLARIS is a remake of the 1972 film with the same name. THE TERMINATOR was more successful in the box office when compared to SOLARIS. Lastly, SOLARIS had a big name actor featured in the film while THE TERMINATOR had new up and coming actors. Some of them became some of the best actors that we have today!
The films seem so different, yet they have even more in common: each has a heterosexual couple who is troubled. So they’re tragic love stories, as you say, but also stories about a complicated relationship.
But that makes it a bit mysterious: two sci-fi action films with impressive effects, suspense, and romance–yet one was very successful and the other NOT. Why?
Probably SOLARIS being more of an art film. After all, like in RASHOMON there is no clear firm reality. What the heck is going on up there in outer space?
Excellent blog! Although I didn’t watch the same movies, I did watch a couple of action movies that had similar responses (one a huge success – Basic Instinct and the other not so much – Hollow Man). I also like your use of movie trailers as resources. To me the trailer is a high quality “mini movie” and provides an excellent feel for the movie as opposed to a critic’s opinion.
Hey! I am excited to see someone wrote an essay on the new SOLARIS. I watched the previous ’72 version for my past weeks and it was a really interesting, trippy, and confusing film. It seems from what you wrote that there is a returning theme in the 2002 film. People still rave about the ’72 and how it is a classic, sounds like the ’02 won’t hold up to the same acclimates.
I liked how you mentioned that in the 80s most action films had male roles, and in the Terminator it started off as that but ended with Sarah saving herself and destroying the robot. The the second Terminator movie Sarah’s character is more of an action hero than the first movie, but then it gets confusing from there(with all the different timelines).
Solaris still comes off to me as a movie I would not be able to sit through. After reading your post and you stating that the suspense that is portrayed seems to come from seeing how long it would take the characters to go insane on a ship – it seems even less appealing. I can see how some people are into that though. I have seen The Terminator as a child, but did not remember that Sarah Conner came out the hero in the end. I had never really thought about how in that time frame, men were the lead “heros” of films. It is nice that you pointed that out.